But then I was talking to my friend, Laura, at work and she told me about Cake Balls! They’re like a classier, upscale version of the humble Oreo Ball. And then I had a great idea – why not make Cake Ball Footballs!
Sometimes I amaze myself – If only I had this kind of creative inspiration when I comes to keeping my house cleaner.
You are not going to believe how easy these treat are to make. And fun!
All you need is –
- 1 chocolate cake mix baked according to package directions
- 1 tub of prepared cake frosting
- Almond Bark
Seriously, that’s it.
So here’s what you do. First, bake the cake according to the directions on the box.
It doesn’t matter which pan size you choose because you’re going to crumble it up – I baked mine in a 9 x 13 pan.
Hmmmmm….looks like we have a little mouse…
So let the cake cool completely and then crumble it up into a large bowl.
Next, take your tub of store-bought frosting, put it in a bowl, and nuke it for 30 seconds or so until it’s a little bit soft and runny. Then pour the entire tub of frosting into the bowl of crumbled cake.
(A little side note – I would just like to add that I am exceptionally proud of myself for following Laura’s directions. I thought about making my own buttercream frosting but resisted the urge to reinvent the wheel here and overthink things like I am prone to doing.)
***taking a bow***
OK. Back to the footballs.
Next, gently mix the frosting into the cake crumbles. I did take a little creative license with Laura’s recipe and added half a bag of mini chocolate chips to the mixture. Why only half a bag you ask? Because the same little mouse that nibbled on the cake found the chocolate chips in the pantry. This little mouse was incredibly conscientious and snipped off the corner of bag and refolded it so that it looked unopened in the pantry.
Chocolate chips are not safe in my house.
Anyway, once you have it all mixed together (either with or without chocolate chips), cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator to chill and firm up.
The next step is to scoop out the “dough” and shape it. I used the same scooper that use when I make cookies, but it doesn’t really matter. Just roll the dough in your hand to make a ball then squish it (very technical term here) on the ends a bit to look like a football.
Repeat after me – It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Once you have them all made, place them on a cookie sheet or something that will fit in your fridge and let them firm back up. Meanwhile, melt the almond bark in the microwave or in a double boiler. Once the footballs are firm, gently dip and roll them in the melted chocolate. Place them back on the sheet tray and refrigerate them once more so the chocolate can set. If the almond bark starts to get hard in the bowl, nuke it for a few seconds and it will re-melt.
You can see the cake blob there where the bark started getting hard in the bowl…repeat after me – it doesn’t have to be perfect.
I had a half bag of white chocolate chips in the pantry (ahem) so I melted those in a plastic baggie and cut a teeny tiny hole in the corner. Then put Kelsey to work making little football stitches on the top.
How cute are these! And they are so fun to make and really yummy.
By the way, Laura says she’s had them with different types of cake/frosting combinations such as carrot cake with cream cheese frosting dipped in white chocolate and strawberry cake and frosting dipped in dark chocolate. Yum! Wouldn’t the strawberry/chocolate combo be fun for Valentine’s Day?
Whatever combinations you come up with, I know you’ll love these.
Peace from your little mouse friend, Kelly
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