“Hot Chocolate” Cake Balls (Gluten Free)

YES REALLY!!!

Browsing on Pinterest last month, (I have a Follow button on my side bar where you can link to my boards!), I stumbled across the most delectable pictures EVER! Take a look here at Be Different, Act Normal. Yes, you read my title right. Hot Chocolate and Cake Balls. Together. In a perfect matrimony of deliciousness.

I decided that I HAD to make a gluten-free version for a Christmas/New Year treat. This holiday season was incredibly busy and I didn’t get any of the baking done that I had wanted to and when I saw this picture I was inspired to go into the kitchen and have ONE AMAZING THING TO SERVE MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

and here it is… all mistakes aside, it turned out even better than I hoped. My gluten-lovin’ friends said how they couldn’t tell a difference and begged for more. Seriously!

These are great for a super bowl party, a birthday party a shower or any occasion that you just want to impress people.

What you will need:

-Gluten-Free Cake (I used a boxed one from Walmart)

-A can of vanilla icing

-Sprinkles (if you want)

-Almond Bark (I melted it in a sauce pan but a double boiler is MUCH BETTER.)

-3 Packets of Hot Chocolate! (check for gluten)

STEP 1: Make this cake according to directions, add 2 packets of Hot Chocolate Mix to the batter, bake and let cool.  After it’s cool, crumble it up in the pan. (Add the sprinkles at this point if you want them.) Then, open up your Halloween colored can of icing- OH WAIT- Yeah that was ME. I *thought* I had a can of white vanilla icing but found that it was orange colored when I opened it. It was still vanilla flavored so I decided to use it anyways, which worked. It gave a milk chocolatey look to the cake balls.

STEP 2: Make 1″ balls however you can. I used my hands and it was super messy. I’ve heard melon ballers or cookie dough scoops work too. Whatever, mine were messy. After I made all of them I went back and lightly rolled them again to get a rounder shape. After I did this I put them in the freezer to harden a little bit. As they sat in the freezer I started to melt the almond bark and put foil down.

STEP 3: Dump the balls into the mixture and with a fork strain them out and put them on the foil so it won’t stick. If there are mistake marks, just lightly add some more icing. This is a messy process. I had a lot of bad looking ones, but most of them turned out pretty. annnd of course what is one my cooking stories without a small disaster? I forgot to stir the almond bark and it burnt. My last few cake balls were… interesting looking… (I still ate them…)

STEP 4: To get some of the Hot Chocolate powder to stick, I dumped it on after I did about 5 balls. Most of the Hot Chocolate will fall off when you pick it up but the pretty effect is there! Enjoy…