Holiday Confetti Bites

Holiday Confetti Bites

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BakeInTheFun #CollectiveBias

*This recipe was selected as a finalist for the Mars Bake in the Fun contest! While entering yourself to win a Kitchen Aid Mixer, please also vote HERE for my Holiday Confetti Bites, we can both win yay! And you can vote once per day!

When I was younger I remember our family taking part in a fun anonymous cookie exchange. One day a platter of holiday treats showed up at our door with no name, only a witty poem that essentially told us to pass on the anonymous favor to another family. So we did. I loved baking back then too, so I got to partake in prepping the platter with festive treats for the next family. We went through the whole ding-dong-ditch to secretly drop it off, and then the next week it showed up at our door again because they didn't know we were the ones who gave it, haha! What fun holiday memories do you have?

Today I'm sharing a recipe I crafted as this year's holiday give-away treat. My own mom puts together cute little jars of cake balls each year to give away to people over the holidays. She is a serious master. Her cake balls are always the perfect texture and she tempers and dips the chocolate like a pro. Though I've pitched in to help her several times over the years, I've never come close to her skill level. So this year I found a few ways to make it easier on myself!

It's quite simple. I used Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix and Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Vanilla Flavored Frosting for the cake-ball filling, then flavored the mix as either peppermint or peanut butter (using chopped M&M's® White Peppermint and M&M's® Holiday Peanut Butter). Then I took the Funfetti sprinkles and added them to the white chocolate for a festive look. Threw that all into chocolate molds and I didn't have to worry about how terrible I am at chocolate-dipping! Now I just need more chocolate boxes to give them all away.

As a side note, whenever I make boxed mixes I always replace the water with milk. It's a quick substitute that I think makes a difference in taste (and hopefully strengthens my aging bones). I actually got the opportunity to stop by my local food bank this past week, and learned something new. What we did there was package fresh produce, and they were very well stocked in that, which was heartening. What I learned after that experience was that milk is a rare donation and in high demand. On average, food banks can only provide less than a gallon of milk per person per year! So Feeding America has launched The Great American Milk Drive and there are a couple of ways to help: you can donate HERE, and also, if you go to Walmart and purchase 2 bags of M&M's® (9.4 oz or larger) then up to a gallon will be donated to the drive. Cool! So if you make this recipe you will have helped the drive :)

Plus there is even a coupon for the M&M's®  here, so it's a great deal--save money and help the drive at the same time. Find even more holiday M&M's® recipes here. Have you tried any of the new M&M's®? Have a favorite? (The white peppermint is seriously good.)

*Note on the recipe: Everything is dependent on how big your chocolate molds are and your chocolate:cake ratio, but you only need to use about half the cake and 1/4 of the frosting. In the recipe, though, I made the entire cake and just ate the delicious leftovers :)

Holiday Confetti Bites
Makes 60-70 chocolates

• 1 pkg. Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix
• 1 container Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Vanilla Flavored Frosting
• 1 cup 2% Great Value milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 oil
• 1/3 cup M&M's® White Peppermint, chopped well
• 1/3 cup M&M's® Holiday Peanut Butter, chopped well
• 2 pkg.s (16 oz.) white chocolate chips
• holiday sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F and bake cake according to instructions. Let cool completely.

Take 1/2 of the cake and cut into bite-size pieces. Pour into a bowl with 1/4 of the frosting. Mix until it comes together. Split the cake mix between two bowls. Into one, add the chopped M&M's® White Peppermint. To the other, the M&M's® Holiday Peanut Butter. Set aside.

Take the Funfetti sprinkles from the frosting and sprinkle an even layer over the bottom of each chocolate mold, about 1/8 tsp each. 

Pour half a package of chocolate chips into a heat-proof bowl and melt in the microwave until soft. Stir until smooth, heating slightly more if needed. Pour about 1/2 tsp. chocolate into each chocolate mold, spreading so that it coats the sides. Use an off-set spatula or any straight edge to scrape excess chocolate off the top of the mold. Place in the fridge until hardened.

Roll small balls of cake mix and smush them into each chocolate mold, leaving some room at the top for the chocolate base. Add more chocolate chips to your chocolate bowl as needed and re-melt. Fill each mold with more chocolate, then scrape off the excess to make it flat. Place in the fridge until hardened. Gently pop each chocolate out of it's mold.

Repeat until out of chocolate.