Surprise Inside Cake - Hidden Polka Dots Recipe and Tutorial

Hope that all of you are enjoying summer where ever you are! Sun, fun and a little cake mixed in never hurt anyone.

It's been a long time coming but I've finally trimmed down the original Hidden Polka Dot Cake post. Hopefully this will make it easier to have polka dots in your life.

Hope to hear more of your success stories really soon!


Thanks!

Polka Dot Cake

Tutorial by Deborah Stauch

www.Once-Upon-A-Pedestal.blogspot.com

EQUIPMENT

§  6 bowls for tinting

§  3 – 6” cake pans

INGREDIENTS

§  2 white cake mixes

§  3 whole eggs (for cake balls)

§  3 egg whites (for second cake mix)

§  2/3 cup vegetable oil (divided)

§  1 1/4 cup (to replace water in 1^st cake mix + 1/2 cup milk (2^nd cake mix)

§  1 cup sour cream (optional for added moistness & density in 2^nd cake mix)

§  2 small boxes of instant vanilla or white chocolate pudding

§  Non-stick baking spray with flour

§  AmeriColor soft gel pastes:

Orange 113                                  Lemon Yellow 107

Electric Pink 164                        Electric Green 162  

Sky Blue 103                              Mix of Regal Purple 130 & Electric Purple 165

§  AmeriColor or Wilton White coloring (optional)

           

DIRECTIONS:

CAKE BALLS

§  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray pans with baking spray.

§  Prepare 1 white cake mix making the some of the adjustments recommended in the instruction guide with the cake pop pan. Suggested: Add 1 box of instant vanilla pudding and substitute milk for the water called for in the mix. Do not decrease the liquid or increase the amount of eggs listed in the cake mix instructions.              

§  Divide the batter into 6 bowls and tint each using about 1/2 t. of gel paste so that the colors remain vivid after baking. You will have batter left over to make another batch of cake balls for a different project.

§  Prepare cake ball pan by spraying the outside of the vents with baking spray. Pour tinted batters into cake ball pan – 3 balls of each color.

§  Bake at 350F for 13 minutes so the cake balls are just done and springy to the touch but not browned. This way they won’t dry out too much and float during the second bake time.

§  When cooled, trim the tops and edges to remove the ridges using sharp craft scissors.

  WHITE CAKE

§  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray pans with baking spray.

§  Prepare the 2^nd cake mix as directed on the box using the all white method shown on the package with egg whites. Add a small box of instant vanilla pudding, 1 cup of sour cream, 3 egg whites, 1/2 cup milk and 1/3 cup vegetable oil to the dry mix. Make sure the cake mix does NOT have pudding already added. Add optional white color for even better contrast if desired.

§  Place just enough batter to cover the bottom of the prepared pans and set the cake balls on top.

§  Pour the batter evenly around the cake balls, saving a small amount to barely spoon over the top of the balls. Do not tap the pan.

§  Mark the edge of the pans w/batter where you want the balls to line up – and notch the cakes when they’re done.

§  Bake the filled 6” rounds for about 30-35 minutes until they pull from the sides of the pan and spring back when lightly touched. Do not use a toothpick to test.

§  If your cakes are not level or have bumps where the balls have risen, place a damp paper towel on top of each layer as soon as they are removed from the oven. Press the warm cake with something flat, like the bottom of a smaller pan. Invert the layers after 10 minutes onto a flat surface to finish cooling. Wrap the cooled layers in plastic wrap and freeze until solid.

§  Prepare frosting from recipe below. Double the recipe if you like tons of frosting.

§  Remove cake layers from freezer. Frost the tops of 2 layers and stack. Frost the top and sides and decorate as desired. Refrigerate until 1 hour before serving for cutting ease.

Wilton's Buttercream Icing (Pure White Version)

Yield: about 3 cups of icing

INGREDIENTS

•  1 cup solid vegetable shortening

•  1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract Easy-Add clear vanilla extract

•   4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

•  2 tablespoons milk

•  1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor

•  Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.

INSTRUCTIONS:

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

Happy Caking!

The BEST Craftsy Class Yet!!!

Ta- DAAAA!!!

just a smidgeon of her gorgeous work . . .

I'm SO very happy and proud and excited (somersault kind of joy!!!) to introduce you to my friend, Jessica Harris of Jessicakes! 

I know I've mentioned her here a few times before but if you haven't taken time out to meet her, you simply MUST.

Jessica is one of the most talented (self taught!) bakers and her fresh take on cake design will absolutely take your breath away. She always comes up with wonderfully brilliant tips and her execution . . . well, check her out and see for yourself!

Her Craftsy Class is the most popular that Craftsy has ever done! No wonder! You'd think she'd been doing this forever but this was her first. Excellent job and not the last one for sure! 

I can't say enough nice things about her as a baker and person. She is the genuine article and I hope you'll love her too! Enjoy getting to know her!

Leo's 1st Birthday

Once again I must apologize profusely for the lack of posts. Our relocation has kept me busier than I'd like with fixups and cleanups.

Now that the snow is finally gone, it's become a little easier to get some of tasks tackled and checked off the list. So maybe I'll get back to baking. Someday.

Did I mention that we also changed to high altitude? We'll see how my tried and true recipes hold up. Meanwhile, I've invested in a couple of high altitude cookbooks to ease the transition.

This is the last cake I baked right before we moved. Notice anything missing? Like eyes for the giraffe? What was I thinking??? Thankfully the birthday boy didn't notice.

The cake was a 10" x 10" cube filled with colorful striped layers to match the candy borders. The smash cake is a giant cupcake that my nephew took great delight in consuming with the help of his doggy buddy.

The giggles and ear to ear smiles got me right in the heart. Such a darling little guy.

Happy 1st Birthday Leo!

