Red Velvet Cake Balls with cream cheese frosting, dunked in sweet white chocolate. Easy to decorate for any holiday, these red velvet treats taste as good as they look!
If you love Red Velvet cake, these cake balls are a must try. The gorgeous red color looks even better against the white chocolate coating of these cake balls.
What are Cake Balls
Cake balls are baked cake mixed with frosting to form balls. Then they’re coated in melted chocolate, fondant or more frosting!
You can pop them right into your mouth with your hands or serve them on sticks as cake pops.
For these Red Velvet Cake Balls, I used a red velvet cake mix and canned cream cheese frosting.
Cake Balls can be made with any flavor of cake, mixed with frosting.
You can customize the flavor any way you like. Not a fan of Red Velvet Cake? Substitute a spice cake with the cream cheese frosting! Or choose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
The possibilities are almost endless.
Ingredient Notes
- Cake mix. You’ll need a 16.5 oz box and ingredients needed to make a 13 x 9 inch cake.
- Cream cheese frosting. Try this recipe for The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting in your cake balls. Canned frosting is fine too.
- White chocolate melting wafers. I use Ghirardelli brand which melt smooth, harden quickly without melting on your fingers, and taste delicious.
- Sprinkles. I originally created these Red Velvet Cake Balls as a fall treat, with red and orange sprinkles. Use red and pink for Valentine’s Day, green and red for Christmas etc.
Easy Instructions
Bake the cake. Bake your cake in a 13×9 baking dish according to your package directions. Let it cool slightly.
Mix with frosting. Dump your cake into a large bowl. Crumble it up while it’s still warm (not hot). Add 1 cup of frosting to the bowl. Mix with your hands to combine the cake with the frosting.
Use your hands to form the mixture into balls about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
Freeze. Place all your red velvet cake balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and place it in the freezer for at least an hour.
Dip in white chocolate. Melt the white chocolate wafers according to package directions. I use the toothpick method for dipping my cake balls (you can see it in this video).
Drop dipped cake balls onto parchment paper. Drizzle with melted dark chocolate and immediately add sprinkles, if desired.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can use homemade frosting instead of canned! Just make the frosting a little thinner than normal.
No, I do not recommend using white chocolate chips in this recipe. They have other additives that keep them from hardening with a smooth finish.
Cake balls stay good for about 3 days if kept stored in the fridge. Or you can freeze them for several weeks.
Yes, your favorite homemade red velvet cake recipe will work wonderfully for cake balls! Bake up your favorite recipe and let it cool slightly before combining with the frosting.
Easy Dessert Recipes
- Rice Krispie Treats
- Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
- Red Velvet Biscotti
- Pudding Cookies
- Red Velvet Cookies
Holiday Dessert Recipes
See all Desserts recipes
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Red Velvet Cake Balls
Ingredients
- 1 box Red Velvet Cake mix, with ingredients to bake 13×9 cake 16.5 oz
- 1 cup canned cream cheese frosting
- 16 oz Ghirardelli white chocolate melting wafers
- ½ cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers melted
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Prepare cake according to package directions for a 13×9 baking dish. Allow to cool slightly.
- Dump cake into a bowl, and crumble with your hands. Mix in the 1 cup of canned frosting.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using your hands, roll cake in to 1 1/2-2 inch sized balls. Repeat with remaining cake.
- Freeze cake ball for one hour.
- When ready to dip, melt white chocolate according to package directions. Using a toothpick, press into cake ball and dunk in white chocolate. Tap on side of bowl to remove excess. Slide off of toothpick (using a second toothpick) and drop onto parchment paper. Repeat for remaining cake balls.
- Drizzle with melted dark chocolate and immediately add sprinkles, if desired.
- Store in airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to eat, up to 3 days for best flavor!
Notes
- Substitutions for cake mix: If you prefer, you can use a homemade red velvet cake instead.
- Red velvet substitute: Swap the red velvet mix for spice mix, vanilla or chocolate cake if preferred.
- Frosting substitutes: Vanilla frosting can be used in this recipe if desired. I find that chocolate frosting overwhelms the subtle cocoa flavor of the red velvet cake, so if you want to use chocolate frosting, use chocolate or white cake mix!
- Make ahead option: Prepare the cake ball spheres in advance, then store in the freezer until you’re ready to dip in chocolate (up to a week). Once solid, transfer to a freezer safe container to keep them fresh.
- Measure the frosting: An entire can of frosting is too much. Be sure to use only a cup–just enough to moisten the cake so the balls stay together.
- Variation: Try this twist on the recipe for Spooky Eyeball Cake Balls for a fun Halloween treat.
- See blog post for more recipe tips and tricks.
Nutrition
Red Velvet Cake Balls with cream cheese frosting, dunked in sweet white chocolate are the perfect treat for any event. Or just because!
As someone with almost zero baking experience I admit these were a bit difficult for me, especially as I didn’t have any toothpicks (I used two small forks instead) and the coating was just too thick. I needed up adding several sprays of oil routinely while heating it back up to thin it out because the ball kept getting stuck in the coating or it wouldn’t drip as well as I’d like it to. What really saved them was the dark chocolate drizzle on top!! It made them look fancy instead of misshapen!
One thing that wasn’t mentioned here under your tips that really helped me, was that by the time I finished dipping them, the bottoms had started to sweat and there was some liquid coming out, and the only way I could save them was by lining the airtight container with paper towels. That solved the condensation problem, in case anyone else has that. The other solution I read somewhere was to make sure the balls are completed coated, but that simply wasn’t feasible for me. The bottoms of mine had some gaps where the cake could be seen so the paper towel method was better in my situation. Thanks for this recipe!!
I left my red velvet ball not dipped in chocolate yet in the freezer for way more than 1 hour. Have I messed them up or can I still put the chocolate on them?
No! You can leave them up to a week as it says above and if longer than that just move them into a freezer safe container.
Ghirardelli happens to be one of my favorite chocolate brands! I love how you used it for these cake balls! YuM!
I had never made cake balls before thinking they’d be too hard. These turned out great (and so cute)! Thanks for the easy recipe.
Can these be frozen for a couple weeks? Want to make them ahead of time for a party
Do you have a preference of red velvet, cake or even something I can pick up at the store?
I personally love chocolate cake balls 🙂 WIth chocolate frosting.
Can these be frozen? If so, for how long?
Can these be frozen?
Mam here we couldn’t find any ready made cake mix. What can I do instead of that. Can I bake it using the ingredients for red velvet cake .
Yes absolutely!
I Think I will like them.
So pretty!! Perfect for Fall! Might I ask where you found the pretty fall-colored sprinkles? 🙂
Probably Michaels 🙂
These cake balls look so beautiful! They will make a great gift!
Can you use homemade frosting instead of can
frosting?
You sure can, I would just make the frosting a little thinner than normal 🙂
OK, I was just making truffles yesterday and feel so dumb now that I didn’t know about the toothpick method. Definitely trying that next time! I absolutely love Ghirardelli melting chocolate, too. These cake balls look SO beautiful!!
I love bite sized treats that I can grab every time I walk past the table. Of course, my jeans are not as happy about these little snacks! LOL! Such a fun fall snack!!!
Aimee, these are so pretty! and what a fun fall treat to share
These here Red velvet cake balls look pretty darn fancy to me – definitely one that would fit in those ones you saw on Pinterest! And – red velvet is decadent ll by it’s lonesome – but gosh – in cake balls – it would be simply irresistible – just like the song! 🙂