Spooky Red Velvet Cake Balls for Halloween*

*This title is kind of a lie. Yes, these red velvet cake balls are great for Halloween, especially with the creepy eye decorations, but you could also make them for Christmas (with red and green sprinkles perhaps?) or even for Valentine’s Day, if you top them with little decorative hearts.

I’m kind of a Grinch when it comes to Halloween. I startle easily (just ask Mili about plastic bags on sidewalks), so I’m not into weird things jumping out at me and making sounds. (True story: I walked into a Halloween store yesterday, and a gigantic spider animatronic jumped onto my leg — I literally ran out of the store screaming. I was on the phone with my mom and she thought I had been stabbed.) I don’t like wearing masks or heavy makeup on my face, nor do I like spending $50+ on a costume that I’ll never wear again. (Don’t even get me started on the “Sexy ” costumes for women … ) New York gets especially gaga over Halloween, so it’s unavoidable unfortunately, especially if I go to any bar in the city from October 15 onward.

The part of Halloween that I do like is the strangers-being-forced-to-give-you-free-candy part. In fact, if it wasn’t weird and creepy, I’d tack on to a group of kids and go trick-or-treating every year. But since that sounds like a quick way to get the cops called on you, I’ve resigned myself to buying a bag of Halloween candy each year on the offhand chance there are kids in my building (obvi we all know what ends up happening: I sit in bed eating candy while catching up on my shows).

One thing we were strictly told to avoid as a child was eating homemade candy from neighbors. It’s sad, because homemade candy is the best. No strange preservatives or overly sweet, sticky caramel or whatever that spongy filling is inside Three Musketeers bars. While I’m still a bit daunted by the prospect of caramel-making, I’m all about making chocolate candy — bark is beyond easy, and truffles are pretty simple too. But I’d been toying with the idea of making cake pops for some time now, and after spotting this Food & Wine recipe for Halloween-themed red velvet cake balls, I knew it was on.

Making cake balls from scratch is a bit of a process, since there’s three different components: baking the cake, then making the binder that helps the balls keep their shape, then forming all of the balls and then coating them all in chocolate. Most recipes go the boxed cake + canned frosting route, which decreases the amount of work significantly. But I’m a huge pain in the booty and wanted to make them from scratch, so I took a few shortcuts in making these.

The cake recipe easily becomes one-bowl, thus saving you extra dish-washing. I also dropped the idea of using frosting as a binder (part of my logic: most frosting recipes require a pound [!!] of powdered sugar), and instead just used plain cream cheese, jazzed up with a bit of vanilla extract. If you have children, it might be fun to let them shape the cake balls so that you don’t have to, but as it turns out, a glass of wine and an episode of Pretty Little Liars make this task go by quickly.

I will win zero Cupcake Wars with my cake decorating skills, so I just stuck an M&M onto each truffle to make “eyeballs” and called it a night. You could use food coloring and candy brushes to paint the truffles with spooky designs, or scatter black and orange sprinkles over them for a festive treat. The best part about these red velvet cake balls is that you can make them ahead of time, and they travel easily, meaning they’re perfect for bringing to a Halloween party. They are equally delicious while sitting in bed and watching TV — you know, if you’re into that.

Red Velvet Cake Balls
Adapted from Food & Wine
Makes 50 truffles

For the red velvet cake:

– 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

– 3/4 cup granulated sugar

– 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

– 1/4 teaspoon salt

– 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

– 1 large egg

– 1/4 cup vegetable oil

– 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

– 1/4 cup buttermilk (I added a teaspoon of lemon juice [or you could use vinegar] to a measuring cup, then filled it to the 1/4 cup mark with skim milk, then let it sit for 10 minutes — boom, instant buttermilk)

– 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

– 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

– 1 teaspoon liquid red food coloring

1) Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan (or equivalent) and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the melted butter, egg, oil, vinegar, buttermilk, yogurt, vanilla extract and food coloring. Stir until just combined. (Add additional food coloring if you think it’s necessary — I didn’t.)

3) Transfer the batter into the prepared baking pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes*, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack and let cool completely. (You can make the cake up to 3 days in advance. Once it’s cooled, wrap it tightly in plastic and refrigerate if making ahead.)

*I baked my cake in an 11-x-7-inch baking pan, and it was done in 25 minutes. Depending on your baking pan, start checking around the 25-minute mark to make sure you don’t overbake your cake.

For the binding:

– 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1) In a large bowl, stir the vanilla extract into the cream cheese until well combined.

2) Once the cake has completely cooled, crumble it into the large bowl with the cream cheese, using a fork to make sure the pieces are small. Stir the cream cheese mixture completely into the cake, until all of the crumbs have been evenly moistened. Knead the mixture a few times until it comes into a uniform “dough.”

3) Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Using a 1-tablespoon scoop (or just guessing, like I did), form 40 uniform balls from the cake mixture and place them on the lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm, about 30-45 minutes.

For the coating:

– 16 ounces white chocolate chunks

– M&Ms and assorted decorations

1) Line another baking sheet with wax paper. (Or if you, like me, only have one baking sheet, you can take the wax paper [with the firmed cake balls still on it] and carefully transfer it to an empty counter or table. Then re-line your sheet and you’re good to go.)

2) Once the cake balls have firmed up, heat the white chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl at 30-second intervals, until the chocolate is smooth and completely melted. Using a fork, dip the cooled cake balls into the white chocolate, allowing the excess to drip back onto the bowl, then transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Press an M&M into the top of each cake ball before the coating has set.

3) After all of the cake balls have been dipped and coated, let cool completely. The finished cake balls can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three days (but they won’t last that long — it’s scary [HA.] how fast these disappear).

Note: Looking for more homemade Halloween ideas? Try these mummy pretzel rods (they’re drop dead easy, and a fun project to do with kids!), or chocolate-toffee cracker crunch for parties. You could also make these pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins or these pumpkin whoopie pies with maple-cream cheese frosting!