Cake covered with white chocolate, adorned with M&Ms and nuts.

A couple of weeks ago, my gaming co-worker brought in some baked goods which he dubbed "cake balls." They were half-inch balls of cake dipped in chocolate. The chocolate coating gave the bite-sized treat a light, crunchy shell. Delicious! I had those in mind when putting these Metroid goodies together.

Ingredients:

One box of cake mix, your preference
One package of white chocolate
1/2-3/4 cup cream cheese frosting
Green food coloring
Red M&Ms
Cashews (unsalted)

First thing to do is bake a cake. I halved the recipe, which gave me 10 Metroids. I could've had a full dozen – maybe even a baker's dozen – if I hadn't sampled the cake more than once. Then again, I did have to make sure the cake came out okay! There was a little bit of white chocolate leftover after coating all the cake balls, so if you're good about not sampling the cake too much, you can create a full dozen of these little guys.

Once your cake is done baking, allow it to cool.

Crumble up the cake in a bowl.

Take a 1/2 cup of cream cheese frosting and mix it right in. If the mix is still crumbly and not sticking together, add a spoonful of frosting at a time.

Once the dough is sticky enough, form into a large ball. You'll want to have enough room for three M&Ms to fit on the cookie without crowding the edges. If you're needing exact measurements, 1.5" diameter will be fine. I mushed one side of the cake ball a bit to lend the cake mixture a more Metroidish shape.

Pop the cake balls into the freezer until cold, about 10 minutes.

When you're ready to decorate, setup a double boiler and melt the white chocolate.

After the chocolate has completely melted, add a bit of green coloring. (I actually forgot to do this until I had completed two Metroid cake balls. Oop!)

Take a cake ball and add a healthy dollop on top. Smooth the chocolate around the cake ball with a spoon until the ball is completely covered.

Add three red M&Ms near the middle of the cake ball.

Gently push in the cashews.

Repeat for all Metroids. The white chocolate will cool quite quickly once it's on the cold cake, so you don't want to tootle off for too long when putting these together.

Allow the Metroids to set for about 30 minutes.

Makes about a dozen Metroids.