Chocolate Football Cake Balls

It is no surprise that with four boys and a very athletic dad in our house that we are OBSESSED with Football! (all sports really, but football is our favorite at this moment!) There have been many an afternoon spent throwing the football in the backyard and in the house… (Daddy…ahem!) Even the girls have gotten in on the excitement of the game yelling “Twoo-Down!” and “Sqwore!” They are totally daddies girls and will do anything to make sure they have his attention. The spent a lot of time sleeping in daddies arms last year as small babies while the football game was on.

The boys and I decided we needed to make a special dessert for the big football game coming up. Of course, we all love chocolate cake and Jimmy suggested FOOTBALL CAKE! And that is how I had a brilliant idea to make little Football Cake Balls. They would be fun, super cool, and handheld desserts, perfect for little fans and big ones.

Cake balls are seriously easy to make. You start with a regular cake box mix and make the cake. You then get to “Smash it to pieces!!!” The boys were so excited to be able to help make dessert. And the best part was smashing the cake, according to Jimmy.

I am pretty sure that they had ulterior motives for helping mommy make these cake balls! I caught them more than once licking the spoons. (Little stinkers! But what can I say…I am just as bad! HA!) They were pretty good helpers. Both of them have decided that they are going to open a restaurant when they get older. And very generously, they have told me that I will NEVER have to pay for my food. They also have decided that they will have a tunnel connecting their two restaurants so you can sneak between the two establishments. I love that our conversations consist of future business plans!!!

Mix your smashed cake with some prepared icing and roll into football shaped balls. Jayden and Jimmy had fun scooping up the cake and shaping them into footballs. Of course, it turned into a contest of who could make the most balls. Because with boys, EVERYTHING is a contest! I didn’t worry about the cake balls being a perfect football shape. that is part of the fun.

We froze our cake balls for an hour and then dipped them into melted chocolate candy coating. It was a lot of fun rolling the cake balls around in chocolate. I was a bit cautious about the boys sticking their fingers in the hot chocolate candy coating. They love chocolate almost as much as I do!

We piped lines of icing for the stitching on the top of the Football Cake Balls. This was “literally” the icing on top for the boys!!! Now their creations actually looked like a football! These were such a hit at our last football game party we will be making them again for our the final big game! Our youngest son, (3 yrs old) asks me every night, “Mommy, I have a football cake?” Yep. They are definitely a winner!

INGREDIENTS:
1 chocolate box cake mix (made according to box directions in a 9×13 pan)
1 tub Cream Cheese Frosting 
1 package Chocolate Candy Coating (16 oz package)
Icing for Stitching (1 egg white, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp half n half)

DIRECTIONS:
 – Crumble cake into a large bowl.
 – Mix cream cheese frosting into cake crumbles.
 – Scoop out palm size portions and form into football shapes.
 – Freeze balls for 1-2 hours.
 – Melt chocolate candy coating.
 – Carefully dip cake balls into candy coating and cover completely.
 – Set on wax paper to harden. 
 – Pipe Icing to make stitching onto tops of the cake balls.

Happy Cake Eating!
Keikilani