Red Velvet Cake Bites

So... what's the big deal with red velvet? It's good. Real good. Especially when you make it into cake bite balls.
Most people think that to make red velvet cake, you get a boxed chocolate cake mix, add some red dye, and voila!
WRONG!
That... is just chocolate cake with red dye in it.
THIS is how you make red velvet:

1/2 c. Shortening
1 1/2 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Salt
2 1/2 c. Sifted flour
1 c. Buttermilk
3 tbsp. Red food coloring
2 tbsp. Unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°

Lightly grease and flour two 9" cake pans and set aside

In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs until light and fluffy. Add salt.

Beat in flour alternately with buttermilk.

Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add to batter and beat well.

Mix vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar in small bowl. (yes, it does bubble like when we were kids trying to make a volcano, no, it won't overflow and make a giant mess) Sprinkle over batter, and stir in.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 mins, turn out on to wire rack and allow to cool completely.

And, it should look something like this:

After it's cooled off, you need to crumble it into bits.

To make the cake stick together in ball shapes, you need to mix icing into the cake crumble. You can use a store bought icing if you want, or make your own cream cheese icing:

1/4 c. Cream Cheese
1/4 c. Butter (or margarine)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1-1/2 c. Icing Sugar

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter; beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar in two additions.

The icing is enough to mix together with one cake. If you want to use both... obviously... double the icing recipe.

Roll the cake/icing mixture into 1" balls and put them onto a cookie tray.

Put the tray into the freezer for about 10 minutes to allow the balls to set. That way they won't fall apart when you dip them into the chocolate.

While you are waiting for them to set, melt some chocolate candy melts in the microwave in a small bowl.  You can get the candy melts in any bulk section, or at any Michael's store.

Dip the balls into chocolate, tap off excess, and let set.

or

when you are melting your chocolate, put it in a small ziploc bag instead of a bowl. Trim off a small piece of one of the corners so the chocolate can flow out. Pipe the chocolate into candy cups (about 1/2 full) press ball down into chocolate until it reaches the top of the cup. Allow to set. Dip the top of the cups into chocolate, or drizzle using the piping bag.

It should look something like this: