Surprise Inside Cake - Hidden Polka Dots from Bake Pop Pan

UPDATE:

Find the tutorial on how to make an Ice Cream Cake with surprise inside polka dots as seen on KUTV Channel 2 here.

Will putting polka dots inside a cake work? How does one do that? I conducted a little experiment to find out.

          

Perhaps you've seen these in the store lately and walked right by them. Like I did. Countless times.

          

I kept asking myself, "Why in the world would I possibly need that when I can roll a perfectly round cake ball with my own two hands?" And then one night I had this great idea for an experiment. (I always call them great ideas until they fail miserably.) How about using them to put polka dots inside a cake? Rather large polka dots. But polka dots all the same.

After researching cake ball pans a bit, I settled on this brand. Mostly because makes 18 balls at once and my coupons at Bed Bath and Beyond were begging to be used. With tax and coupon, final cost was just over $16.

          

I started with a white cake mix and made some of the adjustments recommended in the instruction guide that came with the bake pop pan. After dividing the batter in half, I further divided half of the batter evenly between 6 bowls for tinting. The colors I used were AmeriColor soft gel pastes in 113 orange, 107 lemon yellow, 164 electric pink, 162 electric green, 103 sky blue, and a mix of 130 regal purple/165 electric purple. I used about 1/2 t. of each so that the colors would remain vivid after baking.

          

You can see the bright colors in the vents peeking through after the clamps were put on. The instruction guide suggests baking at 350F for 25-30 minutes but that sounded WAY too long. My goal was to slightly under bake them so that they wouldn't dry out too much during the second bake time. They were done at 13 minutes in my oven.

          

The instruction guide also suggests spraying some non-stick baking spray with flour on the outside of the vents. I failed to take their advice. I was sure that only filling them to the rim wouldn't cause eruptions. But I was WRONG. Mini volcanoes!

          

One of the happiest surprises of the day was that the volcanoes were more like little caps that popped off almost by themselves leaving the insides intact.

          

The mess on the outside was minimal after removing the tops with no damage to the balls.

                 

The pans are non-stick but do require a baking spray with flour to help the balls bake evenly. Clean up was fairly easy.

          

After some quality control and taste testing of the volcanoes, the experiment resumed.

          

I also ended up trimming the tiniest bit off the tops to make them rounder.
We'll see if that mattered later on.

          

                                                The scraps.

          

After adding just enough batter to cover the bottom of my prepared pans, the cake balls were placed inside. My original plan was to freeze the balls before this step but I skipped it so they were room temp when they went in the pans.

          

The remaining batter was scooped over each ball to cover. And into the oven they went. Looking rather more like dinner rolls than cake. I didn't tap the pans or even the batter out  for fear of uncovering the balls.

          

I ended up using 2 white cake mixes for 3 six-inch rounds. Long story. After trying to capture the steps on the camera, the half batch of batter that I'd hoped to use to cover the balls was getting weird. It had just set out too long. I baked it up in a small oval pan as a decoy for my husband to keep him away from the real project. Never a task for the faint of heart.

For the cake balls, I used the cake mix and pudding along with the substitution of milk for the water per the instruction guide. I did not decrease the liquid as suggested or increase the eggs but went instead with the amounts on the cake mix box.

Since I'd used whole eggs for the cake balls, the remaining half batch of batter had a yellow tinge. And there wasn't enough of it to cover the balls. Yet another reason to use a second cake mix.

The second mix was mixed using the egg white method and ingredients listed on the box except for about a teaspoon of almond extract. Force of habit. So I had a nice white batter to contrast with the bright colors.

The filled six-inch rounds baked about 30 to 35 minutes or until they pulled from the sides of the pan and sprang back when touched lightly. I didn't use the toothpick method for fear of stabbing a colored ball or hopefully soon-to-be-polka-dot since the balls were already cooked and not a true gauge of doneness.

          

Waiting for them to cool and frost was like waiting for my water to break with my first born. Okay. Maybe not quite that dramatic. But the anticipation was palpable in my kitchen. I know, I know. Get a life.

You can see some of the color coming through in spots. Never wanted to take a knife to a cake more badly in my life. But I waited.

Off to the freezer to chill out and wait until the next day for a crumb coat and slathering of white frosting.

     

The question mark seemed like a perfect accent to this cake since I still had no clue if this would work.

And then the giant cut to remove all doubt . . .

It actually worked!!! Hooray!

  

The first slice left this design. Not all dots showing but they're in there somewhere.

  

After cutting the second large piece, all but one color magically appeared. Perhaps placing one more ball in the pan would've produced a more even pattern. Next time.

