We continue our red theme this week one day prior to Valentine’s Day with a delicious sweet treat that will make any of your sweethearts feel loved. We concocted a little Blind Pig twist on the fan favorite of red velvet cake by making it into cake balls spiked with a little bit of black raspberry liqueur — Chambord.

Chambord is a blackberry and raspberry liqueur which is produced in the Loire Valley of France.  It comes in a beautiful spherical bottle with golden accents.  We have known about Chambord for years and used it here and there — mostly in swirl margaritas.  This is the first time we have featured it in a recipe on The Blind Pig Blog and boy are we delighted with how the recipe turned out!   The velvety flavor of the Chambord paired perfectly with the rich taste of the red velvet cake.  We decided to make our treats into little heart shaped cake balls for a fun Valentine’s Day treat.  However, we can see that this recipe would make a divine dessert for a special occasion.

Here’s how we made Raspberry Red Velvet Cake Balls. Cake balls are not difficult to make, but it is best to plan ahead.  The process can be spread out over two days by making the cake ball mixture a day ahead and forming the cake balls the second day. We used a base red velvet cake recipe.  We chose to make our cake from scratch and used the recipe from Live Well Bake Often.  You could take a short cut and use a red velvet cake mix — no judgement here.  We mixed the cake according to the directions, however, we did make a minor adjustment.  Instead of adding 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, we added 1 ounce of Chambord.  We placed our cake batter into a 9 x 13 inch rectangular baking pan.  Since we were not making a two layer cake and we increased the alcohol from 2 teaspoons to 1 ounce, we had to increase the baking time from 28-32 minutes up to 45 minutes.

After baking the cake, we let the cake cool for about 20-30 minutes.  Then we cut the cake out of the pan and crumbled the cake into fine crumbs in a large mixing bowl.  Make sure to check if there are hard crusty sections around the edge of the cake, you don’t want to include these pieces in your cake ball mixture.

Next add a container of chocolate frosting to the bowl of cake crumbs.  Mix together well until the frosting is evenly distributed throughout the cake crumbs.  Place in the refrigerator to chill for an hour or two.

After your cake ball mixture has chilled, start molding the cake balls. Since we made our cake balls for Valentine’s Day,  we used a heart mold that we found at our local Hobby Lobby.   Cookie cutters can also be used to mold cake ball shapes or roll your own little cake balls.  Don’t forget our special trick of spraying hands or tools with cooking spray prior to forming the cake balls.  You will be glad you did this!

Place the formed cake balls on a tray lined with parchment paper and place in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes to an hour.  Remove the cake balls from the refrigerator.  We had two trays, so we left one tray in the refrigerator to stay chilled while we worked with the first tray.

Melt the candy coating for the outer layer of the cake balls.  We have used a variety of ingredients in the past, like chocolate chips and almond bark.  This time we used the candy coating wafers that can be purchased at most craft stores and cake decorating supply stores. We always melt our coating in a glass microwaveable dish.  The important thing is to start slow and not over cook your coating.  If you over cook the coating, you will have to throw it out and start over.  We melt ours in short little 15 second bursts. Remove the coating. Stir. Cook for another 15 second burst, and repeat until the coating is smooth and creamy.  Melting the coating in two separate batches keeps the coating fresh.  It also helps to ease the pressure of working quickly.

Dip the cake balls into the coating one at a time.  We use a spoon to scoop out the cake ball.  Let the spoon and cake ball drip over the bowl of coating for a few seconds while excess coating drips off.  Place on parchment paper to cool.  We added some sprinkles to some of our cake balls.  Make sure to sprinkle while the coating has not fully cooled. After dipping all the cake balls, place them in a refrigerator until ready to serve.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a printable recipe of Raspberry Red Velvet Cake Balls.

The weather forecast looks like many of us will be spending our Valentine’s Day inside where it is warm and cozy.  What could be better than making Raspberry Red Velvet Cake Balls with those you love the most?

We have also included some ideas for other great Valentine’s Day cocktails and treats!

Fernet Hot Chocolate — perfect for staying warm with your honey

Pomegranate Martini — cheers to your love

Pomegranate Negroni  — for the man in your life

Raspberry Mojito — a light fun cocktail for Valentine’s or Galentine’s

Love Triangle — another light fun cocktail to enjoy 

Love You More Cookies — delicious cookie recipe to make for all of those you love

Espresso Fudge — a delicious easy fudge recipe to espress your love!

Or check out any of our other recipes on our blog!