Feeding Friendship: Peppermint Red Velvet Cake Balls

It's the most wonderful time of the year!! How festive that Sarah chose peppermint! I'm always a sucker for peppermint bark, but I went ahead and made it a blowout extravaganza. We were headed to a Christmas party Saturday night and lets just say it's not Christmas unless your shoving lots of high-calorie food down your loved one's throats!

So here we go: Peppermint Red Velvet Cake Balls!

Ingredients
1 box of Red Velvet cake mix and other required ingredients for the cake* (you'll want a 9"x13" cake)
1 tub of vanilla frosting*
1 lb white chocolate morsels
12 candy canes

*Feel free to make either or both of these from scratch. I felt dirty using prepackaged versions, but there just wasn't time.

(not pictured: chocolate!!)

Equipment
mixing bowl
9x13 cake pan
plastic ziploc-esque bags
hammer
large mixing bowl
wax paper
cookie sheet
microwaveable bowl or double boiler set up
spoon or fork to roll and retrieve cake balls in chocolate

Makes about 35 balls

1) Bake the cake according to package directions. (I substituted applesauce for the oil.) Let the cake cool completely.
(I made Flourless Peanut Butter Kiss cookies while I waited for the cake to cool)

2) While cake is cooling, crush the candy canes by putting them in a plastic bags and tapping them with a hammer.

3) Crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl. The recipe I followed mentioned cutting out two big pieces and rubbing them together. This worked really well. What it didn't mention is that edge pieces won't break down very well. I "discarded" many of those. Go back with a fork to get any chunks out. It should look like this:

3) Add about 3/4 of the tub of icing. You want a doughy texture, but not too moist. Just add a bit at a time and see how you feel.

4) Roll cake/frosting mixture into 1/2" balls.

5) Put the cake balls in the refrigerator for a few hours or the freezer for 15 min. (I went with the freezer!) This firms them up so they don't crumble in the chocolate.

6) Melt the chocolate according to the package instructions.

7) Roll the cake balls, one at a time, in the melted chocolate and place on wax paper topped cookie sheet.

8) Sprinkle with crushed candy canes

9) Place coated cake balls in the refrigerator for half an hour or so to set the chocolate.

10) Share with your crazy friends!!

My San Antonio friends and me with our White Elephant gifts!