Strawberry Malt Ball Cake

As some of you saw yesterday from my Instagram pictures. I made a Strawberry Malt Ball Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting for my Mom for Mother’s Day.

Today I had a chance to sit down and go through all the pictures and put together a recipe for you. So, may I officially introduce you to my Strawberry Malt Ball Cake.

I honestly wish I could say I was the original creator of the Malt Ball Cake, but sadly, I am not. If you do a google search you will see that several creative folks out there have made a chocolate version of this recipe. Though, I think I can safely say I’m the first to do it with strawberry malt balls. That counts for something right?

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So here’s how to put this delicious confection together. Let’s start with the cake, here’s what you’ll need:

1 box Duncan Hines Strawberry Cake Mix
3 Eggs
1 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Simply follow the directions on the back of the cake mix box to bake your cakes. I made two 9-in round cakes. I line my pan with parchment paper to prevent my cake from sticking to the pan.

While your cakes bake and cool. Let’s make the White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.  We are going to start by making my Go-To Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe.

My Go-To Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe: (I doubled the recipe below for this cake)

1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature butter unsalted)4 oz cream cheese (use phildelphia, generic cream cheese is a no-no)1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)4 cups powdered sugar1 teaspoon vanilla extract2-3 tablespoons heavy cream

With an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment; beat butter, salt and cream cheese (on medium speed) until completely smooth

One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating. Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached.

Now for the white chocolate. Melt an entire bag of white chocolate chips over a double broiler. I don’t have a double broiler so I just used a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water.

Once your chips are completely melted, remove your glass bowl from the pan and allow this to completely cool … but not so cold that the chocolate hardens up again.

Add your cooled melted white chocolate to your frosting. Mix until combined.

I wanted my frosting pink to match my malt balls so I added red food coloring until I achieved a shade of pink I liked.

Time to frost the cakes! I lined my cake plate with several pieces of wax paper which I will remove later. This keeps my cake plate free and clean of excess frosting. Props to my gal Ina Garten for that tip!

After a layer of frosting, I sliced some strawberries and added a layer of those to my cake.

With the strawberries secure, I added my second layer of cake, then continued to frost the rest of the cake.

I’m not an expert at adding frosting to a cake. This is why I need that layer of wax paper. I usually just gob it on with my spatula and then use a frosting knife/spatula to remove any excess. Thankfully this cake will be covered in malt balls so a perfectly frosted cake is not required.

Time for the malt balls, also know as Whoppers Strawberry Milkshake. I ended up using almost three 10oz boxes. Not ten boxes as I planned for. Oops!

So this process may seem challenging, but it’s honestly really easy. Just start by adding malt balls to the bottom of the cake. Work all the way around until you finish the first row.

Continue working up the cake until you reach the top. I offset my second row so that each malt ball tucked in-between two from the first row.

Once you are at the top, just continue to add your malt balls until you reach the center.

Ta da! Thanks it! A completely covered cake. Honestly, once you do it you’ll see how easy it is.

Pretty beautiful, right? And it smells delicious! Those strawberry malt balls smell like cotton candy! Yum.

As beautiful as the cake is by itself I wanted to make it a little bit more festive. So I grabbed some scraps of vintage sheets, bakers twine, scissors, wood skewers, and tacky glue and made this cute little bunting!

The photos are pretty self explanatory, but here how it came together. First, fold a scrap piece of fabric in half. Then cut out a triangle. You want the fold in fabric to be the bottom of your triangle. When you open your cut triangle it should look like a diamond. This will keep your bunting looking pretty from both sides.

With all your triangles cut, measure a piece of baker’s twine and cut it to fit. Open your triangles and apply some tacky glue. Insert your bakers twine and close your triangles. Continue adding your triangles until you have the desired length.

Tie each end of the bunting onto a large wooden skewer.

And that’s it! Bunting complete. Stick that beauty into your cake.

And she’s done!
A Strawberry Malt Ball Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Vintage Sheet Bunting

Seriously, could a cake get any cuter?

I’m pretty sure it can’t! And while it does take a little time for the cake to come together the process couldn’t be any easier.

A truly professional cake, made at home. Trust me, if I can do this, so can you!

Okay, I’m ready for a piece and I want to see how this thing looks on the inside.

An entirely pink cake! What’s not to love! And yes, that fabric underneath the cake is a vintage bed sheet I picked up at Goodwill a couple weeks ago for a dollar.

Time to dig in. Cake, frosting, fresh strawberries and a malt ball for good measure!

Delicious!