Red Velvet Cake Balls

Sometimes cake just isn’t exciting enough.

Sometimes you need to take a hunks of a perfectly good cake, roll them in your hands like you’re a kid (only your hands are clean in this scenario unlike a child’s grubby-playdoh-sandbox-poo-covered hands), and then drown the cake balls in frosting.

And then you eat the cake balls like popcorn, while finally getting into Downton Abbey like the rest of the world.

This cake isn’t a quickie to make, but it’s worth the investment of time. Really- the cream cheese frosting is insane. It’s worth a rainy Saturday afternoon to make this treat. Because Saturday night will be that much better with a plate full of these looking right at you.

Adapted from my Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe…

CAKE:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 – 2 oz. red food coloring (2 – 4 tablespoons)

½ cup hot coffee

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

FROSTING:

1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese, softened (totaling 12 oz., or 1 1/2 cups)

3/4 cup softened butter (1 1/2 sticks)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

5 cups confectioners’ sugar (more or less, depending on how you prefer the consistency)

Colored sprinkles (for garnish)
1. Preheat oven to 325° and grease two 9″ cake pans; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and red food coloring until well combined. Stir in the hot coffee and vinegar.
4. Gradually combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients (in about four additions of mixing dry into wet, scraping bowl between each addition), mixing until just combined.
5. Pour the batter evenly into prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean of crumbs. Be careful not to over bake! Allow pans to cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes, then remove cake from pans and finish cooling on the rack. When completely cooled, rip hunks of cake apart and roll into balls (using your clean hands, of course).
6. FROSTING: In a large microwave-safe bowl, mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla well. Add confectioners’ sugar, one cup at a time, beating until smooth (scraping sides of bowl after each addition of sugar); add sugar until you have reached the consistency you would desire to actually frost a cake. Microwave the frosting for 15 seconds (you want it to be a bit runny to aid in the ball-dunking process). Dunk formed cake balls into frosting using two forks, and allow to set on a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle colored sprinkles over top, and chill until ready to serve.
Tips:
- Check out the original Red Velvet post for more tips & tricks.
- The cake freezes well if you want to bake it and then roll into balls at a later date…
- Sprinkle the colored things while the frosting is still wet, if you actually want the sprinkles to adhere to the balls. (I know you want this… because the sprinkles stain everything they touch when they don’t stick to your dessert. Ugh.)
- Enjoy!
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October 8th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Cakes, Chocolate, cream cheese