Serves 8
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Chilling time: 2-3 hours
Ingredients
285g pack Madeira cake
100g (4oz) cream cheese
½ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
100g (4oz) strawberries, hulled
250g (9oz) good quality white chocolate, broken into pieces
6 tablespoons desiccated coconut or grated white chocolate
100g (4oz) white ready to roll icing
18 pink mini marshmallows
18 mini red sugar coated sweets (mini Smarties)
36 mini blue edible sugar balls
Method
1. Thinly trim the dark brown edges from the Madeira cake then make into crumbs by cutting into pieces and blitzing in a food processor or liquidiser or by crumbling into tiny pieces with fingertips.
2. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Finely chop the strawberries and add to the cream cheese with the cake crumbs. Mix together.
3. Divide the cake mixture into 18 even sized mounds and roll into balls. Put on to a baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes.
4. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, making sure that the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl, for about five minutes. Stir the chocolate until smooth and take the bowl off the heat.
5. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper. Spear one of the cake balls on a fork then either swirl into the melted chocolate to coat or, using a teaspoon, spoon a little melted chocolate over the cake ball as it is held over the bowl, allowing the excess chocolate to drip off. Transfer the coated cake ball to the baking sheet and sprinkle half the ball with a little coconut or grated chocolate ‘fur’.
6. Continue coating the remaining cake balls in chocolate and sprinkling with coconut or grated chocolate until they are all done.
To make the ears, cut the mini marshmallows in half and break off tiny pieces of white icing. Roll into balls and press into ovals a little larger than the marshmallows with fingertips dusted with icing sugar. Press the icing around a marshmallow and pinch the top into an ear shape. Press two on to each cake ball. Add eyes and noses with sweets. Chill in the fridge for one hour until set, then arrange in paper cake cases. Eat within two days of making.