Savvy Entertaining

If you love pumpkin and cream cheese, you are going to adore these pretty pumpkin cake balls. These do take a little time and effort, but the result is well worth it!

Dump ingredients into a bowl and mix well on medium speed until blended.

Pour into a greased cake pan or baking dish and bake at 350 until lightly browned and edges pull away from the pan.

Once the cake is done, remove from oven and let cool completely. Spoon in half a can of frosting and mix well.

As in completely obliterate the cake while mixing in the frosting. When you are done with this, you’re ready to form the mix into balls.

Roll into balls (or scoop) about 1 inch in diameter (or make bigger ones if you want to dip less). If the balls seem a little smooshy, pop in the freezer for a few minutes.

Use a pretzel stick, dipped in almond bark, as a handle.

Dip away then decorate with edible glitter, sprinkles or food gel!

Pumpkin Cake Balls

1 vanilla cake mix

1 egg

1 small can of pumpkin

½ cup evaporated milk

½ cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 can cream cheese frosting

1 package candy coating (Almond Bark)

Sprinkles or other decoration

Pretzel sticks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cake mix, egg, pumpkin, milk, sugar and spices until well blended. Pour into a greased 11 x 176 baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cake is lightly browned and a finger poked in the top bounces bake. Cool completely.

In a large bowl, break up entire cake then mix in 1/2 the can of frosting. You may have to get your hands into the project to get it thoroughly mixed and you most definitely will get hands-on- involvement when you form the balls. The size is totally dependent on how big you want to make them. I’d stick in the ballpark of between one to two inches diameter.

If the cake seems too moist, pop in the freezer for a few minutes and the balls will be easy to form. If you are more talented than I am with a melon baller you can use it or form them by hand. Once they are formed, melt the candy coating, a little at a time. Pop it in the microwave in 20-second intervals until it is melted. Do not reheat it as it gets gunky and icky very quickly. Use it up then melt the next round.

When  the candy coating is ready, dip in the ends of the pretzel sticks then stab them into the balls. Let them sit until the coating is nice and firm. This is very important. If you don’t do this, your sticks may fall out.

Once the balls are ready for dipping, use a spoon to swirl coating over the balls. Tap the edge of the stick lightly on the bowl to get off excess coating. Cover the ball in sprinkles, food glitter, whatever sounds good and looks tasty. Rest the balls on a wire rack sprayed with non-stick sprayt until the coating is good and firm.

Repeat until all balls are coated. You can put these in the freezer, wrap in individual cellophane bags or share them as soon as you are finished.