Strawberry Cake Balls from Scratch

These cake balls taste like strawberry ice cream!

My original plan was to make a strawberry cake for my little one's 1st birthday. The first time I made this recipe it worked out well, but when I went to make it again for the party it was a flop.

I'm not sure what went wrong the second time but it didn't seem to rise properly. I didn't want to toss it so I decided to make cake balls out of it. Chances are your cake WILL rise, and if that's the case, you can still use it to make cake balls. It's really fabulous as a cake or cake balls - your choice. 

This is a from scratch recipe, but you could cheat by preparing a boxed cake mix and using a store bought tub of frosting.

Strawberry Cake Balls from Scratch 
Original Recipe for the Cake from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
For the Cake

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavoured gelatin
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 2 3/4 cups sifted flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup 2% milk, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen strawberries

For the Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon 2% milk

Directions
Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour 2 round 9" cake pans.
2. Cream butter, sugar and dry gelatin with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Combine the flour and baking powder. Blend in the flour mixture and milk alternately then add the vanilla and strawberry puree. Divide the batter between the two pans and bake on the middle rack for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely. You can even refrigerate overnight.

Frosting:

1. With an electric mixer, blend the butter, shortening, vanilla, icing sugar and milk on low speed until well combined, then increase speed to high and beat for a few minutes until fluffy. Add more icing sugar or milk if the mixture seems too thick or thin. It should end up being the same consistency as the canned stuff.
2. Use your hands to crumble the cakes into a large bowl. Mix in the frosting with your hands until well combined. Use a small cookie scoop (or a heaping teaspoon) to make balls. Roll the balls with your hands to make them look nice then roll them in the coating of your choice, or cover them in melted chocolate coating. Place them in individual mini paper muffin liners. I kept mine refrigerated until I was ready to serve them. They were a big hit.

Tips:

• To make the strawberry puree, blend about 2 cups of frozen (thawed) strawberries then strain. I don't add sugar to the puree because the frosting and cake are sweet enough. Ideas for coating include nuts, sprinkles, coloured sugars, cocoa, icing sugar and melted chocolate. Use other little candies to decorate if desired. I don't remember how many I made out of this recipe but there were a lot. You can cut the recipe in half to make a smaller batch. And as I said earlier, this recipe makes a great cake when it rises properly, which yours will! You should also double the frosting recipe for a cake.

Just for fun, here's the cake I made when I first tested the recipe.

Here's my test cake. Good stuff!

I divided the batter between 3 pans here. It just depends on how many layers you want. You can always make 2 and cut them each in half for 4 layers. I added diced fresh strawberries between the layers and I saved 2 tablespoons of the strawberry puree and blended it into some of the frosting. Yum!