Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

 I first tried cake balls at work, I think my boss made them. They were very yummy. Then I believe I had some that my mother-in-law's friend made, that were shaped like eggs, for Easter. They were to die for. Recently I met a woman in Tulsa who sells them for $2 each! Last but not least, my friend Jessica made some for my birthday, at my request, and although it was her first time making them, they were delicious! I decided I needed to make some myself.

Thanksgiving was coming up and although I had never had pumpkin cake balls, I thought that sounded good, and you can really use any flavor of cake your heart desires.

I did find some recipes online for making pumpkin spice cake balls, but they all had two many ingredients, and I got a little overwhelmed. I found a recipe online for pumpkin cake that only called for TWO INGREDIENTS! That's what I am talking about! However, I did add three eggs to the recipe as many commenters suggested.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

1 box spice cake mix
3 eggs
1 15 oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 can cream cheese frosting (I have read that whipped frosting DOES NOT work well)
1 package vanilla Almond Bark

To bake the cake, mix together cake mix, pumpkin & three eggs. Bake as you would normally.

I baked my cake in two 8-9 inch silicone pans, but that is not necessary. I believe most people bake their cake in one pan.

Allow the cake(s) to cool on cooling racks.

After the cake cools, break it up in a large bowl and mix in about 3/4 of the can of icing. I have read it is helpful to use a food processor for this. I used my (cheap) electric mixer the first couple of times, but most recently I opted to put gloves on and work it in by hand.

I also prefer to wear gloves when rolling the cake into balls. I keeps it from sticking to your fingers and I don't really like that feeling! I spooned out the cake/frosting mixture into amounts slightly more than a tablespoon and rolled them into balls, placing them on a cake pan with wax paper on it.

Chill for several hours in the fridge or freezer. You have to be careful they are not too cold when you dip the in chocolate or the chocolate will crack. I am still working on this, but let them sit in the fridge or on the counter long enough to reach roughly refrigerator temperature.

Dipping is the hardest part...

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler. I grated mine in a cheese grater so it melted more evenly. You may (and I recommend) add about 1-2 tablespoons of Crisco to the chocolate so that it melts more smoothly.

Dip the balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm.

You can dip the chocolate with a spoon or fork. Using this method I found the most luck with a meat fork, but I still found this method incredibly frustrating.

I prefer to poke the ball with a toothpick or skewer, spoon chocolate over it, let the chocolate dry, and then remove the toothpick/skewer. This leaves you with a hole in your ball, but you can cover this later. With this method you can buy little candy papers/foils and when the chocolate had dried, pull the ball off with the candy paper.




After my balls were dipped, I spooned some chocolate into a plastic baggie, snipped off the corner of the bag, and dabbed a little chocolate over the hole left from the toothpick/skewer.






Voila!

 

Update! I made cake balls again, but this time I bought cute little cupcake picks on sale at Hobby Lobby and dipped them with those. Then I was able to leave them in! You can also buy lollipop sticks at Hobby Lobby or Michael's and make cake pops!