Red Velvet Cake Truffles

These Red Velvet Cake Truffles were popular at my very first Cookie Swap Sunday afternoon. What a perfect truffle at Christmas time.

My simplified version...

yield: about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

1 9x13 pan of red velvet cake, baked and cooled
1 can (16 oz) prepared cream cheese frosting
1 lb candy coating (white chocolate, dark chocolate, or both)~I use Almond Bark found at Walmart in the baking aisle.
red sugar sprinkles

Directions:

1. Crumble the red velvet cake into a large bowl. You want it to be in small pieces, but don't work it so much that it starts to get gummy and stick together. Fine crumbs is what you want.
2. Add about three-quarters of the cream cheese frosting. Don't add all the frosting at once, in case the cake is very moist and the full can is unnecessary. Start out stirring them together, but eventually you're going to use your hands to really work the frosting through the cake. Make sure it is evenly moistened, and there are no dry patches. Ideally, the cake should be very moist and hold together if you squeeze a ball of cake between your fingers, but you don't want it to be wet or greasy. If the cake mixture is still a bit dry, add more frosting to get it to the desired consistency.
3. Portion out and form the cake into generous 1-inch balls.
4. Place the balls on waxed paper-covered baking sheet.
5. Refrigerate them for 3-4 hours until they're cold and firm, or freeze them for about 45 minutes in the freezer.
6. Take them out of the refrigerator or freezer and let them sit on the counter briefly while you melt the candy coating. They should be cold when you dip them, so they hold together, but if they're really frozen, that causes the candy coating to develop cracks as it hardens. So, cold-but-not-freezing is the temperature you're looking for!
7. Melt the chocolate per package directions.
8. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate and return the truffles to the waxed paper.
9. You can store the truffles in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.