Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls and Cupcakes- Valentine’s Day Recipes

These Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls and Cupcakes are so adorably sweet. Give these coconut covered cake balls to your loved ones on Valentine’s Day so they know just how much you care.

When someone you love does or says something that warms your heart, makes you melt, or gets your heart aflutter, you’ve been given a warm fuzzy. Usually it is just something you feel, but on occasion someone will actually give you a warm fuzzy, a pom pom with feet and antennae often with a heartfelt message attached.

For Valentine’s Day this year, you can make your Valentines feel warm and fuzzy inside by presenting them with edible warm fuzzies – the kind that just might make your loved ones giggle, sigh, or even say “ahhh.”

When I was in high school I had a teacher that would draw warm fuzzies on our papers and tests when we did well. She started a trend among my friends; whenever we gave each other notes or cards, we’d draw a warm fuzzy. I was looking at my high school scrapbook a while back and remember seeing all sorts of these furry little creatures throughout the book. It got me thinking about how I could make an edible version.

I thought Valentine’s Day was the perfect occasion for this project. I spent the past week trying to narrow down my choices of recipes to use. At first I thought about dipping a doughnut hole in frosting and covering it in colored coconut, then coconut cream chocolate truffles came to mind, but I finally settled on making them out of cake balls, as I haven’t really done too many of those projects and I know so many of you like to make them. You could even turn them into cake pops.

It’s fun to add a  personalize message to your warm fuzzies. Just print a sweet note on a strip of paper and attach it to it’s feet. If you want to make something even more elaborate, add one of these sweet little fellows on top of a cupcake. I even designed a printable wrapper for that.

You can get creative with your warm fuzzies, by changing the style of their antenna,  their color, and the personal message.

If you have kids or adults that absolutely hate coconut, you could shave chocolate and use it instead, like I did for my Pink Fuzzy Slipper Cookies (directions here) or coat your cake balls in red or pink jimmies (sprinkles.)

Each of these little guys was made with a different style of antenna. I think the hearts look great on the red warm fuzzy, but prefer the swirl on the pink one. Which you do like best?

Don’t ya just want to hug him? 

Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls
(makes 40-48 warm fuzzies or 15 cupcakes with warm fuzzies on top)

If you are making the cake balls you’ll need:

1 baked cake (see recipe below)
1/4 cup – 1/2 cup white frosting
24-32 ounces melted white confectionery coating/candy melts*
warm fuzzy feet template
4 cups shredded coconut
liquid food coloring – neon pink or red (the grocery store variety is fine)
80 candy eyes
optional antenna decorations: red hearts and pink confetti

Ingredients to make 15 cupcakes and 15 warm fuzzies:

24 baked cupcakes
white frosting (2-3 tablespoons for cake balls and more to frost cupcakes)
12-16 ounces melted white confectionery coating/candy melts*
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
liquid food coloring – neon pink and/or red
30 candy eyes
printable warm fuzzy cupcake wrapper (pink warm fuzzy or red warm fuzzy)
optional: pink and purple confetti

*Before you begin, if you don’t have experience using confectionery coatings, read my Chocolate Making Tips (here.) Each brand of coating has different qualities, some are thicker than others, so I’ve given you a general idea of how much you should need for this project.  If you have leftover coating, just spread it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze until hard.

Supplies Needed:

mixing bowl and spoon or a stand mixer or food processor
disposable pastry bag, zip top bag, or a squeeze bottle fitted with a small round pastry tip
parchment paper
baking sheets that fit in your freezer
zip top bags used to color your coconut

optional: #18 mini ice cream scoop (a heaping tablespoon)
fork or chocolate dipping fork

You can find items needed to make these Cake Ball Warm Fuzzies from Amazon
(commission earned for sales at no extra cost to you)

Print

Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls and Cupcakes

Prep Time

2 hrs

Cook Time

34 mins

Total Time

2 hrs 34 mins

 

Coat cake balls in white candy melts and colored coconut then decorate them to look like cute little warm fuzzies for Valentine's Day.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: valentines day cake balls, valentines day dessert, warm and fuzzy dessert

Servings: 40 -48

Author: Beth Jackson Klosterboer

Ingredients

• 1 15.25 ounce dark chocolate cake mix
• 1 3.56 ounce chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup frosting vanilla or chocolate
• 24-32 ounces white candy melts melted
• 4 cups coconut colored pink and red
• 80-96 candy eyes
• optional heart and round sprinkles

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Either line a 9 inch by 13 inch baking pan with non-stick tin foil or spray it with baking spray.
3. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, milk, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat on low speed for 30 seconds.
5. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes.
6. Pour into pan.
7. Bake for 28-34 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Allow cake to cool completely.
9. Crumble cake into a large bowl, preferable the bowl of a stand mixer.
10. Add frosting and stir or beat until well blended and smooth.
11. Scoop out 48 tablespoon size portions of the cake ball dough.
12. Roll them into balls.
13. Set aside to dry for an hour.
14. Meanwhile, pour the melted candy melts into a squeeze bottle, disposable pastry bag, or zip top bag.
15. Cut the tip off if using a disposable pastry bag or zip top bag.
16. Set warm fuzzy feet template on a baking sheet and cover with a piece of parchment paper.
17. Pipe the melted candy melts over the template creating two feet for each warm fuzzy.
18. Pop them in the freezer for about 3 minutes just until they harden.
19. Pipe antenna onto a piece of parchment paper, adding sprinkles to the tips if desired.
20. Let them harden.
21. Dip the cake balls in melted white candy melts and immediately roll each ball in colored coconut and insert two antenna.
22. Use melted white candy melts to attach two candy eyes and two feet to each warm fuzzy.

