Heart-Healthy Valentine's Day Treats for the Whole Family

It's almost Valentine's Day and we've got an interesting and slightly healthier twist on red velvet cake, or rather,  cake balls.

These are so easy and fun to make!  They make great party snacks and if you have children, they will  have a blast decorating the tops.

What you need...

Cake:

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

8 1/4oz.  sliced beets

1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

¼ cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Frosting:

8 oz 1/3 fat cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:

2 16 oz. bags of white, dark, semi or milk chocolate

Red frosting

Heart candies

*Makes at least 24 cake balls

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a food processor or blender add the can of beets, water included, into the machine. Process 2 – 4 minutes until smooth. Add in oil, lemon juice, and vanilla, and pulse to combine
4. Pour the beet mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, and mix. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake for 18 – 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before next crumbling step.
5. Once cake is completely cooled, crumble it as you would if you were making breadcrumbs. Using a large bowl to capture the crumbs break the entire cake up. It will look like hamburger meat- beware!
6.  Set aside

Frosting:

1. Beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth- I highly suggest using a sifter to sift powdered sugar gradually into cream cheese- less lumpy!

Forming the balls:

1. Add the frosting to the cake mix. Enough so that the cake sticks together. Using your hands mix the frosting and cake together.
2. Using an ice cream scooper (a small one that’s only about 1”- 1 ½” wide) to form  balls (make sure to pack the cake in so that the back side is flat. Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Once all of your cake mix has been used, place cake balls in the freezer (or outside in this weather!) for 1 hour.
3. Remove from freezer and melt preferred chocolate in microwave or double boiler until melted. *White chocolate burns easily, I highly suggest only microwaving at 30 second intervals.*
4. Using a spoon you can either ladle the chocolate on top of the balls on the parchment paper, or you can place the ball on a fork over the bowl of chocolate and spoon it on top that way. Once completed place in freezer again for about 10 minutes.
5. Using frosting make a dot on top and add a heart shaped valentine!

**Super easy cake balls?

 Use the same steps but use a pre-made red velvet cake mix and frosting. For a healthier version, instead of using oil or butter in the cake mix use applesauce. Instead of eggs use flax seeds with a splash of water.