Better Crocker Spooktacular: Reese's Cake Balls!

As soon as I heard of the I Heart Cereal for Halloween on the Betty Crocker's website – there wasn’t even a hesitation what to make—Reese's Cake Pops!

Now you know how much I love making cake balls, cake pops and cupcake pops—thanks Bakerella for introducing me to this great idea! Everyone in my town begs me to make them whenever there is an event going on. This week alone I made some for a Field Hockey Dinner, a friend that was home from college for the weekend and my good friends 17th birthday party (Happy Birthday Katie!). All of them were red velvet and cream cheese since that seems to be the favorite so far. But yesterday when one of my team mates mom asked if I could make them for the Field Hockey dinner she is hosting next Monday night I couldn’t turn her down. I then came up with an ingenious idea that I can't believe I did not think of before...chocolate and peanut butter cake balls, like the muddy buddies I usually make for the dinners. So I put my homework aside and asked my mom to take me to the store to pick up a box of Reese's Puffs cereal and a box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Devils Food cake mix ASAP.

Make the cake according to the package directions, eggs, water and oil—I baked it in a 13x9 baking pan sprayed with cooking spray. Let it rest for 10 minutes, once it is removed from oven then flip it out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack. Since it has to cool completely it is a good idea to make this the night before.

Once the cake is completely cooled, cut off half the cake and save or freeze for another cake ball day.

Take the remaining half of cake and crumble in food processor. Yes, I got a food processor, well I got a small chopper but still it’s so cool! It holds about a cup or two and is perfect for everyday usage.

Then take 3 cups of Cereal and mix in processor until almost smooth but still leave some “crunchy” pieces. Add to crumbled cake and stir.

Meanwhile, make 2 batches of the muddy buddy choco-nutter mixture (2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, ½ cup Peanut Butter and 1 stick of unsalted butter.) Microwave for 1 minute and stir in a teaspoon of vanilla….and stir again until its all shiny and mixed together.

Add ¾ of the choco-nutter mixture to the Cake/Cereal mixture and blend in with a fork. Add more chocolate mixture if cake is still dry and not sweet enough. You can give it a taste here and if you want you can blend in 1/3 - ½ cup confectioner sugar, if you like it sweeter. I added less than 1/3 of a cup.

Now for the fun part, roll the cake and cereal batter into balls and place on cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Place in freezer for 30 minutes or over night in air tight container.

When ready to decorate, microwave white chocolate candy melts according to directions—I did it for 45 seconds and then gave it a stir. Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the chocolate and then place into the cake ball to secure it. This step seems menial but actually it prevent the cake innards from seeping out.

haha innards...gets me every time. Now roll the ball into the white chocolate.

I had a multitude of ideas for Halloween inspired decorating.

First were skulls, they looked really cute and not too scary (which is good!) To do this melt some dark or milk chocolate to use for the face. I used a toothpick to decorate but I think you could also use a Wilton bag and tip to be more accurate.

I also tried eyeballs on forks. I thought of the typical spaghetti and eyeballs (not meatballs) and they looked adorable. To make these just stick a cake ball on a fork and dip into the white candy melts. Then use a chocolate chip (cut the tip off) as the pupil and decorate with red food gel.

P.S. Since I wasn’t sure how much muddy buddy mixture to add, and this was just a test run…I made 3 batches but only used 2 so I took half the cereal/cake balls, covered them by hand in the chocolate mixture and tossed them into a bag of powdered sugar. Now when I tell you that these are amazing I am not exaggerating! My mouth is watering as I think about them. I brought these to practice and the girls LOVED them just as much, some people had as many as three! They wondered how I even thought of such a good idea.

My hands got very messy rolling the balls in the chocolate mixture, don't tell anyone but I enjoyed making the mess!

With love and cupcakes,

CookTeen