Easy Birthday Cake Truffles (Vegan + Gluten Free!)
These deliciously rich and fun birthday cake truffles are so easy to make with just 3 ingredients! Bursting with sprinkles, these cake balls are also secretly and naturally vegan and dairy free with a gluten free option! Perfect for an easy birthday treat without the hassle of a cake!
What are cake truffles?
Cake truffles are essentially a mixture of crumbled up leftover cake and frosting. The mixture is then rolled into a ball and either coated in more frosting or left as is, like a typical truffle! Cake truffles are a really fun and easy way to use up any leftover cake scraps that you get from leveling cakes or when making cake cut outs for recipes, like mini cakes.
You can even make birthday cake truffles from scratch using a smaller cake recipe, like a cupcake recipe! These deliciously rich and decadent bites are also so customizable. Use whichever cake recipe you’d like, along with your favorite dairy free frosting. Add in sprinkles, nuts, chocolate chips, or even freeze dried fruit for a fun treat!
Easy 3 ingredient birthday cake bites you’ll LOVE
Now that you know what cake truffles are, let me explain why you’re just going to love these deliciously sweet and “fudgy” birthday cake truffles.
Not only are they just bursting with all of the beautiful rainbow colors, but these birthday cake truffles are so incredibly easy. You’ll just need 3 ingredients: cake crumbs, frosting, and sprinkles. That’s it!
The cake bite itself tastes like a classic birthday cake, and you’d never know it’s vegan (and gluten free as needed!). That’s right, the base of this birthday cake truffle actually uses my vegan vanilla cake recipe, which has gotten some of the best reviews on the blog. People have even claimed that it’s their favorite vanilla cake, vegan or not!
So rest assured, if this is your first time trying a vegan recipe, you won’t even know it’s eggless and dairy free! Another really cool part about this recipe is that you can either make your own frosting from scratch or you can use store bought (I feel like Ina Garten; ugh I love that woman!). I’ve tried this recipe with both my vegan vanilla buttercream and using the store bought Simple Mills version (a great vegan frosting option usually found in the baking section of Whole Foods or the healthy/gluten free aisle of other grocery stores).
Biting into these decadent and sweet cake bites is like biting into actual birthday cake- without the hassle of making a three layer birthday cake (although, if you’re not a new reader to the blog, then you KNOW I’m veery much about that three layer cake life).
How to make birthday cake truffles (and gluten free!)
Now let’s get to making these birthday cake truffles! As always, the full written instructions and ingredient measurements are found down below in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. However, we’re going to go over the steps here, along with giving visuals for a better understanding!
You’ll first need to decide if you’re using leftover cake scraps or you’re going to use a cupcake recipe from scratch. I always have some leftover cake from leveling off my cakes, so I just save the scraps that way for cake truffles. However, if you’re making these without making another recipe, I’d go with making a vegan cupcake recipe. Apparently, some cake box mixes are vegan, but I haven’t found a way to veganize them into a batter myself just yet.
If you’re making vegan cupcakes to transform into birthday cake balls, I recommend using this vegan vanilla cupcake batter or the funfetti cupcakes from my cookbook. OR you can also bake the mini cakes, and just not make the mini cakes if you don’t feel like it!
Once you have your cake scraps, you’ll use a fork or pastry cutter to mash the cake into crumbles. Stir in the frosting and the sprinkles, then chill the dough. This will help you scoop the dough into cake balls.
Use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop to scoop the dough into balls that you’ll roll between your palms to smooth. I then chill the dough again so that the melted frosting.
A note about melting frosting: I find that it’s actually easiest to melt the frosting via stove top rather than the microwave. The reason being is that it’s very easy to overcook the frosting, causing it to split and create a melty oily mess. This is not good! You can melted frosting so that it’s a pourable consistency, but it has to be slow and steady. If you’d prefer, you can just use vegan white chocolate that you melt. I recommend Pascha’s vegan white chocolate!
Once you’ve dipped the cake truffles into frosting, decorate them with more sprinkles and serve!
Vegan cake truffle variations
Like I mentioned up above, you can easily create different versions of these cake bites if you don’t just want birthday cake flavor.
Some other flavor combos include:
- Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting (or chocolate frosting! Double chocolate!)
- Oreo cake with vegan white chocolate
- Vanilla cake with salted caramel
- Vanilla cake with freeze dried strawberries and vegan white chocolate
- Chocolate or vanilla cake with cinnamon
- Chocolate cake with peppermint extract and dark chocolate coating
- Lemon cake with freeze dried raspberries
Can I turn these cake truffles into vegan cake pops?
Absolutely! If you’d like to make vegan cake pops instead of just cake balls, you can simply make the recipe as is. Then when you go to dip the cake truffles into the frosting or vegan white chocolate, use a lollipop/cake pop stick instead of a toothpick. You can find these lollipop sticks at your local Michael’s craft store or online.
Then you have completely vegan cake pops! So easy and perfect for kids!
Storing cake balls
These birthday cake truffles as easily stored in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 5-6 days. Alternatively, you can also freeze these cake truffles for up to 3 months!
You are just going to LOVE these super easy cake truffles. They’re the perfect treat for a no stress birthday celebration, and so easily customizable.
If you make these birthday cake truffles, be sure to leave a review and a comment down below ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find this recipe!
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!
Happy cake truffle making!
More vegan cake recipes you’ll love:
Vegan Brownie Cookie Dough Cake
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
Super Easy Birthday Cake Truffles (Vegan + Gluten Free!)
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These deliciously rich and fun birthday cake truffles are so easy to make with just 3 ingredients! Bursting with sprinkles, these cake balls are also secretly and naturally vegan and dairy free with a gluten free option! Perfect for an easy birthday treat without the hassle of a cake!
Ingredients
- 2 cups leftover vegan GF cake scraps from leveling a vanilla cake or making mini cakes
- 1 batch vegan vanilla buttercream OR 1 16-ounce canister Simple Mills Vegan Vanilla Frosting
- 1/2 cup vegan sprinkles, plus more for decoration*
Instructions
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, use a fork or a pastry cutter to mash the cake scraps into crumbs.
- Add in half of the frosting, and use a spoon to fold the frosting into the cake crumbs until they’re evenly distributed. Add in the sprinkles as well, and fold until they’re evenly distributed.
- Place the bowl into the freezer to chill for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, use a medium cookie scoop (about 1.5 tbsp) and scoop the dough into dough balls. Roll the dough between your palms to smooth into balls, then place the truffles onto the prepared pan.
- Repeat for the remaining dough. Then place the baking sheet into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
- After the truffles have set, melt the frosting slowly in a small saucepan over the stove on medium-low heat, just until pourable. Anymore, and the frosting will split, leaving you with an oily mess. You can also use a vegan white chocolate if you’d prefer. Once the frosting is melted, remove from heat.
- Use a toothpick to stick into a cake truffle. Roll the cake truffle in the melted frosting, and place back onto the parchment paper. Top with sprinkles, and repeat for the remaining truffles, or leave some as is.
- Allow the frosting to set for 10 minutes (you can speed it up by placing them in the fridge). Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Vegan Sprinkles: I used Sweetapolita’s vegan Birthday Cake sprinkles here.
If you’d like to use vegan white chocolate as the outer coating: I recommend Pascha Organics’ vegan white chocolate. They’re AMAZING!
