Steeplechase Red Velvet Cake Balls

This past Saturday was the annual Iroquois Steeplechase here in N-ville. Somewhat of our answer to the Derby, it's a day for wearing cute dresses and hats (more on that later), tailgating with friends, and watching some magnificent animals.

This year, I was "volunteered" to bring desserts to our tailgate party. I already knew that I wouldn't be allowed to show up without the cookies, but I was at a loss at what else to bring. I'm a glutton for punishment, so it had to be something fun, yummy, impressive, and able to stand being made the night before then punished by sitting out all day. And that's when I discovered cake balls...

The original recipe is here. Super cute and super easy, I've documented my experience (plus my extra special customization, of course) for you all.

Step 1: Bake a box of red velvet cake mix in a 9x13 pan and let cool.

Step 2: Crumble your beautiful cake into a big bowl.

Step 3: Mix one can of cream cheese FROSTING into your crumbled cake. Don't use whipped frosting, just the regular stuff. This can get messy. Halfway through I was wishing I had a 6 year old in a smock--they'd get a kick out of this project!

Step 4: Roll your cake/frosting mixture into balls. Mine started out quarter sized then grew as I got bored with rolling. And having red hands. Again, the small child would have come in handy here. Chill your balls (!) in the fridge for a few hours.

Step 5: Melt a few bricks of bark coating in the microwave--follow the package directions. Roll each ball in the bark coating then drop on to wax paper. If you feel inclined, decorate with sprinkles now before the coating sets. I used green sugar; the reason for this will become apparent in the next step!

TIP-The red velvet cake does eventually pollute your nice white bark coating. I used small batches and got a new bowl each time as water will destroy the coating. The end of each small batch usually resulted in at least one "ugly" ball, so that was set aside for placating the kitchen invaders/myself.

Step 6: Ever the one to carry a theme, I melted some chocolate and made little horseshoes on top of each ball. Too cute! And tooooo yummy--I'm in red velvet overload!