Vanilla Bean Cake:

Preheat oven to 360° F / 180° C.

Spray a 9 inch / 23 centimeter round cake tin with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the tin with a disc of parchment, and set aside until ready to use.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs and sugar and whip on medium-high speed until fluffy and well combined. Add milk and canola oil and continue whipping until creamy.

Stir vanilla bean paste into the wet mixture, followed by green gel food coloring.

With a rubber spatula, fold the dry mixture into the wet ingredients. Adjust the amount of food coloring, if desired.

Drizzle the melted butter over the batter, and fold with spatula until just combined.

Pour cake batter into prepared tin, and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Transfer cake tin to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. While cake cools, prepare the peppermint buttercream.

Peppermint Buttercream:

Add softened butter to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, about two minutes.

Gradually mix confectioner’s sugar into the butter, combining well after each addition.

Beat in 1-2 tablespoons milk or half and half (just enough to smooth the frosting, but not enough to make it too thin**), followed by peppermint oil and gel food coloring. Taste your buttercream and adjust the flavoring accordingly.

Assembly:

Line a large metal tray with baking parchment, and set aside until ready to use.

Turn cooled cake out onto a wire rack. Remove parchment and transfer the cake to a large mixing bowl.

Using your hands, crumble the cake until there are no large pieces. (If there are some brown bits around the edges of the cake, I recommend removing these to avoid seeing specks of brown in your finished cake balls.)

Scoop buttercream frosting into the bowl of crumbled cake, and use your hands to mix together until well combined.

Using a kitchen scale, scale the cake mixture into 40-gram balls. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, you can eyeball the measurement. Each should be roughly the size of a golf ball.

Place cake balls on parchment-lined tray, and transfer to the freezer. Freeze for at least 15 minutes, or until ready to enrobe.

Temper white chocolate via your preferred method. (If you do not want to temper chocolate or are not familiar with the process, see my workarounds above.)

Remove cake balls from the freezer and, working quickly, enrobe completely in tempered chocolate.  (An enrobing fork can make the process easier!) Transfer to parchment-lined tray and decorate with sprinkles or a drizzle of chocolate.

Store cake balls in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.