Brilliant red centers with a dazzling white almond bark coating,
sprinkled with sparkling red sugar crystals. While beautiful on your
dessert table at Christmas time, they are perfect for Valentine's Day as
well. Whether you make them into larger, 3 bite sized balls or smaller
one or two bites, they are a hit with children and adults alike.
This is a 're-post' as I've made these many times before, but it seems silly to take new pictures of the same thing every time you make it. So... here it is from a previous post.
In addition to the recipe ingredients you will need either
Lollipop Sticks
(available at cake supply stores, online or hobby stores) or for very
small balls, toothpicks work. You will also need 1 pound of vanilla
almond bark, also known as candy coating; available in the baking aisle
of most grocery and general merchandise stores. (For those that can't
find it, you can also order it
online here
.) If you absolutely can't find it and don't have time to wait a
couple days for an order, you can use white chocolate chips too, but
allow more time for them to set up as almond bark sets up quickly at
room temperature.
First the cake. The 'Red Velvet' cake mixes you see in stores are not
true Red Velvet. The Red Velvet you usually find made in bakeries (like
Costco and Sam's and grocery stores) are usually not true Red Velvet.
One of my 'baking' pet peeves through the years are recipes that are
basically just a dismal chocolate cake with red food color and called
"Red Velvet". A true Red Velvet Cake has it's own flavor that comes
from the buttermilk and vinegar and vanilla used in it. It's not a
chocolate cake and doesn't taste as such. The cocoa is used to enhance
the brilliant red color but not to flavor. This is a true Red Velvet
and it happens to be my second favorite cake in the universe (I'm a
die-hard white vanilla cake fan but Red Velvet is number two on the
list!)
Red Velvet Cake
1/2 cup shortening or butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 oz. red food coloring (1 bottle)
3 tablespoon cocoa
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
Grease and flour a 9 X 13″ cake pan. Preheat oven to 350. Cream
shortening, sugar and eggs. Make a paste with the food coloring and
cocoa and add to mixture. Add salt and flour alternately with buttermilk
and vanilla. Alternately add soda and vinegar, and don’t over beat.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake approximately 30-35 minutes or until
done. Remove from oven. Cool completely. (Since you are not making
this into a layer cake, you can let it cool in the pan if you wish.
Basic Cream Cheese Frosting
You can use your
favorite frosting
(that link goes to the *only* frosting I use for Red Velvet) or here
is a basic cream cheese frosting recipe to use, as many like cream
cheese frosting with this particular cake.
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese
16 oz. box powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Beat softened butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Set aside.
Crumble the cooled cake completely with your hands or use a food
processor and process in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of your
appliance.
Mix your frosting recipe into the cake crumbs. Start with about 2
cups of frosting and mix well with a wooden spoon and then, your hands.
If it’s a dry mix, add more frosting by quarter cup increments. You
want the cake to be the consistency of play dough so it holds together
well and forms balls.
Scoop dough out to the size cake ball you want. 30 large or up to 50 or
60 if you are making 1 inch rounds. Roll in your hands until smooth
and place each ball on a parchment lined baking sheet. Depending on the
size of the cake ball use either a lolly pop stick or toothpick in the
top. Place in the freezer and freeze for 2 hours until firm.
Melt the vanilla candy coating (almond bark) according to package
directions over low heat or in the microwave. Dip each cake ball into
the vanilla and place on parchment paper to set. If you wish you can
sprinkle them with desired colored sugar or sprinkles at this point.
Leave on the counter while the candy coating sets. After hard these can
be kept in a container as they are as the coating keeps the cake moist.
I’ve also froze them for up to a month, and left to thaw on the
counter until needed.
You might also be interested in;
for the sugar. I also used a portion of 
for some of the flour. Feel free to 'play with your food' if you wish. I only had one small/medium zucchini so I halved the recipe and made just 1 loaf.
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