Easy Christmas Cake Balls

I was asked by the lovelies at Sainaburys to come up with an easy edible Christmas gift recipe.  I've been making these Christmas cake balls for a few years now and they are very simple to make but look rather impressive.  My 3 girls enjoy making them, there's no cooking involved apart from melting chocolate, the rest of the process is just assembling and decorating.

You can use homemade Christmas cake or store bought, whichever you prefer.  All the decorating supplies are readily available too.  I normally use Green and Blacks Maya Gold chocolate if giving these to adults as it adds a lovely spice and flavour, if giving to children I usually use either milk chocolate or a 60% dark chocolate.

I top my Christmas cake balls with a little white and red sugarpaste to make them look like Christmas puddings but you could decorate them however you like.  I've rolled them in finely chopped nuts or shavings of chocolate previously and they went down very well indeed.

Easy Christmas Cake Balls

400g Christmas cake
1 cup chocolate buttercream or melted chocolate
extra melted chocolate for dipping
white and red sugarpaste
red edible glitter

Crumble the Christmas cake into a bowl and add enough buttercream or melted chocolate to moisten the crumbs so they hold together if you try and shape them into a ball.  You don't want the mixture to be too wet.

Form the mixture into balls then put them on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper.  Chill in the fridge to firm up.  Roll out the white sugarpaste on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out small white flower shapes with a cutter.  Roll small portions of red sugar paste into balls and then roll in edible glitter.

Melt the chocolate, either in a microwave or in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, then dip the balls in the chocolate and return to the chilled tray.  Top with the white and red sugarpaste decorations before the chocolate sets as this will adhere them to the cake balls.  Leave to set at room temperature or chill in the fridge for a short time if you are in a hurry.  These are best eaten within 3 days of making them.

*I was compensated for my time, expertise and ingredients when creating this recipe*