EASY VANILLA CAKE BALLS RECIPE

Vanilla Cake Balls are an easy dessert made from cake and homemade vanilla buttercream frosting. Simple to make cake ball recipe that everyone loves! Make your Cake Balls festive for Christmas by adding in colored sprinkles!

What are Cake Balls?

A cake ball is an absolutely delicious dessert treat made from cake and frosting. (I know, could it get any better?) To make the cake ball, you’ll essentially be taking cake crumbs and mixing them with a small amount of frosting.

I love making cake balls when I have some leftover cupcakes that need to be used up. The cake balls freeze extremely well! They are the perfect size for a little something sweet when a craving hits. I actually prefer to eat them straight from the freezer!

One of my favorite things about cake balls is how easily they can become festive! Sprinkles make everything better! Black and orange sprinkles.. bam! Halloween!

I am getting ready to prep for Christmas, hence the fun green and red sprinkles!

How to make Cake Balls

First, for this recipe, we will make our homemade frosting! I like to add cream cheese to the frosting, it really creates a nice depth to the flavor.

Butter, cream cheese, vanilla, milk and powdered sugar are mixed together until nice and creamy.

Next, you are going to think I am crazy. But my little Artiste Mixer conquered this fearlessly!!

I unwrapped 12 cupcakes and just tossed them into my mixer. If you don’t have a large mixer like the Artiste or Bosch, you’ll want to crumb your cake/cupcakes up before tossing them into the frosting.

For this recipe you’ll want an entire boxed cake mix. One that makes a 9×13 cake.

I turned on my mixer for about 30 seconds and I had the smoothest cake ball mixture!

Like I said above, if you don’t have a mixer like this, just crumble your cake and then mix with a silicone spatula! Easy peasy!

Next, let’s get festive! I sprinkled some red and green sprinkles onto the cake ball mixture. Folding the mixture to incorporate the sprinkles.

Use a small cookie scoop to portion out the cake ball mixture. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and freeze for 10 minutes.

After the the cake balls have chilled in the freezer for 10 minutes, pull them out of the freezer and roll the ball in the palm of your hands to create a nice, smooth cake ball.

Next, either drizzle or dip your cake balls in white chocolate! I like to drizzle mine, mostly because I love the flavor of the cake balls so much that I hate covering that up with white chocolate.

Melt a small amount of white chocolate and place in a zip top bag. Snip the corner and drizzle the white chocolate over the cake balls. Sprinkle the tops with crushed graham crackers, if desired.

If you are wanting to fully dip the cake balls, I would suggest freezing for 1 hour before dipping them in the chocolate.

Store in the fridge or freezer until ready to eat.

Easy Vanilla Cake Balls recipe

Vanilla Cake Balls are an easy dessert made from cake and homemade vanilla buttercream frosting. Simple to make and delicious to eat! Make your Cake Balls festive for Christmas by adding in colored sprinkles!

Servings: 24 cake balls

Ingredients

• 1 9×13 white cake baked, cooled & crumbled
• 1 tbsp butter softened
• 2 oz cream cheese room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2-1 tbsp mik if needed
• 1/4 cup white chocolate optional

Instructions

1. Cream together the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. If the frosting is too stiff, add up to 1 tbsp of milk.
2. Add the crumbled cake and mix throughly.
3. Scoop the cake ball mixture into uniform balls. Freeze for 10 minutes.
4. Once chilled in the freezer, remove and roll each ball in the palm of your hands to create a nice, smooth ball.
5. If desired, melt the white chocolate and drizzle on top.
6. Store in the fridge or freezer until ready to eat.

Check out some of our other simple Christmas desserts here: 

–Layered Christmas Jello Cups

–Tiger Butter Fudge

–White Chocolate Raspberry Oreo Balls

–Homemade York Peppermint Patties

–Peanut Butter Pretzels

Can I use boxed cake mix to make cake balls?

Yes, you can use any brand of boxed cake mix to make cake balls! I made cupcakes because they bake faster than if I’d made a cake with the cake mix, but you’re welcome to make whatever you’d like.

How do I make boxed cake mix taste better?

I have three simple tricks I use to make any boxed cake mix taste like it’s homemade. First, you’ll replace the oil with melted butter. Second, you’ll use milk instead of water. Third, however many eggs the box mix calls for, add 1 extra. That’s it! Proceed with the boxed cake mix directions as you normally would.

Are cake balls cooked?

When you make cake balls, you use cooked cake to make them with, but you don’t actually cook the cake balls once they’re shaped with the frosting. You can even bake the cake a few days ahead of time if you’d like!

Can cake balls be frozen?

Yes, you can freeze cake balls! Simply lay them on a cookie sheet lined with a piece of parchment or foil, then place them in the freezer for a couple hours, until solid. Then you can transfer them to a ziplock freezer bag where they’ll stay fresh for up to 1 month. If you’d like to freeze them longer than that, I recommend placing the ziplock freezer bag in an airtight container. This way, they’ll stay fresh for 3-4 months.