Here's another great surprise about these types of cakes: the colored balls stayed as moist as the rest of the cake even though they were completely baked before hand!!! You'll want to try it yourself just to see but as long as you don't overcook the balls in the first bake, your cake will be moist all the way through. Gotta love science!

You can find a shorter version of the tutorial with the recipes HERE.

Mine is not the first attempt to hide patterns inside cakes. Hidden checkerboard designs have been around for centuries. The very first Battenburg or checkerboard cake was said to have been made in 1884 to celebrate the marriage Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Victoria to Prince Louis of Battenburg.

I can't wait to try more shapes and patterns! The next experiments will be to try smaller balls of different sizes for more of a confetti look. And squares. And . . .

I'll keep ya posted!

Note: This cake design is copyright protected so if you plan to use it for your own tutorial, video or other purpose, you must link back to this blog and give proper credit. No commercial use is allowed.

  

Want to see more of my hidden or twice baked cakes?

More Hidden Polka Dots or what happens with cone shapes . . .

Twice Baked Cake or More Hidden Polka Dots or what happens with a mini donut pan and a straw . . .

Squares or my attempt at stained glass for a cathedral window look.

Hidden Mini Polka Dots in Pumpkin

Hidden Mickey Mouse

Hidden Bunnies

Hidden Giraffe Pattern

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet regards,

Deborah

Snow Cone Cupcakes

Now that summer is almost here, I thought you might like to see some frosty treats.

Well, sort of frosty.  Frosting looking at least.

The ice is a combo of sugar crystals and crushed rock candy.

Which is a lot. Of. Sugar.

But the colors are so pretty!

I'd also planned to perfect the insides before sharing

them with you by using the Jello poke cake method.

Thought this would give them a more authentic look

while adding in some fun snow cone flavors. Like rainbow. 

But one of my baking heroes has come up with an easier way.

Bakerella. She's a genius.

These are her multi-colored snow cones.

You can see how she made them here.

If you'd like to try my version, I used cone shaped Solo drinking cups and supported them

with clean empty V-8 juice cans while they baked.
Empty soup cans also work depending on the size of cone cup you use.


UPDATE: DO NOT USE V-8 CANS IN THE OVEN!
It had been so long since I'd made these that I'd forgotten what happened last time. The coating and colors are used for the labeling started to smoke a tiny bit while baking. Probably not food safe to say the least. Please make sure whatever can you are using doesn't have a plastic coating inside or out.
I plan to try the chrome version of wire holders like those shown below the next time. The coated version might also melt or smoke in the oven so please don't use it. Not sure if Wilton's King Sized Muffin pan is tall enough but I may have to look at that option as well.


The chrome wire holders were sold as egg cups but I wasn't the only one who saw their potential.

Some clever person came up with a coated version in all sorts of fun colors.

These can be found with the snow cone supplies at discount and kitchen stores.

And yeah. I bought some. Couldn't resist.

You can find all sorts of designs on snow cone cups these days

but if you don't want to spend a fortune on them, try good old   cone shaped water drinking cups.

The kind sold for use on those big orange coolers.

Much better buy. About 200 for around $4 - $5. Plus they come in a variety of sizes.

So start saving those empty cans and pull out the flip flops!

It's TIME!

Time in a Bottle Cake

I was lucky enough to be able to surprise my dear friend for her birthday this week. And I got to make her cake. Sort of.

I really wanted to. But while planning out the design, I just couldn't figure out how to actually bake it myself and get it there when the party was to be held several states and an airplane ride away. Timing just didn't allow it. So I asked our friends, The Cake Mamas to help. They were happy to be included in the fun and asked that their involvement be their special gift, just from them. And what a generous and lovely gift it was. Now that they're even more FAMOUS,
(they WON $10K on Food Network's Cupcake Wars recently) I wasn't sure they'd have time.

But they made time.

Thank you Fab and Janelle for making the day so special!

Different views

I must've changed the design about 12 thousand times while tweaking out the details. I even tried a version of all chocolate tiers. It wasn't easy for me to put the image in my head to paper. I could almost touch the feeling I wanted it to have.

But conveying that to others was another story.

Thank you Jessica for talking me down off the ledge a few times during the process.

The most important elements of the cake were that it be personal, unique and a grand showpiece in her honor. Family and friends are her life and she loves taking lots and LOTS of photos of them to capture the moment. So I wanted her love of these things to be reflected in her cake. She has lovingly crafted an endless number of beautiful cakes for her family members and their special occasions over the years so I made sure to include photos of all that I could get my hands on to include with the other photos that would go in the bottles and around the room. Thanks to her husband, son, daughter, best friend and sister-in-law for making sure there were plenty of warm memories in photos.

My friend also loves colors so the jewel tones were a must.

