Patriotic Cake Balls

Red White and Blue Cake Balls are the way to go for a delicious and fun Patriotic Dessert. Everyone loves these and the best part, they are easy to make and you can use any flavor cake mix you like.

Red White and Blue Cake Balls on a white plate with a red background — Red White and Blue Cake Balls

Make these Red White and Blue Cake Balls for any Patriotic event or holiday and even when your favorite team is playing and these are their colors. You can use any cake recipe you like and that includes cheating with a box mix to save time. If you really want to cut corners, buy an unfrosted cake from the bakery at the grocery store.

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Fourth of July Cake Balls

Ingredients

1 9×13 cake, any flavor you like; boxed, homemade, or store-bought.
Red, white, and blue candy melts
Red, white, and blue sprinkles
Candy star sprinkles

Frosting Ingredients

7 Tbsp. Unsalted butter
3 tsp. milk (or half and half, or heavy cream)
1 ¾ cups powdered sugar
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla extract

Kitchen Tools Used

Electric mixer
Cookie Sheet
1 Tablespoon Cookie Scoop
Wax Paper or Parchment paper
Fork
Spatula
Large Mixing Bowl
Small Bowls
Sheet Cake pan
Measuring spoons

Directions for making cake balls

Bake or buy a cake in any flavor you want. If you are baking the cake be sure to let your cake cool completely before beginning to make the cake balls. A 9×13 sheet pan cake is just the right size.

Crumble the Cake

Cake crumbled into a bowl for making cake balls

Crumble cake into a large bowl using your hands and set aside.

This is the fun part, one of the fun parts. You get to destroy a perfectly good cake by tearing it into tiny little pieces with your hands. There is just something a little satisfying about doing that.

Make The Frosting

Make your frosting by adding the butter, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla to a medium bowl and mixing until combined with an electric mixer.

Remember, we are not making the same type of frosting you use on the outside of a regular cake which would be too wet for cake pops. We only want just enough moisture to stick the cake together for rolling into the ball shape. Plus you’re going to get that scrumptious cake and frosting flavor combination we all love in the process.

Cake and frosting mixed together in bowl

Combine Cake and Frosting

Line a large cookie sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper and set aside. This is a great way to make clean up easier.

Pour the crumbled cake in the bowl over the frosting and combine using your hands or a mixer on low speed. I like to use my hands but I wear gloves that can be thrown away when I’m done just like when mixing meatloaf.

Forming the Cake Balls

Once you have combined the cake and frosting, form your cake mixture into balls. Use a Tablespoon size cookie scoop to dip the batter. If you don’t have the cookie scoop, you can use the old fashioned method like I do, eyeball it! Quarter-size balls work well.

Then shape into balls and place them on the cookie sheet. One tablespoon each should yield about 48 cake pop balls.

Melt the Candy Coating

Melt the candy melts in a small bowl following the package directions. We are only using white candy melts for the outside coating because we are going to make our Patriotic Cake Balls look fancy schmancy with the red and blue candy melts drizzled over them and a few fun sprinkles.

Decorating Process

Dip ball of cake in the white melted candy using a fork and roll it around the bowl to coat it evenly. Transfer the coated ball to your covered cookie sheet.

I like to place a cooling rack on the cookie sheet so any drips can fall onto the waxed paper underneath.

blue candy coating and sprinkles for cake pop balls

Melt about a half cup each of the blue and red candy melts. Then drizzle each onto your dried cake pop balls in a pattern of your choosing. Drizzle one color and then the other.

Now it is time to add the fun candy sprinkles. Do this quickly before the drizzled melt dries so the sprinkles will stick better.

4th of July cake balls served on a white platter

Serve your Patriotic Cake Balls for Memorial Day, Independence Day or any Patriotic celebration. You can even make these for game day if these are your team colors.

Be creative with the cake. You can use a vanilla cake, white cake mix, a red cake like red velvet, and even make a blue cake using a few drops of food coloring in the white batter.

Store your cake pops at room temperature in an airtight container for up to one week.

Red White and blue Cake Pops ready to eat

Tips for using Lollipop Sticks

While we are serving our Cake balls on a white platter, another fun way to serve these is to make them into Cake Pops on a stick.

Follow all of the same directions for these sweet treats except for using a fork to roll them in the icing. After you have formed the cake balls, dip the tip of each stick into the melted candy coating. This will help your cake pops not fall off the stick.

Then insert your lollipop stick into each about half way into the cake ball and place on the cookie sheet. Once you have added sticks to all of your cake balls, proceed with the rest of the decorating process.