Yummy yummy cake balls!

Ok, ok, I have been absent from the blogging world for like 2.5 months....WOW! Guess I've been busy ;). Maybe "being a better blogger" will make its way onto my "new year's resolution" list...and maybe it won't. We'll see! ;)

Anyway, in more exciting news....here's a fun new GF "recipe"!!

Yeah, so...."cake balls" doesn't sound overly eloquent ;)....but these little guys are mighty tasty! I must give credit where credit is due, I got the idea here...at MckMama's blog (a fabulously entertaining blog I peruse regularly).

Here's MckMama's entry about her "cake ball" extravaganza (she stuck sucker sticks in them, made pretty-colored frosting, and named them "snow pops"....a little more eloquent ;)). MckMama's Snow Pops. THAT is where I got the idea for my own variation!

I am going to a party tonight (a going-away party for a co-worker/friend who recently got a different job) and wanted to have some kind of yummy chocolate-y GF treat to bring! Based on the aforementioned idea from MckMama's blog, I decided to make some GF cake balls....



**{Please note} My idea of baking/cooking/food preparation in general is often throwing random quantities of random crap together. I inherited the wonderful gift of "eyeballing" something I am making/baking/cooking from my mother who also seldom measures (aside from the obvious baked goods that naturally require more precise measurements).


Process......

Get 1 box of GF cake mix (I used Betty Crocker GF yellow cake). Prepare per instructions on the box, cook cake in refrigerator. When cool, cut into chunks and put in food processor. Pulse until cake becomes fine and powder-like (don't over-process, like I did! It may turn into a big ol' lump!)

Prepare 1 box of GF/dairy free/peanut free (because a friend I am eating with tonight cannot have dairy or peanuts) vanilla frosting. (YOU can likely use whatever kind of frosting you'd like. Mckmama suggests cream cheese frosting. Naturally, being a cream cheese lover, I think that sounds phenomenal. However, I opted out of that this time since a friend of mine who will likely be eating these can't do dairy).

Mix frosting and powdery-cake-bits together. I noted that my frosting/cake heap seemed kinda squishy, probably too much so. Mckmama had written that she added some rolled oats to hers to thicken it up. So, I pulverized some GF animal crackers in my handy-dandy food processor and added those to the mix to thicken things up. I think it was a good choice.

Shape into balls (approx 1"-1 1'/2" diameter), put on a cookie sheet/plate that you've lined with wax paper. Put into freezer for a while to harden.

Remove from freezer when they seem sufficiently hard (I waited an hour). Melt some coating for your balls. Mckmama used Hershey's white chocolate (that she colored with food coloring! They are super-cute). I would assume almond bark would also be good. I used Enjoy Life's allergen-free chocolate chips for the aforementioned reasons. I melted them slowly in the microwave and then swirled the balls in the chocolate. After swirling, remove with toothpick and set on wax paper-ed surface to dry.

You could top these little beauties with anything...a swirl of a contrasting colored chocolate/coating, red sprinkles (what I used!), crushed up peppermints (I thought this would be yummy but, frankly, was too lazy to crush them up to try it out), crushed nuts, etc, etc, etc. Just make sure you sprinkle on your topping before the coating is dry!!

ENJOY!!!!