Chocolate Cake Truffles Recipe

Treat yourself to some decadent chocolate cake truffles. Best of all, they’re easy & quick to whip up on a moment’s notice! 

• Cake truffles are a quick and easy way to make a decadent dessert that look and taste just as rich as the real thing.
• Make your cake truffles double chocolatey by adding in chocolate chips to your batter.
• Pair these cake truffles with a light roast coffee boasting of a lighter body, medium acidity, and medium sweetness. 

Homemade chocolate truffles may seem daunting, but they don’t have to be. This easy chocolate cake truffle recipe tastes just as rich and delicious as true chocolate truffles, and it takes way less work.

The best part of all is that your friends and family will have no idea that this dessert took hardly no time at all. Read on to takeaway a few of my baking secrets for the best chocolate cake truffles.

Make these easy chocolate cake truffles for your best gal pals or your sweetie pie on Valentine’s Day.

If you’re still searching for an easy (but equally special & delicious) Valentine’s Day dessert, these chocolate cake truffles are your saving grace. They’re a great way to trick your loved ones into believing you spent a lot more time baking and prepping than you actually did — it’s a win-win.

For the perfect coffee pairing to serve with these chocolate cake truffles, you’ll be sure to want to scroll down to the last point for details.

Vanilla cake mix trumps chocolate cake mix for this recipe.

For this recipe in particular, I like to use a vanilla cake mix (even though these are chocolate cake truffles) because I think the vanilla is much more flavorful than chocolate cake mix.

Don’t worry the truffles will still taste chocolatey. You’re going to be adding chocolate frosting to the crumbled cake, which will bring out that chocolate flavor.

Add vanilla extract before baking and chocolate chips after baking your cake.

One of the baking secrets I’ve learned as a freelance food journalist is to always add more vanilla extract. Professional pastry chefs have told me numerous times to add extra vanilla to punch up the flavors in your baked goods.

It also gives you a more natural vanilla taste compared to the vanilla flavoring that is likely already in your boxed cake mix. I love to do this trick anytime I bake, so doing it for this truffle recipe was a no-brainer.

The time to add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract is to right before pouring your cake batter into your cake pan. As for the chocolate chips, I recommend adding those in after you’ve crumbled the cake. You can simple stir the chocolate chips into the crumbled mixture.

Make your own chocolate frosting (recipe included here!).

Of course I’m going to recommend making your own chocolate frosting if you have the time and ingredients on hand. My go-to chocolate frosting calls for 1 cup of powdered sugar, ¼ cup of cocoa powder, 3 tbsp of butter (room temperature), 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tbsp coffee.

To make the frosting, combine all of the ingredients. If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved.

Place the rounded cake balls in the fridge for at least an hour prior to adding the white chocolate.

After you’ve shaped your cake/frosting dough into 1-inch balls, stick them onto your prepared tray and into the fridge for at least an hour. Allowing them to chill will make it so much easier to dip and drizzle with white chocolate in the following steps.

If you don’t have that chilling period, your dough balls may fall apart when you dunk them in the white chocolate. This may leave you with cake crumbs in the white chocolate, which looks kind of sloppy.

Use a tablespoon and a small bowl to dunk your dough balls into the white chocolate.

When your cake balls have reached the one-hour mark in the fridge, go ahead and melt your white chocolate either in the microwave or in a double boiler.

Place the white chocolate in a small bowl. The reason I suggest using a small bowl is because the 1-cup of white chocolate will fill up most of the bowl, allowing you to dunk your truffles entirely into the white chocolate. Immediately add your sprinkles after dunking, so they will stick to the melted white chocolate.

You want this full immersion so your cake truffles are fully covered in white chocolate unless you’re drizzling…

Drizzle with white chocolate and gold sprinkles to make your chocolate cake truffles look extra decadent.

If you prefer the drizzled look, keep your cake dough balls on the parchment paper after taking them out of the refrigerator. Scoop some white chocolate onto your tablespoon and drizzle it from one side of the tray to the other quickly to get that natural drizzle aesthetic.

Top with gold sprinkles to make them look extra decadent and/or add pink sprinkles for a Valentine’s Day dessert.

Pair these chocolate cake truffles with a light roast coffee boasting of a lighter body, medium acidity, and medium sweetness. 

The ideal coffee pairing for these chocolate cake truffles is a light roast coffee boasting of a lighter body, medium acidity, and medium sweetness. The reason I went with a lighter roast is to help balance out the deep flavors of the truffles. The lighter body also helps to lighten the overall load of this pairing.

This coffee choice was specifically inspired by Passenger’s Montecarlos Coffee. It has tasting notes of clementine, cocoa, and toasted nuts, and it worked beautifully as espresso. I can’t wait to buy more of this one!

Chocolate Cake Truffles Recipe