We’re coming up on the end of my Easter treat recipes – well almost. I’m sharing these carrot cake balls today and then a couple more tomorrow but then that’s it, Easter recipes are over for the year. I’m cutting it a bit close but who cares, these are good enough that I didn’t want to wait until next year! Ever since I made this delicious carrot cake last year, I’ve been wanting to make something else using carrot cake. And then it hit me – carrot cake balls! Kind of like chocolate protein balls but without the protein and the chocolate. These 4-ingredient Easter treats are super easy to make and as long as you like carrot cake, they’re really yummy too! Plus, if you pair them with this bunny tail printable, they make really good Easter favors or take home treats!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Pantry Ingredients – you just need four simple ingredients, all that you can find in your local grocery store (or your own pantry) to make these! Easy – when I say easy, I mean they’re easy to make and not screw up. Unlike something like these chocolate covered Peeps pops, these are meant to be messy, so it’s okay if they’re not perfect! You cover it all up with coconut anyway! Tasty – the combination of the carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, white chocolate, and coconut is just like eating a big slice of carrot cake, but a much smaller bite-sized slice! It’s the perfect way to enjoy carrot cake without having to make a full cake!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Carrot cake mix – you’ll need a box of carrot cake mix plus the ingredients needed to make the carrot cake, typically eggs, water, and oil. You can use any carrot cake mix you want, just choose your favorite. White candy melts – you can substitute these with white chocolate chips as well but make sure to get high quality chocolate if you do switch these out because some white chocolate doesn’t melt that well. Pecans – these are optional but do add a nice crunch to these carrot cake balls. If you’re going to use pecans, I recommend getting chopped pecans and then chopping them into tiny pieces so that they add some texture but not too big of a crunch. Cream cheese frosting – you just need a can of regular cream cheese frosting, any brand is fine.
How to make Carrot Cake Balls
If you’ve ever made cake balls or cake pops at all, this process is going to be very similar. It’s just baking, mixing, rolling, and dipping! Easy as can be!
1 – Bake The Carrot Cake
Preheat your oven and line a 9×13 cake pan with parchment paper to help you get the cake out easily once baked! Prepare cake mix (adding 1/2 cup chopped pecans to batter if desired) according to the package instructions. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake however your cake mix says for the cake pan you’re using. Once the cake is baked, allow cake to cool at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. You’ll want it to be nice and cool before you start handling the cake!
2 – Make the Carrot Cake Balls
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove cake from the pan and put the pieces in a large mixing bowl. You can either do this using a spatula (not a problem if the cake breaks into pieces) or your hands. Use a hand mixer on low speed to crumble the cake. You can use your hands if needed to crumble any large pieces remaining. Add the frosting to the cake crumbs and mix until it’s combined enough that you can form a ball with the mixture. Using your hands or a small cookie scoop, roll scoops of the mixture into one inch balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes.
3 – Dip and Decorate
Just before the 30 minutes is up, put the shredded coconut in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper. Then, melt the candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring after each one, until fully melted and smooth. You can also do this using a double boiler on the stove if you don’t have access to a microwave. Remove five of the frozen balls from the frozen baking sheet (leave the others in the freezer) and use a toothpick (or a cake pop dipping tool like this one) to dip them in the melted candy. Remove any excess by tapping it gently on the side of the bowl, then immediately roll in coconut until well coated, using your hands to pat the coconut down into the melted candy coating. Place coated ball on the second lined baking sheet and repeat until all five of your carrot cake balls are coated. Return to the freezer and get another set of five balls and repeat the process. Continue dipping and decorating the carrot cake balls until you’ve finished them all. Doing them in smaller sets keeps the balls frozen and prevents them from falling apart when you dip them in the hot chocolate. Allow the carrot cake balls to set for 5-10 minutes before serving. Or if you’re planning to turn them into these cute bunny tail favors, I recommend letting them set for 30 minutes before putting them into the plastic bags (so it doesn’t stick to any candy melts that may still be a bit wet).
Expert Tips
Pulse chopped pecans in a food processor 10-20 times or until the pieces are about 1/4 inch with few large pieces. This will give the carrot cake texture without it tasting like there are a lot of nuts in it. Bake the cake the night before and let it cool overnight. Or if that’s not possible, make sure to give yourself adequate time to allow the cake to cool as a warm cake will not mix with the frosting properly. Reheat candy melts in the microwave again if they start to get solid again during the dipping process. Work with just a few of the carrot cake balls at a time to ensure that they don’t fall apart when you dip them. Store carrot cake balls in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week before either throwing away or freezing. Freeze before dipping in a freezer safe zipper top bag for up to six weeks. When ready to dip, just remove five from the freezer and dip and decorate just like you would have in the first place.
More Easter Treats
If you like these carrot cake balls, make sure to check out these other easy and yummy Easter treats!
Easter cookies with swirl frosting – these delicious lemon cookies get topped with a sweet and swirly Easter frosting! Butterscotch haystacks – these fun Easter treats look just like little bird nests and are delicious too! Chocolate dirt cookies – a triple chocolate cookie gets topped with Oreo crumbs and gummy worms for a fun treat! Homemade peanut butter eggs – these tasty peanut butter eggs are like Reese’s peanut butter eggs but homemade! Easter bunny cupcakes – the most delicious vanilla cupcakes topped with Easter bunny ears made out of marshmallows!
