I made these cute little cupcake cakeballs for Rylee's party. I put one cupcake into a cellophane bag with some M&Ms and tied it with some curling ribbon (my photo is towards the bottom, but it's not the gretest picture). They were A HUGE hit! I mean, I thought they were pretty good, but I kept getting (and still getting) compliments on them! So I thought that I would put the recipe on here.
I first got the idea and recipe from this AMAZING blog: Bakerella (bakerella.blogspot.com)
First, she created these Cakeball Truffles/Red Velvet Cakeballs. Then she figured out a way to make the cakeballs into a cute cupcake style. However, her first way of making the cupcakes was harder than I wanted to try. Finally, she figured out a way to make them MUCH easier. So I tried it and VIOLA it worked perfectly! Oh and she also makes them into pops - by sticking a lollipop into them. SO cute!
The only problem is that although it's not complicated at all do make - it is quite time consuming. Many hands make light work. So if you're going to make these for something, gather some friends, order a pizza and have fun.
Ready?........here we go:
Ingredients:- 1 box of cake mix (your choice)
- 1 can of frosting (favorite: cream cheese)
- 1-2 packages of chocolate bark or chocolate candy melts (for the bottom)
- 1 package of colored candy melts (for the tops)
- Candy Cup Molds (candy molds for something like Reeses Cup - can be found at a bake shop that sells candy molds) **Hint, if you're making lots of these, buy several molds.
- M&Ms and spinkles for decoration
Directions
- Make the cake according to the box instructions (HINT - cook it on the longer side - you don't want it to be gooey in the middle, you want the cake to be completely cooked). Cool the cake in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Either way, you just want the cake totally cooled.
- Crumble up the entire cake -- best way to do this is to break it up in larger chunks and giveit a whirl in a food processor. You want it to be fine crumbles. Put into a large bowl.
- MESSY PART! Using the back of a large spoon or your fingers, mix half to a full can frosting into the crumbled cake. Mix until the cake forms a moist dough. You don't want it too gooey (so add the frosting little by little)but you want the cake to stick together without falling apart.
- Roll the mixture into quarter size balls and then lay the balls onto a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Stick in the frudge for an hour or so or the freezer for a couple minutes. You want the balls to be firm but not frozen. (Make approx 50-75 depending on the size)
- Melt the chocolate for the bottom of the cupcakes according to the package directions. FYI - make sure you don't get ANY water into your chocolate. It'll mess it up. If you need the chocolate to be thinner, you can melt some shortening or veggie oil into it.
- Using a spoon or squeeze bottle (this is best) fill the candy molds about 2/3 of the way up. Stick a cakeball in each cup so the the chocolate fills up to the top of the mold but doesn't spill over. Pop in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes so the candy hardens.
- While the molds are hardening up, heat up your colored candy melts and get all the decorations ready. It's best if you put the colored chocolate in a small bowl deep enough so that you can dip the cupcake in it.
- Take the molds out of the fridge and pop the half chocolate covered cakeball (do this by either gently pushing up on the bottom of each cup or dumping the mold upside down over a dishtowel -- they should fall out easily)
- Take each cupcake and dip the top of the cakeball into the colored chocolate up to the bottom of the chocolate already on the bottom. Turn right side up and put down on some wax paper (or back on the cookie sheet). Decorate RIGHT AWAY. The chocolate hardens fast. You can put an M&M on the top and then spinkles along the side.
That's it! It's easy once you get the hang of it - but it is a little time consuming.
If you want to make the cakeball truffles - you would follow the same instructions except once the cakeballs are firm in the fridge/freezer, use a spoon to dip each one in melted chocolate and then decorate. Let cool on wax paper. Use can dip in one color chocolate, let cool, then put a different color chocolate in a squeeze bottle and make a pretty design on the truffles. I did this with white chocolate covering the cakeball and dark chocolate swirled over each one. They looked pretty!
