Sweet treats for your Valentine

These Red Velvet Cake bonbons are a great Valentine surprise.

With Valentine’s Day on Saturday, a homemade sweet treat may be just what is needed to make your sweetheart swoon. This recipe for Red Velvet Cake “bonbons” make a great presentation and are easy to make and versatile.

These moist cake balls can be covered in a white, milk or dark chocolate coating, then drizzled with a complimentary swirl for effect.

For Valentine’s Day, you can’t beat Red Velvet cake, but devil’s food, white or yellow cake mixes can also be used, if your sweetheart prefers. As a moistening agent, there are also several options. I have used sour cream, sweetened condensed milk and softened cream cheese. All work well, although I prefer the cream cheese.

I did see a recipe that calls for 1 can of vanilla or cream cheese frosting to moisten the cake, but I find this makes the cake too sweeet.

The recipe below uses cream cheese. If you use sour cream, add 1 cup. If sweetened condensed milk is used, the quantity is 1/2 cup.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Red Velvet Cake ‘BonBons’

1 box red velvet cake mix (bake as directed for a 13 x 9 in. cake)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 12 ounce package of white chocolate chips (for dipping)

After cake is baked and cooled completely, crumble into a large bowl. Add cream cheese and mix thoroughly. Roll mixture into quarter-size balls and lay on a cookie sheet.

Chill for at least an hour.

Melt chocolate slowly over low heat. If you are using chocolate chips for a coating, add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the melting chips.

Use a toothpick or fork to dip the cake balls into chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. Drizzle tops with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips if you dipped in white chocolate. If you dipped in semi-sweet chocolate chips, drizzle with white chocolate.

May be refrigerated to help set, but this is usually not necessary.