cake balls

Have you heard of cake pops? Cake pops are cake and frosting mixed together, dipped into a candy coating, and decorated to look really cute. The real cake pops are on lollipop sticks. I am too cheap to buy the sticks....so, mine are just balls.

I first saw a post about Bakerella's cake pops on the Farm Chicks blog last fall. Just looking at the photos of cake pops made my mouth water. I first tried them at Christmas. This week I made Hello Kitty heads and sprinkled strawberry cakes for Audrey's birthday.

Some things I've learned about cake balls:

• Give yourself lots of time to decorate. You can even bake the cake the day before if you like.
• Buy a couple extra boxes of cake mix and frosting combos. I used two for our party, and they were all eaten up in one day!
• Buy extra candy coating. It gets used up really fast, too. Also, melt the coating small amounts at a time.
• Don't expect perfection. I had lots of Kitty rejects--but, they were still delicious. Plus, it takes time to figure out what works best for you.