BB-8 Cake Balls

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Prepare and bake the cake mix according to the directions of the package for a 9x13 cake. Once baked, allow the cake to cool completely.

Crumble the cake into a large bowl and work it with your hands until it is in small pieces.

Spoon three-quarters of the frosting into the bowl and stir with a rubber spatula (or your clean hands!) until the mixture is well-combined. It should be very moist and hold together if you squeeze a ball of cake between your fingers, but not too wet or greasy. If the cake mixture is still a bit dry, add more frosting to get it to the desired consistency—the exact amount you need will depend on the texture of the cake you started with.

Lay out 20 discs of candy coating onto the baking sheet. Use a teaspoon to scoop a small ball of cake onto the top of each one and press it down so it forms a half-sphere. This will be the head of the robot. (Using the candy disc as a base is optional, but it makes it easier to dip these half-spheres later.)

Scoop the remaining cake into 20 larger balls, about 1 1/2-inches wide. Roll them between your palms until they're round and refrigerate them until they're firm, at least one to two hours.

When the cake balls are firm enough to dip, place the white candy coating in a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave it until melted, stirring after every 45 seconds to prevent overheating.

Using dipping tools or a fork, take one of the heads and submerge it into the melted candy coating. Remove it from the coating and drag the bottom across the lip of the bowl to remove excess coating. Replace the dipped candy on the baking sheet and repeat until all of the heads have been dipped. Refrigerate the tray until the coating on the heads is set, for about 15 minutes.

Re-warm the coating if necessary and dip one of the larger cake truffles (the body). Place it back on the baking sheet and, while the coating is still wet, put one of the heads on top. Repeat until all of the bodies are dipped and have heads affixed. Refrigerate the tray again to set the coating.

Now all that's left to do is decorate! Melt the orange, black, and red candy coatings separately. In a separate bowl, mix some of the black with some leftover white coating to make gray. Transfer the black, gray, orange, and red coatings to paper cones or plastic bags with holes snipped in the corner. (The plastic bag method will work, but you'll get much more precision—and have an easier time—if you use a cone or a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.)

Pipe the decorations on the BB-8s: black circles on the head, a red accent, and orange and gray designs. Use reference photos to help you come up with a decoration scheme. If the coating starts to harden in the paper cones before you're done, re-warm it in 10-second intervals in the microwave just until it's workable.

Once decorated, refrigerate the tray to set the cake truffles completely. BB-8 Cake Balls can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.