Make these adorably cute warm fuzzy cake balls to show how much you care. These Valentine's Day cake balls are fun to make and taste great. They can be served on their own or used to decorate cupcakes.
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 these sweet cake ball warm fuzzies - the kind that just might make your loved ones giggle, sigh, or even say "awww."
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 personalized message to your warm fuzzies. Just print a sweet note on a strip of paper and attach it to its 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.
Ingredients
a baked cake (see recipe below)
white frosting
melted white compound chocolate (confectionery coating/candy melts)*
warm fuzzy feet template
shredded coconut
liquid food coloring - neon pink or red (the grocery store variety is fine)
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 ½ 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 compound chocolate , also known as, confectionery coatings, candy melts, or almond bar, read my Chocolate Making Tips. 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 any leftover coating, just spread it on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and freeze until hard.
Supplies
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
Instructions
Make chocolate cake balls.
- Break up the cake into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer (my preferred method**) or a food processor.
- Add ¼ 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 ¼ cup of 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.
Pipe white candy melt antennae.
- 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.
Pipe warm fuzzy feet using white candy melts.
- Click here to download the warm fuzzy feet template. Print out the warm fuzzy feet 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.
Color coconut using food coloring.
- Break up any clumps in your coconut then place the coconut in a zip-top bag.
- Squeeze in some drops of your preferred food coloring. Seal the bag and shake until the 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 the color is just what you need.
Dip cake balls and roll them in pink coconut.
- 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 antennae 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 it to dry before dipping, coating, and decorating them.
Assemble the cake ball warm fuzzies.
- 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.
Make warm fuzzy cupcakes.
- 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 onto 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.
Substitutions
Use donut holes instead of cake balls.
Use shredded red or pink candy melts instead of coconut. Check out my Pink Fuzzy Slipper Cookies recipe for step-by-step instructions.
Or you can roll your cake balls in red or pink sprinkles.
Related Recipes
You can also make a savory version. Check out the recipe to make these cute Warm Fuzzy Cheese Balls.
Check out all of my Valentine's Day Recipes and be sure to check out the collage of Valentine's Day recipe ideas below the recipe card below.
Video Tutorial
Be sure to watch the video to see how to make your own warm fuzzy cake balls.
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id="gtJmUPiK" upload-date="2021-01-31T00:48:13.000Z" name="Cake Ball Warm Fuzzies" description="Chocolate cake balls are dipped in white candy melts and red or pink-colored coconut and are decorated with candy antennae and feet to look like cute Warm Fuzzies for Valentine's Day." player-type="default" override-embed="default"]
Printable Recipe
- 1 15.25 ounce dark chocolate cake mix
- 1 (3.56 ounce box) instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- ⅓ 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
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
-
Either line a 9 inch by 13-inch baking pan with non-stick tin foil or spray it with baking spray.
-
Combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, milk, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
-
Using an electric mixer, beat on low speed for 30 seconds.
-
Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes.
-
Pour into pan.
-
Bake for 28-34 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
-
Allow the cake to cool completely.
-
Crumble the cake into a large bowl, preferably the bowl of a stand mixer.
-
Add frosting and stir or beat until well blended and smooth.
-
Scoop out 48 tablespoon-size portions of the cake ball dough.
-
Roll them into balls.
-
Set aside to dry for an hour.
-
Meanwhile, pour the melted candy melts into a squeeze bottle, disposable pastry bag, or zip-top bag.
-
Cut the tip off if using a disposable pastry bag or zip-top bag.
-
Set warm fuzzy feet template on a baking sheet and cover with a piece of parchment paper.
-
Pipe the melted candy melts over the template creating two feet for each warm fuzzy.
-
Pop them in the freezer for about 3 minutes just until they harden.
-
Pipe antenna onto a piece of parchment paper, adding sprinkles to the tips if desired.
-
Let them harden.
-
Dip the cake balls in melted white candy melts and immediately roll each ball in colored coconut and insert two antennae.
-
Use melted white candy melts to attach two candy eyes and two feet to each warm fuzzy.
This recipe was originally published on January 31, 2012.
Warm Fuzzy Pinata Cake (candy inside) • Warm Fuzzy Cheese Balls
Taco Tart Bear • Conversation Heart Pinata Cake
Chocolate Teddy Bears • Monkey Cupcakes
Lion Cupcakes • Reese's Cup Teddy Bear Cupcakes
Have a Happy Valentine's Day!
- Irresistible Sweets with Dixie Crystals® - July 13, 2024
- How to make peanut butter? - February 15, 2024
- OREO Penguins - December 20, 2023
Dawn
These are by far the cutest cake balls I have ever seen.
Miss Michelle
Super cute! So glad I stopped by Something Swanky's link party!
Georganne (LilaLoa)
These are SO SO CUTE!!
superstitches
These are so cute!
Cheryl
These are so incredibly cute! I am thinking they would make a great classroom Valentine! Thanks for sharing!
Kim @ Party Frosting!
you blow my mind!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE! Can't wait to share link on my site! hugs! Kim @ Party Frosting!
Susan-The Weekly Sweet Experiment
So adorable. Love the fuzzy feet template. I have to make these. So cute - pinned!
MyFudo™
Very cute! Adorable! I'll have to get my stock of pink and red candy melts early, the stores ran out every 2nd month of the year. Thanks for sharing this post!
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust
Those are so cute! They look just like the little guys my mom had around her office. I used to play with them all the time. Love them!
Anonymous
These are beyond cute Beth!! Love these little fuzzy creatures Julie B.
Jo and Sue
Geeeeez....you seriously come up with the CUTESt things ever! Love these guys 🙂
Cute Everything
Thank you for bringing back some fun memories. I loved those puffy little guys, too! You did a really great job on this! They turned out so cute! Pinned you!
Scarlett
I was just wondering what I could do that was different than a heart topper...something really unique. This will be SUPER CUTE for my daughters 5th grade class!!! ☺ THANKS!!!
Jo Andrade
boa tarde, cada dia que passa acho mas encantado seu blog, bjs.
chocolatesdocemel.blogspot.com
lizy b
These are amazing! I loved these little guys as a kid!! I remember having them all lined up on our desks in grade school!! Great job!
Beth Jackson Klosterboer
Thanks Lizy. I always loved the little pom-pom guys too.
Jennifer
OMG, these might be the cutest things I have ever seen!
Beth Jackson Klosterboer
Thanks Jennifer. Every time I look at a picture of one of these guys, I smile:)
Candy
Are amazing! I'm in love! Thank you!
Beth Jackson Klosterboer
Thanks Candy, they are easy to fall in love with, aren't they?
scrambledhenfruit
These are adorable! I always loved those "warm fuzzies" with the sticky feet. 🙂
Beth Jackson Klosterboer
Thanks! I used to stick them on my locker door in school. I'd see their sweet faces every school day.
Wendys Hat
Darling!
Beth Jackson Klosterboer
Thanks Wendy.
Trish - Sweetology101
I know I have said it before...but you have the BEST blog EVAAAAH! so so so so sooooooooooooo cute.
Beth Jackson Klosterboer
You are so sweet:)