White Chocolate Spice Cake Candies
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White Chocolate Spice Cake Candies are an easy, no-bake dessert that starts with a boxed cake mix. Fudge-like and bite-size, these would make an impressive addition to your cookie tray this baking season.
These White Chocolate Spice Cake Candies were a mistake. I’m hoping that you don’t think they look like a mistake. In the end, I was happy with the way these pecan-topped, white chocolate covered bites of spice turned out. But I thought these were going in the trash can about 5 minutes into making them.
Have you ever made a mistake and when all was said and done, your “mistake” ended up being a new discovery or a blessing in disguise? This happens often, whether it’s a breathtaking view that you would never have witnessed if you hadn’t made a wrong turn, a close friendship that formed after going somewhere that you had no intention of going, or indulging in a delightful dinner or dessert after completely messing up a recipe?
We make mistakes often in normal life, but being recipe developers and testers, we make recipe “mistakes” all the time. There’s some days when I feel like Maddie and I should just close up the kitchen and not return for a week. It’s hard to ruin a recipe. Ingredients that weren’t cheap to buy get tossed, that “perfect-recipe-that-would-grab-everyone’s-attention” sticks to the pan, doesn’t cook through or tastes amazing, but just doesn’t look appetizing. Yes, we’ve been there.
Sometimes mistakes turn out for the best. Our peanut butter frosting that we use on cakes, cupcakes and brownies would never have been discovered had we not completely ruined a dessert we were making for company. We needed a quick, last-minute recipe and found that peanut butter frosting that is about the best.thing.ever.
Cake Mix Fudge
This white chocolate coated candy started out as a simple cake mix fudge recipe. I found the recipe in an old church cookbook and decided that since Maddie and I still have not perfected fudge making (you guessed it…more tears over delicious ingredients being trashed), that a 5 minute cake mix fudge might be the way to go. The “fudge” recipe turned out good, but I wouldn’t exactly call it “fudge” in the way that we like our fudge, which is rich and creamy. But after taste-testing, and having the guys (their opinion counts the most!) taste-test, we knew the taste was good and started brainstorming exactly what we could do to make these sweet bites of no-bake spice cake look as good as it tasted.
We had just developed our pumpkin white chocolate chip cookie and I loved the way the fall spice flavor paired with the white chocolate chips. And since everything is better dipped in chocolate, I got a double boiler going and melted some white chocolate.
While the chocolate was melting, I froze the spice cake mixture that I had pressed in an 8×8 pan lined with parchment paper. They sat in the freezer about 20 minutes which made them just the right temperature for slicing into 1″ squares and easily dipping in white chocolate. I knew adding a pecan to the top would not only add a little crunch to these sweet bites, but also make them look so pretty.
The guys tested them. They fell in love. We shared them with friends. Friends raved. White Chocolate Spice Cake Candies disappeared immediately. Mistake turned happy. End of story.
These would make such an impressive addition to your cookie tray or a lovely gift this upcoming holiday season!
White Chocolate Spice Cake Candies
White Chocolate Spice Cake Candies are an easy, no-bake dessert that starts with a boxed cake mix. Fudge-like and bite-size, these would make an impressive addition to your cookie tray this baking season.
Servings 64
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix 16.5 oz.
- 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
- 9 tablespoons butter , softened
- 1/2 cup milk
- 12 ounces Ghiradelli white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon shortening to thin chocolate
- 64 pecan halves
Instructions
- In a medium-size bowl, mix together the cake mix and powdered sugar. Add the softened butter and milk. Mix well until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet. The batter will be very thick.
- Line an 8×8 pan with wax paper or parchment paper. Press the spice cake mixture into the bottom of the pan. Freeze for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, use a double boiler to melt white chocolate. Add in a small (1-inch) chunk of paraffin wax or a tablespoon of shortening to thin the white chocolate, if desired. We like to do this so that the white chocolate coats the candies smoothly and easily without being too thick.
- Once the white chocolate is melted, remove the spice cake candy from the freezer. Pull up on the sides of the paper to remove the candy from the pan. Using a large knife, cut the candy into 64 1-inch squares.
- Use a toothpick and stab one square at a time, dipping it fully in white chocolate. Allow the chocolate to drip off, dab the bottom of the candy on a piece of wax paper, then place it on another piece of wax paper. This prevents the chocolate from pooling around the bottom of the candy and keeps it looking nice. Immediately and gently, twist the toothpick to loosen it and pull it out of the candy. Place a pecan on top of the chocolate covered candy. Do this immediately as the chocolate will harden quickly.
- Continue until all of the candies have been covered. Allow the chocolate to set. You can place them in the refrigerator if you’d like to speed up the process. Be careful placing them in the freezer to harden. The candies may expand and break the chocolate.
- Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Calories: 107kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 72mg | Potassium: 51mg | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 55IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 0.4mg
These look beautiful and I am sure they are delicious, but a no bake dessert that has milk in it should be stored in a refrigerator.
These sound heavenly, and so different from anything else I make for the holidays! I will have to add this to my recipe box!
WOW! I love these. Have you thought about other cake mixes?? What possibilities!!
Wow!! Good thing these are bite-sized! 🙂 I love when mistakes have a happy ending! Pinned and sharing on FB!
Hooray for sweet mistakes! These look amazing, ladies!
These are truly amazing and a show stopper! They look perfect!
Those accidents look incredibly delicious Julie! No one would have ever guessed. 🙂
Holy cow, these are absolutely gorgeous! I love that they are the perfect bite-sized piece 🙂
Delicious white chocolate bars. I can eat it right now!