Ingredients

For the cake:
• 1 recipe Italian Cream Cake, halved
For the cream cheese frosting:
• 4oz cream cheese, at room temp
• 4 tbsp butter, at room temp
• 1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (depending on your sweetness preference - I used 1 cup)
For the assembly:
• 1 package vanilla almond bark
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes, toasted (for garnish)
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (for garnish)
• mini baking cups or candy cups (optional)

Instructions

For the cake:
• Bake the cake according to instructions, but cut the ingredients in half unless you are looking to make 50-75 cake balls.
For the cream cheese frosting:
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine cream cheese and butter. Mix until well combined.
• Carefully add the powdered sugar and mix on low until incorporated.
For the assembly:
• Line a baking sheet with wax paper and set aside.
• In a large bowl, use a fork (or your hands) to shred cake into crumbs.
• Add the 1/2 the cream cheese icing and mix thoroughly with crumbled cake. Test your “dough” to see if it is sticky enough to form a ball without crumbling. Add more icing if needed. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (you could also do this the night before) – it will make it easier to roll into balls.
• Using your hands, roll cake mixture into 1 inch balls. Place on lined baking sheet. When done, place baking sheet in freezer and let cake balls chill for 30 minutes. This step is optional, but it helps the cake balls keep their shape and prevents crumbs from getting in the candy bark and thus, causing lumpy coating.
• While cake balls are chilling, microwave 1/2 a package of vanilla candy bark in a small bowl, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted.
• It’s time to dip! Coating cake balls is kind of an art. It takes practice so if your cake balls don’t come out looking perfect don’t worry about it! It took me several tried to develop a successful method. Regardless of what they look like, they’ll still taste magical. Promise.
• Place the cake ball into the bowl of melted candy coating and use a spoon the cover with coating. Lift the cake ball out of the coating with a fork and tap against the rim of the bowl to remove excess.
• Use a toothpick to gently push the cake ball back on to your cookie sheet. Make sure you push the cake ball from the bottom so you don’t smudge your coating.
• While the coating is still wet, give your cake ball a healthy sprinkling of toasted coconut or chopped pecans.
• Let the coating dry and viola! cake balls!