Instructions to make warm fuzzies:

Break up cake into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer (my preferred method**) or a food processor. Add 1/4 cup white frosting. Mix to combine.  If the mixture holds together well and you can easily form balls, then stop, if it crumbles, add up to another 1/4 cup frosting. Set aside for about an hour while you make your warm fuzzy decorations.

**By using a stand mixer your cake balls will have a smooth truffle like consistency. If you do this by hand, you will probably want to mix it with your actual hands to get it smooth.

Fill a squeeze bottle fitted with a small round pastry tip (#3,4, or 5) or fill a disposable pastry bag (either fitted with a tip or just snip off the end leaving a small opening) or fill a zip top bag and snip off one tip.

Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.

Pipe your preferred style of antenna making extras as several will break while you are working with them.

I piped straight lines and added small red hearts on some and added pink candy confetti on others. I also piped a line with a curved end. You could just pipe straight lines and add a dot on top or pipe a heart on top. Once you’ve filled up your baking sheet, place it in the freezer for about 3 minutes so the white coating hardens.

Click here to download the warm fuzzy feet template. Print out template.

Set the printed warm fuzzy feet template under a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Pipe feet.

I found it easiest to get the best shape by making dots for the toes, then piping around the outer edge and filling in the center of the feet. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes to harden. You can, unless you are making cake pops, attach the two feet together with some white candy coating.

Break up any clumps in your coconut then place coconut in a zip top bag.

Squeeze in some drops of your preferred food coloring. Seal bag and shake until coconut is uniformly colored. Add more coloring until you reach the desired shade.

You may want some of your warm fuzzies to be red, some pink and maybe even some of another color, so color just what you need.

Scoop out 40-48 heaping tablespoonfuls of the cake mixture. A #18 scoop makes easy work of this. If you use the recipe above to make your cake, you’ll get 48 balls. If you make a cake mix according to the package instructions you’ll get 40.

Roll into balls pinching together any big seams.

Set one ball into melted white confectionery coating/candy melts. Use a fork or candy dipping fork to submerge the ball in the white coating. Set the fork under the ball and lift it out of the coating. Tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove the excess candy coating.

Set the dipped ball into the colored coconut. Sprinkle and press the coconut all over the ball. Remove and immediately press two antenna into the ball (if you wait, the white candy coating will harden and you’ll have to use a toothpick to create holes before pressing them into the warm fuzzy.)

Once you’ve created all of your warm fuzzies, use some white candy coating to attach the two feet to the bottom of each warm fuzzy.

If you are going to make cake pops, dip a lollipop stick into the white candy coating and insert it into a cake ball and allow to dry before dipping, coating, and decorating them.

Use white candy coating to attach two edible candy eyes to each warm fuzzy cake ball.

Now you can package them as is or if you’d like you can attach a special message. Either print a message on a strip of paper and “glue” it to the warm fuzzy with a dab of white chocolate (don’t add too much, you want the paper easily removable) or cut strips out of modeling chocolate or fondant and write your message using a food coloring marker; that way the entire thing is edible.

VIDEO TUTORIAL

Top cupcakes with warm fuzzy cake balls. 

Start with 24 cupcakes. Reserve 15 cupcakes and crumble the remaining cupcakes into a mixing bowl or stand mixer.

NOTE: If you use the recipe above using the pudding mix and sour cream, you should be able to get 28 cupcakes out of the batter, so you can make 17 cupcakes with 17 warm fuzzies on top.

Add 2 tablespoons of frosting and mix to combine. If the mixture holds together well and you can easily form balls, then stop, if it crumbles, add up to another 1 tablespoon of frosting.

Set aside for 30-45 minutes while you make the decorations for 15 warm fuzzy cake balls according to the directions above.

Dip, roll, and decorate your 15 warm fuzzy cake balls.

Download and print the pink warm fuzzy cupcake wrapper template and/or the red warm fuzzy template on to white card stock. Note: they are big files and may take a few minutes to load.

Cut out the printable warm fuzzy cupcake wrappers. Wrap each cupcake with a printed wrapper, taping the edges together. Frost your cupcakes. Set a warm fuzzy cake ball on top of your cupcake. Add pink and purple candy confetti, if desired.

As I mentioned in my intro, you can use doughnut holes in place of the cake balls. If you need 24 cupcakes, just buy some doughnut holes and dip them in the white confectionery coating and proceed as above to make your warm fuzzies. You may need to use a toothpick to poke holes so that you can easily insert your antennae into these.

 If you are looking for other treats or gifts to make for Valentine’s Day,
you might like these other recipes too.

Warm Fuzzy Pinata Cake (candy inside) • Warm Fuzzy Cheese Balls
Teddy Bear Taco Tart • Conversation Heart Pinata Cake
Teddy Bear Truffles  I’m Bananas About You Monkey Cupcakes
You Make My Heart Roar Lion Cupcakes  Reese’s Cup Teddy Bear Cupcakes

If you recreate these Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls
be sure to link to this tutorial and send a picture to beth@hungryhappenings.com,
so I can  share it in my Readers’ Gallery.