Celebration Cake Balls

I have been wanting to make cake balls for the longest time. I love mini bite-sized treats, and well to be honest, anything mini (the travel section at Target makes me incredibly happy). I have thought about trying my hand at making cake balls on numerous occasions but the thought of 40 some small balls of cake and frosting sitting around and tempting me deterred me. I finally had the perfect reason to make these though, my good friend Thru is turning 30 tomorrow and I thought these would be the perfect treat to bring to her birthday party.

The below recipe makes about 20 vanilla and 20 chocolate cake balls. You could easily just make one cake. You could also use store bought frosting but I love cream cheese frosting and it's easy to make so I decided to make my own. I love the endless possibilities with these cake balls- different cake flavors, flavored candy coating, fun sprinkles, different shapes, etc. These are so fun and beyond cute!

Celebration Cake Balls

Makes about 40 cake balls
Prep/Cook Time: 2 hours (includes time to let them set)

For the cake:
1 small Jiffy Devil's Food Cake mix
1 small Jiffy Yellow Cake mix
2 eggs
1 cup water

For the icing:
1/2 stick of butter, softened
1/2 of a package of 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
about 2 cups powdered sugar

For decorating:
2 packages of white vanilla Wilton Candy Melts (available at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, etc)
sprinkles

In two separate bowls, make the cake mix according to directions (mix cake mix with 1 egg and 1/2 cup water). Bake both cakes according to directions. Remove from the oven when golden and let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the cream cheese frosting in a stand mixer. Mix butter, cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar.

Once the cakes have cooled, cut into pieces like you would cut brownies (I didn't use the edges because they were a little brown) and put the cut cake pieces into two large mix bowls. Add about 1/2 cup of the cream cheese frosting to each bowl. Stir to combine. Roll into small balls and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper or parchment paper. Put the cake balls in the freezer about 30 minutes to harden.

Melt Candy Melts in two separate small bowls. I microwaved each bowl for 30 second intervals and stirred in between heating. It took about a minute and half in all. Add food color if desired. Drop a couple of cake balls into the candy coating and use a fork to remove. Shake off the excess and place back on the wax paper covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle generously with sprinkles. Once all of the cake balls have been dipped place back in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.