Carrot Cake Balls, perfect for Easter Treats

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I bake desserts all the time. I try to make sure we have something home-baked and sweet in our refrigerator for every week. It’s comforting after a long day at work, I can come home, whip up a quick dinner, and still have a home-baked dessert to finish the meal.

One of Hubby’s favorite desserts is carrot cake. Carrot cake is something I rarely make from scratch. Why? Because I hate grating the carrots. If I had a food processor, I’d use that, but despite how much I bake and cook, I don’t own a food processor. Or a heavy duty mixer. I either hand-knead bread, use a whisk to whip cake batter, or sometimes a very old, somewhat functioning hand mixer. Someday, I’ll have a shiny new food processor and mixer, but I’m not counting the days since it may not be until I’m too old and weak to hand-knead bread 

Back to the cake balls. I found a Duncan Hines carrot cake mix that has dehydrated carrots and raisins that you rehydrate, not “carrot flavored pieces” like other cake mixes. So, I bought a box and carrot cake balls were quick to follow.

CARROT CAKE BALLS:

• Preheat oven according to cake package directions.
• Line a baking pan with foil leaving some hang over, grease and flour, and set aside.
• Make 1 box Duncan Hines Classic Carrot Cake Mix according to package directions and bake according to package directions depending on the type of pan you are using. – FYI, this is one of the best cake mixes I’ve ever tasted, which means I may never even consider making carrot cake from scratch. A little sweeter than I’m used to for a cake, but so moist and flavorful.
• Once cooked through, use foil to remove cake from pan and cool on wire rack.
• Once completely cooled, use your hands or a food processor to break the cake into fine crumbs.
• Slowly add cream cheese frosting to the crumbs and mix thoroughly until the crumbs stick together. I never measure the frosting, just use however much it takes to form a “dough” with the crumbs. I had leftover homemade cream cheese frosting (recipe below) that I used.
• Pinch about a tablespoon-sized portion of the crumb/frosting mixture and roll between palms of hands to form a ball; place on parchment paper, and repeat until all crumb/frosting mixture has been used. I got about 65 cake balls from one box of cake mix.
• Melt 1 package of Ambrosia brand white candy coating, or any white coating chocolate.
• Dip cake balls one at a time into the candy coating, cover completely, set on parchment paper to dry, and top with desired sprinkles.
• Once the coating is cooled, use a fine-tipped knife to cut away any excess coating that spread away from the cake ball to form a clean ball shape.
• I store mine in gallon-sized plastic bags in the refrigerator. To serve to guests, place in mini cupcake papers.

TIP: I melt half the package of candy coating at a time so that it doesn’t cool too much and become stiff before I get to all the cake balls. I only had green sprinkles, though I wished I had orange for the carrot cake.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

• Mix 1 8-ounce package lower fat cream cheese with 1/4 cup Earth Balance Margarine with a hand mixer until soft and combined.
• Add 2 cups powdered sugar and mix thoroughly, adding more sugar as needed.
• Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and mix until combined.

YUM, YUM, YUM! I took some to work and passed one out to each of my immediate co-workers to share a little carrot goodness. You should definitely make these for Easter and find some fancy sprinkles to dress them up.

~Ingredients to nourish the body put together in ways to nourish the soul to share with family and friends to nourish the heart~

Source: http://gourmetmemoirs.com/2011/03/22/carrot-cake-balls-perfect-for-easter-treats/

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