Decorated cake balls designed after the Spiny after Super Mario Bros.

Ingredients:

1/2 box of cake mix, any flavor or 6 cupcakes
1 to 1 1/2 cup cup frosting, any flavor
1/4 cup white frosting
2 cups red candy melt
1 cup yellow candy melt
White sprinkles
Black food marker
Mini yellow M&Ms
Large yellow M&Ms
Black edible marker
1/4 cup almond slivers (sorted; ones that look like spikes)

Equipment:

Plastic bag
Wax paper
Toothpick or steel needle tool

For this recipe, I took three cupcakes and added frosting; I’ve expanded out the above amounts for enough to make a full dozen Spinies.

If you’re going the cake mix route, prepare the cake mix and allow to cool. Crumble the cake (or cupcakes)  into a bowl. Remove any large lumpy pieces of cake.

Add a cup of frosting to the crumbled cake and mix until fully incorporated, adding more frosting if needed. The mixture should be moist enough to roll into balls and hold a round shape.

Take about two tablespoon’s worth of cake mix and roll into a ball.

Place onto a cookie sheet. Repeat until you run out of a cake mixture.

Pop the cookie sheet into the freezer for 15 minutes.

While the cake pops are setting, take the yellow candy melts and pour into a bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time, mixing until the candy melts are fully melted.

Taking a cake ball, dip into the yellow candy melt.

Place onto a cookie sheet, candy melt side up. Quickly add four yellow mini M&Ms to the cake ball for feet.

Repeat for all cake balls.

Taking the red candy melts and pour into a bowl. Again microwave for 30 seconds at a time, mixing until the candy melts are fully melted.

Pick out almond silvers that look like spikes and place in a bowl nearby. The red shell will harden in a minute so you’ll want your almonds ready to go.

 

Take a cake ball and dip the uncovered side into the red candy melt. Place on to a cookie sheet.

Quickly take the almond sliver spikes and push into the red shell.

Repeat for all cake balls.

Scoop 1/4 cup of white frosting into a plastic bag and seal. Snip off the tip of the bag, and draw a white band between the red and yellow candy melt. (I tried using white candy melt instead of frosting for next step, but I found that it dried too quickly and turned out pretty lumpy.)

Taking two white sprinkles, dot on eyes with the black edible marker.

Take a dab of white frosting to the back of the eyes, push into the large M&M. Using a toothpick can help nudge them into place.

Add a dab of frosting to the back of the yellow M&M and gently press onto the front of the Spiny.

Repeat for all cake balls.