Soccer Cake Balls

Things I learned this week that I should’ve already known after my twenty-something years of life:

Do not go running with someone that plays soccer, on a team. Or better yet, anyone that plays soccer regularly.

They can run, I…well, jog. Or you might even call it walking-incredibly-fast-where-you-kinda-have-to-jog, so you don’t trip.

Lastly, do not go running with someone who averages like 25 MPH (when you ~~run~~ jog 5.1 m.p.h.)…

Ohh, last tip (promise): wait longer than 5 minutes to go running after you eat these…

Thinking back on it -

I’m fairly certain it was these guys fault –>

Carrot Cake Balls

Yield: 40 cake balls

Ingredients:

2 packages (16 oz.) Vanilla CANDIQUIK

1 box Carrot Cake Mix (or your choice of flavor, plus ingredients required for cake)

1 (16 oz.) container cream cheese frosting

Black AmeriColor Gourmet Writer

Directions:

Prepare cake mix as directed on box.

Crumble cake into a large bowl.

Mix thoroughly with ½ of a container (8 oz.) of cream cheese frosting (it may be easier to use fingers to mix together).

Chill mixture for approximately 2 hours in the refrigerator (you can speed this up by placing in the freezer).

On a wax lined baking sheet, roll mixture into 1 inch balls. I use a stainless steel coffee scoop (of all things), love it – perfect sized cake balls, everytime. A cookie dough ball scooper would also do the trick!

Melt 1 package of Vanilla CANDIQUIK® at a time, according to the directions on the package.

Then, with a spoon, quickly dip each cake ball into the CANDIQUIK and coat completely. Allow excess coating to drip off by tapping your spoon on the side of the bowl; slide off the spoon onto your wax lined baking sheet. (I usally keep about ten cake balls out at a time and store the other ones in the fridge until I’m ready to use them.)

NOW for the soccer ball design - edible marker + a “cheat sheet” to draw on the pattern of a soccer ball.

*Totally thought I knew what a soccer ball looked like until I messed up my first cake ball*

Print this picture out if it’ll help you!

I used this life-saver of an edible “gourmet” writing pen. AmeriColor has other food markers, but make sure you use the “gourmet” writer. I think gourmet means “writes on just bout’ everything”.

I have experimented with other edible wrting pens (I think they were the Wilton brand) and I’m not sure what they write on – but they sure didn’t write on cake balls.

Here are the deets: AmeriColor Gourmet Writer. I got a 2 pack of these (online) for about eight bucks (shipping included). You can get them here. Or if you have a cool cake decorating store near you, try that.