Cake Balls

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can frosting (16 oz.)
1 package almond bark (white or chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.

2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting.

3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet.

4. Chill for several hours.

5. Melt almond bark in microwave per directions on package.

6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.

My notes:

Heard about these a year or so ago and just never made them.  My friend, Erica, made some during the holidays and shared with my family.  We were in love!  I will be honest with you...Erica said it and I agree with her: Making Cake Balls is a PROCESS.  It is not labor intensive or difficult, but it does take TIME.  Unless you have the better part of a day to make them, then plan to spread the process over a couple of days...or more.  I worked on mine (off and on) for nearly 5 days.  It is SO worth the time.  You will feel so rewarded and the lucky folks who get to eat them will most definitely be pleased.

Any combo of cake mix and frosting will work.  I did two different combos - strawberry cake with strawberry frosting in white almond bark & red velvet cake with milk chocolate frosting in chocolate almond bark.  We were doing them for the kids' Valentines parties at school, so the colors, not the flavors, were the most important thing to them.

After step 2, you will want to FREEZE the big blob of cake/frosting FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR.  Mine were in the freezer for several hours.  Then I used my Pampered Chef Small Scoop to make the balls a consistent size.  After scooping each one and tossing it onto my wax paper, I hand rolled them just to make them prettier and more uniform.  Then back into the FREEZER.

The recipe says to "roll" the balls in the bark.  I don't quite see how this would work well.  I used a large soup mug to melt my bark a little at a time.  Tossed a cake ball into it, carefully coated it with a long handled tea spoon, then very carefully lifted it out of the bark and placed it on wax paper.  While the bark was still wet, the kids job was the sprinkle with valentines themed candies.

I also learned not to "tap off the extra."  The more you handle these, the more likely they are to fall apart before you get them coated and onto the wax paper.  Then you are going to have a mess of cake crumbs in your bark.

It took an ENTIRE package of bark to do each recipe.  One recipe made 60+ cake balls.

Once the bark had cooled and re-hardened, I bagged some of them individually for the parties.

You can probably tell from the pics that I made the strawberry ones coated in white almond bark first (i.e. they are not as pretty).  It was a learning experience.  I don't think I had my bark hot enough the first time around and I was trying to "tap off the extra" and it was just making a mess.

We will FO SHO be making these again!  Lots of fun and the kids got to help with the rolling and decorating.  Husband loved the red velvet ones so much, he stood in the kitchen the other night and ate FIVE of them while I was trying to get them bagged!  (o:  For more cake ball ideas and inspiration, visit Bakerella.