Little Bitty Bites of Goodness

A few years ago, the big trend in baking was cake pops. Recipes were plastered all over the internet about how to make them, bake them, roll them, and decorate them. It was a simple product made from three ingredients - cake, frosting, and melted chocolate. People were obsessed with decorating them into animals, faces, sports equipment, and beautiful masterpieces. Books described in detail the different flavors that could be used, and the variety of colors available for your eating pleasure. I will admit, I was one of those crazy bakers who had to try this new phenomena. 

I found the basic recipe and bought all the ingredients to create my own cake pop. My kitchen was buried in cake mix, eggs, and oil. The first step was to make a 9x13inch cake according to the box mix. I chose a simple vanilla cake. I baked my cake and then let it cool until it was easy to touch. The next direction said to crumble my cake into tiny pieces, much like sand or small peas. I did that. There was a lot of cake! Now to add the frosting - a whole 16 oz container of vanilla frosting, and mix thoroughly. Once combined, it was time to roll the mixture into little balls. They were then chilled, and dunked into melted chocolate. The whole process took a long time, and honestly, I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome. The balls were so sweet that it hurt my teeth to eat just one. Plus I had all these vanilla balls with vanilla frosting. There was no variety whatsoever. I could have divided out the crumbled cake with different frostings, but that would have left lots of wasted leftover frosting. I didn’t need or want the aggravation. Needless to say, I never made this recipe again. 

A year or so later, a very smart engineer created a machine that baked your favorite cake mix into 12 individual small balls. The baking process only took 5 minutes. Being the small appliance queen that I am (I have at least 10 the last time I counted) I had to own this new little machine. Of course, once I decided I wanted one, there were none to find. My son, however, saved the day once more. He actually found one and bought it for me as a surprise. I couldn’t wait to try it out. 

JayRex and I bought our vanilla cake mix, but this time we tried something different. Instead of eggs, and oil and all the calories that went with it, we added diet soda to the mix. We then sorted the batter into 4 little bowls and added assorted flavorings and coordinating colors for each portion. With a tablespoon of batter into the little round compartments, the BabyCake Machine worked its miracle. The cake was perfectly formed and easy to remove. I then melted some white chocolate chips and dunked each ball into its sweet covering. Jay sprinkled each flavored ball with a particular color sugar so we would know the flavor inside. The whole process of baking and decorating more than 48 balls took us less than an hour.  So much easier than the first time I made cake pops, and these new treats were soft, moist, and extremely better tasting. 

I did poke lollipop sticks into a few of my new goodies to make a cute display. The rest never made it past the ball stage. I have to say  that all of them disappeared within 2 days. I proceeded to buy more cake mix again, only this time I melted dark chocolate for the topping. (Cherry cake with dark chocolate coating is like eating a chocolate covered cherry without dripping cordial on your shirt. I don’t know how many I have eaten so far.)

My recipe for these little bitty bites of goodness is as follows. If you can, find yourself a "BabyCakes" machine and get ready to fall in love with  cake again. I know I did! 

**You can find "BabyCakes" Cake Pop Machine at Amazon.com**

April and Jay’s Recipe for Cake Balls

Ingredients:

1 box of vanilla cake mix (or any other preferred flavor)
12 ounces of Diet Crème Soda (or any other preferred flavor that matches your cake.)
Assorted flavors such as almond, orange, raspberry, cherry, and coconut.
Food coloring to match your flavors
Assorted colored sugars for decoration

1 bag of white chocolate chips. (Can also use Wilton Candy Melts)
Lollipop sticks (Optional)

Directions:

Preheat machine.

Mix cake mix and soda in medium size bowl. Divide batter into 4 small bowls. Add favorite flavor and coordinating color to each portion. I used blue for almond, pink for raspberry, white for coconut, and orange for orange obviously.

With non stick spray, grease the machine’s top and bottom trays. Using a tablespoon, fill the cavities of the machine. Do not overfill because they will ooze out and have too much flash on the sides. Close lid and cook for 5 minutes. When finished, remove cake balls with toothpick. Careful - the machine is HOT!

Let the balls cool. When ready, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 second intervals. Stir completely after each interval. After 1 minute, it should be done.

Dunk each ball into the melted chocolate. Sprinkle with colored sugars while wet. Let dry on wax paper. If you are interested, you can poke each ball with a lollipop stick to make a treat on the go.

Store these goodies in an airtight container for best results. I guarantee they won’t last long once everyone has tried one. Enjoy with a glass of milk, a cup of tea, a mug of coffee or just by themselves. They are that good!