Cakelicious Treats

Baking sweets is one of my favorite types of “cooking” and with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I was itching to concoct something delectable. I know it’s not exactly conducive to my healthy lifestyle, but those who know me know my baking usually involves substitutes like Diet 7-Up, Egg Beaters or Steevia. And if I don’t use any alternatives, I create a miniature version of the full sized treat to cut back on the calories.

My friends and family are very familiar with my mini cupcakes and the various flavors that I’ve brought to events and holiday gatherings -- always being conscious of the waistline.

This year cupid must have struck a baking cord because two days ago I went on a Google frenzy, searching for the next sweet treat to add to my baking repertoire. I was feeling like a one-trick pony with my mini cupcakes. So after some extensive searching, I found a brilliant site… Bakerella.com! Here I learned the art of Cake Balls or Cake Bites, as I have newly named them.

All the ingredients you need for these Cake Bites are:

Boxed Cake Mix: I used dark chocolate by Pillsbury
Jar of Frosting: I made frosting from scratch
Chocolate or Vanilla Bark: I used both for fun

My tip for making these delights is to start with only half of your ingredients and do a test run for practice. The most difficult part is dipping the spongy cake and frosting mixture into a pot of molten chocolate. All while making them pretty. The cake can melt even after you have refrigerated them for several hours. I ended up leaving the entire batch in the fridge and only taking 2 bites out at a time to keep them nice and cool. But like I said, do a test run to perfect your process.

The Cake Bites are a bit time consuming, require plenty of patients and ingredients to get them perfect. Check out Bakerella.com for the full scoop on how to make these delicious treats.

Here is a picture of my final product. Happy Valentine’s Day!