Some of the 266 photos for the guests to view were hung near the entry. The rest were placed on the cake table.
All of the photos were printed in sepia tones with photo corners at Costco. Loved that option.
It gave them an antique feel and also helped them look like they all belonged together in one story.

Here are some of the worker bees
(aka family members & restaurant staff)
before they ran home to change into party clothes.

Individual bottles with lights and the lyrics to "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce were placed at each place setting for favors. The guests were treated to another favor of a photo magnet. No danger of forgetting where they were that evening. 

The staff removed the tablecloths before the party started which gave the tables a more rustic and homey feel. 

And the flowers. Smelled. Heavenly. Fresh gardenias on each napkin.

Another personal touch was the descriptive words on crystal clips for all the tables. Lovely.

The Celebrate banner over the mirror was handmade by the birthday girl's niece. Her attention to detail was amazing!

Some of the nearly 100 bottles drying in the oven before being packed up and shipped.
Hey! We could've played 99 bottles of something on the wall. Darn!

After several revisions, lots of conversations with The Cake Mamas and much second guessing, I packed up the boxes of styrofoam rounds covered in paper and dragees along with the rest of the supplies and hoped that they would get the picture. They did. Perfectly. The colors were exactly what I had in mind for the feeling of the cake. And they managed to apply the 15 billion dragees as the borders which must have been a tricky and very messy step since those little buggers just go everywhere when you're working with them. I'd dyed them to match the heart, pocket watch and borders of the plaques that would also go on the cake by mixing a couple of different metallic luster dusts.

The bottom 14 inch round was the only edible tier since the party was limited to immediate family and a few friends.
Just seemed like such a waste to have the other four tiers be edible when the one tier would serve the guests.
Turned out to be a good decision due to the weight of the bottles and method of stacking as there was no center rod support. The bottom tier was doweled well and topped with an acrylic disc and a layer of bottles. The rest of the tiers and bottles were stacked and held in place by sheer weight and some strategically placed double stick tape.
Not the usual kind that you'd get at the office store. This tape is labeled as permanent and was sold by the shop that cut the acrylic rounds for all the tiers. Worked like a charm and was invisible in the bargain. It was all quite sturdy and endured the mini earthquakes (okay, maybe not earthquakes - just slight jostling) while the guests were gathered around the cake table picking up and looking at all of the photos scattered about.

See the little lights inside? Kind of like fireflies.

The only glitch was that the lights aren't as bright if you don't turn them all the way on.

And I forgot to mention this while we were stacking the tiers in the afternoon.

Since the backdrop was a window and we had to turn them on in the daylight, we couldn't really judge the brightness.

So I went ahead and stacked and taped and made sure everything was sturdy and wouldn't come apart. 

Only to find out after the sun went down that some of the bulbs were quite dim.

With no way to pull it all apart and reassemble it as the guests were streaming in,

we ended up tucking votives in the center to add more light.

Thank goodness the restaurant had them on hand. Nice save.

Fabulous party.

Happy Birthday dear friend.

Purple Wafer Paper Fantasy Flowers

A simple birthday cake for my sweet sister-in-law.

Purple fantasy flowers and leaves from wafer paper with chocolate fondant fern coils.

The inside was Devil's Food with espresso butter cream all covered in dark chocolate ganache.

We waited three days to cut it and it was much moister than I expected. Almost gooey.

I guess that ganache is great for sealing in moisture. Nice to know.

The cake rode for about 5 hours on the front seat of the car in pouring rain with no major mishaps.

Just a little slippage on what became the back side that I managed to repair a bit before it went under the knife.

Hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable long weekend!

Pink Dahlia

Another flower made from wafer paper.

Have I told you how lovely wafer paper is for making thin petals?

This time I hand painted the edges as well to give it a little more dimension.

Short and sweet.

The end!

Wafer Paper Roses Tutorial

As promised . . . 


Note - if you'd like flavor in your rose, use extract or flavored alcohol of choice in place of the water "glue."
Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka is especially nice.

Would love to see what you do with them!

Heart Wreath from Cupcakes and White Wafer Paper Roses

Look Ma! No carving! This wreath was made using mini cupcakes.

Here they are. Pretty in pink. All lined up and ready to go.

Twenty six little bundles of joy before the frosting.

The cupcakes were attached to the fondant covered

foam core heart with a dollop of butter cream.

Then all of the nooks and crannies were filled.

A final layer of frosting was slathered over the

 these pink beauties before covering them with fondant.

Kind of hated to hide them but won't they be a lovely surprise?

Here's a close up of some of the 60 wafer paper roses that adorned the heart.

They were SO easy to make and went rather quickly.

They also are as light as a feather and melt in your mouth.

Not in your hands. Unless your hands are wet.

Happy Valentine's Day and thanks for stopping by!

(Tutorial can be found in the next post.)