Vegan Chocolate Peppermint Cake Truffles

These vegan chocolate peppermint cake truffles are the perfect holiday treat. They are made with delicious chocolate cake, peppermint extract, and vegan cream cheese frosting and are super simple to put together! Share these with loved ones, friends, or just save them all for yourself!  

What more could you want for the holidays than chocolate and peppermint combined? I swear chocolate plus peppermint is one of my favorite flavor combinations especially this time of year. We are officially two days from Christmas and I am SO excited. We are supposed to have a white Christmas this year in Ohio, which will be our first one in a few years.

I absolutely love the snow. I know that there are a lot of people who wouldn’t agree with me, but I would much rather have a snowy winter than just a cold, dreary one. Also, I love getting all the seasons. I love it when it’s warm in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter. Here in Ohio, every year it seems like we get less and less snow. So I am SO excited to be getting snow just in time for Christmas.

I know that Christmas is going to look a little different this year, but trying to make the most of it with the people we are able to spend it with is what’s most important. I thought Thanksgiving was going to be really hard this year with not doing a big celebration, but it actually was really nice spending it in my quarantine bubble with my immediate family. It was just my mom, my dad, my sister, and me and it was great.

Even though this pandemic has been really hard and really challenging (and I don’t want to discredit all of the pain, sadness, trauma, and despair that has come from it), I’ve been trying to see the positives that have come from this. I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot more time with my family, as I decided to quarantine at home with my parents when the pandemic first hit. There have also been a ton of hardships this year and it’s been one of the most challenging years. However, finding the positives during a time that has been filled with so much sadness and hardship has been one of the ways that I have tried to get through it.

So I hope to bring a little bit of joy into your life with these delicious vegan chocolate peppermint truffles. They are super easy to make, delicious, and the perfect Christmas-y treat!

What You’ll Need to Make Vegan Chocolate Peppermint Cake Truffles:

• Chocolate Boxed Cake Mix – For this recipe, I used a traditional, fudgy chocolate boxed cake mix. You could also use Red Velvet or make your own homemade cake from scratch!
• Vegan Frosting – I used the Pillsbury Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s actually vegan (not on purpose) and you can find it for pretty cheap at most grocery stores! I like using a cream cheese frosting as it gives more flavor, but you can use any frosting that you would like.
• Peppermint Extract – make sure it’s extract and not oil. If you use oil, you need 1/4 of the amount as it is much more concentrated.
• Vegan White and dark Chocolate – I like using Nestle’s Allergen-free chocolate! Lilly’s chocolate is also a great vegan brand!
• Vegetable Oil – you’ll need this for the cake mix. I just used olive oil but any standard vegetable oil would work. Don’t use coconut oil.
• Ground Flaxseed – you’ll need this for the cake mix as well as an egg substitute. For one egg, you’ll mix 1 tbsp ground flaxseed with 3 tbsp water. Most cake boxes call for three eggs, so you would need 3 tbsp flax seed plus 9 tbsp water. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes before using it in the recipe.

How to Make Vegan Chocolate Peppermint CakeTruffles:

So in reality these truffles are basically cake pop balls, without the stick. So just cake balls. But truffles sound so much better than cake balls so we’re calling them cake truffles instead. You with me? Ok great.

First, you’ll want to preheat your oven to 350 F. Then follow the instructions on the back of the cake mix box to make the cake. Substitute the eggs for flax eggs to make this vegan!

Pour the cake mixture into a greased pan and bake for 40-50 minutes in the oven. Your kitchen is going to smell of chocolate-y goodness at this point! Which I mean is truly the best kitchen smell in my opinion.

Check your cake by sticking a knife, fork, or toothpick in the middle and if it comes back clean then you are good to go! Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely.

In a large bowl, crumble up the cake. The cake should be super crumbly, not mushy or doughy. Then add in 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract and 1 cup of the frosting and mix well until a dough forms. Then roll the dough into balls and set in the fridge for an hour.

Melt the white chocolate and regular chocolate. Dip the cake balls into the chocolate and set on a tray with parchment paper. Top with some crushed candy canes and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour.

I hope you guys love these truffles as much as I do!! These are the perfect sweet treat to share with your loved ones and quarantine group. They also are the perfect pick me up treat for the cold months.

Also, these truffles are super versatile and can be made without the peppermint if you would prefer or if you want to enjoy them year-round.

If you liked this recipe, try these ones next:

Banana Chocolate Chip Omega-3 Bites

Fudgy Vegan Chickpea Brownies

Vegan Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies