Snowball Cake

Snowball Cake

The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 30 mins
Total: 60 mins
Servings: 12 slices
Yield: 1 cake

If you have fond memories of the snowball snack cakes in your school lunch box, you will love this nostalgic treat. The classic treats are individual cream-filled chocolate cakes covered with frosting and a blanket of coconut. This recipe has all the same flavors but is baked in a savarin mold or Bundt pan.

A chocolate cake mix and dressed-up marshmallow crème filling make this impressive dessert surprisingly easy to make. Upon cutting a slice of snowball cake, the cream-filled center is revealed. Keeping up with the wintry theme, the cake is decorated with an epic pile of coconut-covered doughnut holes or cake balls.

Serve at a wintry party or birthday, holiday dinner, or New Year's gathering. The kitchen will feel like a winter wonderland when you whip up a snowball cake for dessert.

Ingredients

For the Cake:

  • 1 (15 1/4-ounce) box chocolate cake mix

  • 1 cup water

  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil

  • 3 large eggs

For the Frosting:

  • 1 pound confectioners' sugar

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

  • 3 tablespoons milk

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Filling:

  • 1 cup marshmallow crème

  • 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

  • 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

For the Topping and Decoration:

  • 2 cups shredded coconut

  • 12 coconut-coated doughnut holes, or cake balls

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 12-cup savarin mold or Bundt pan and set aside.

    Snowball Cake ingredients

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the chocolate cake mix, water, vegetable oil, and eggs until moistened. Scrape down the sides and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.

    Chocolate cake ingredients in a mixing bowl

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

    Snowball Cake

    Kristina Vanni/Eric Kleinberg

  4. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely before filling and frosting.

    Chocolate cake on a cooling rack

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  5. To make the frosting, combine the powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Set aside while preparing the filling.

    Frosting ingredients in a bowl

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  6. For the cream filling, combine the marshmallow crème, powdered sugar, butter, and heavy cream in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and well combined.

    Cream filling ingredients in a bowl

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  7. Transfer the marshmallow cream filling mixture to a piping bag fitted with a long thin round tip.

  8. Make 12 evenly-spaced holes in the bottom of the cake using a skewer, pressing only halfway down into the cake and wiggling the skewer slightly to widen the holes until they are each about 1-inch wide.

  9. Flip the cake so it is flat-side up. Insert the piping tip in each of the holes and pipe in some marshmallow mixture until it starts to ooze out the top of the hole.

    Cake with skewer and piping bag fill of marshmallow cream

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  10. Flip the cake flat-side down onto a cake stand or serving platter. Spread the prepared frosting all over the surface of the cake.

    Snowball Cake being frosted with a knife

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  11. Cover the surface of the cake with the shredded coconut.

    Snowball Cake covered in coconut flakes

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

  12. To serve, fill in the hole with a pile of doughnut holes or cake balls. Enjoy.

    Snowball Cake on a plate

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

How to Store

Store leftover snowball cake tightly wrapped at room temperature for up to a day. For longer storage or if your kitchen is warm, store in the fridge for up to three days.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
651 Calories
31g Fat
92g Carbs
5g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories 651
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 31g 40%
Saturated Fat 15g 77%
Cholesterol 88mg 29%
Sodium 391mg 17%
Total Carbohydrate 92g 34%
Dietary Fiber 3g 9%
Total Sugars 69g
Protein 5g
Vitamin C 0mg 1%
Calcium 82mg 6%
Iron 2mg 10%
Potassium 217mg 5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)