Mini Reese's Christmas Snowflake Ornaments

Long time, no posts. My apologies and thanks for hanging in with me. Get it? Ornaments, hanging? ANYWAYS . . . here are a few of my lame excuses: An extended trip of Europe. New home shopping out of state. And now getting ready to move. In the winter. Really poor planning, wouldn't you agree? None of these have left tons of time for proper baking or blogging. Or working on my book. Since it may be a while before I'm up and posting for real again, I thought I'd share a quick project you might want to try.

I made these last Christmas and they came together pretty quickly. Especially since I did each step at my leisure and then glued them together with white chocolate just before delivery. Is there any glue better than white chocolate?

These tiny ornaments were made from a peanut butter truffle mixture dipped in white chocolate.  Any type cake pop or could be substituted. Red velvet might be nice.

The topper is a mini Reese's dry brushed with silver luster dust. The hanger is a small piece of a cellophane rice noodle. These can be purchased in Asian markets. They are sometimes called bean thread or glass noodles and look transparent.

The snowflakes were punched from wafer paper and given some sparkle with luster dusts. Each treasure was tucked in a mini cupcake liner and sent off to spread some joy.

Hope that you are enjoying all of the warmth and wonder that the season has to offer. Happy Holidays!

Tappits Cutters and Flattened Marshmallows

Today's post by Sweetopia about Tappits cutters reminded me of a tip I've been meaning to share with all of you for ages. Thanks for the unintended nudge Marian! I'd have gotten to it eventually. Maybe. But let's just finish this up while you're already here, shall we?

In her post, Marian talks about what worked best for her when using various edible mediums with Tappits cutters for perfect lettering. As she discovered, some of the possibilities ended up being more yummy than others. Be sure to check out Sweetopia's site for great tips on this and TONS of other fabulous cookie and baking ideas!

Being somewhat of a baking non-conformist and a tad bit impatient, a while back I created a really delicious and EASY alternative to making your own gum paste or waiting for fondant to dry out a bit before cutting the shapes out. Flattened marshmallows! Soft, stretchy, tasty and extremely forgiving. I like that in a marshmallow. Even if you happen to stretch them out a little when removing them from the cutters, they magically jump back into shape. Almost like they're saying, "TA-DAA!!!" Most food speaks to me. How about you? Not so much? Fine. Moving on . . . 

This method was used for the letters by one of my very young baking students. She chose to place them on the side of the plate rather than on the cake to keep the design for her grandmother's birthday less busy. Great job Priscilla! The Funky Alphabet Lower Case cutters used here are by fmm with more info available through their site.

Many instructions for using Tappits cutters show to use them cookie cutter style by pressing them into the fondant or gum paste. INSTEAD, place the flattened marshmallow on TOP of the cutters cutting edge and use a small rolling pin to roll over the top of the marshmallow until the edges of the cutter are exposed and the cut is clean. Using a small pin or toothpick to remove the cut shape works well here. Especially since marshmallows are so stretchy and the pin mark will mostly disappear.

You also don't need to worry about getting the marshmallows as thin as suggested for other mediums since they kind of puff back up a little even when you try to flatten them. (ta-daa!) As you can see in the photos, the marshmallow letters and stars are no where near "paper thin" or "see through" as some instructions advise.

I used the same method for covering my twice baked, Hidden Stars / Let Freedom Ring cake when I was so excited to get it done and cut into the hidden stars inside that I didn't want to take extra time for a fancy outside. Darned impatient trait rearing its ugly head again! The white stars are marshmallows and the colored ones are the same soft sugar cookies as those used on the inside. Instead of Tappits, a regular metal cookie cutter was used. You can see how to do the hidden stars here if you'd like to give it a try.

Such a quick and fun way to cover a cake instead of worrying if your butter cream or fondant looks perfect enough! The pillowy soft mouthful of marshmallow yumminess also goes very well with most flavors. You may want to consider adding this technique to your bag of tricks for the next time you're wondering what to do with the exterior of your latest creation but just don't have time for fancy-schmancyness. For smaller cookies, use the same cutter as used for cutting the cookie dough shape and top your cookie with a perfect little marshmallow layer atop a thin layer of frosting. If you like that sort of thing.

Tappits cutters come in such a wide array of shapes that its easy to match shapes or a lettering style to your theme. Another option for lettering and shapes cutters are Patchwork Cutters by Marion Frost. Okay, too weird. I just mentioned two different spellings of women named Marian or Marion in the same post. Strange coincidence but I'm going with it. Hey! Just remembered that I got to watch Marion giving demos at the Global Sugar Art booth at ICES this weekend. Too much fun for such a short time. Loved listening to her accent while she 'splained what she was doing. Her tips will come in handy for the cutters I've gathered over the years from her great line. Lots of tiny details in them.

They also come in lots of shapes and sizes besides the fun fonts and numbering styles. Other companies offer similar types of cutters so do your online shopping homework and find the ones that want to live with you.

Back to the marshmallows . . .  I used StackerMallows marshmallows from Kraft originally meant for s'mores. Until I got my hands on them. Poor things have yet to touch a graham cracker or cozy up to some melted chocolate in my house. Wonder if Kraft ever dreamed of putting a cookie or any other type of cutter except for teeth through these sweet little rectangles . . . I found them at Walmart and I hope you can too. You will heart them very much.

Using a generous dusting of powdered sugar on your cutters and then dipping or dusting the exposed cut marshmallow edge will help prevent sticking and reseal the shapes to keep them fresh and soft. Granulated sugar or colored sanding sugar can be used in place of powdered sugar for this step if you want to add another fun design element or a dash of color to the cut edges. This concept is the same as those cute marshmallow flowers you may have seen where the marshmallows are cut with scissors and then dipped in colored sugars.

I flattened the StackerMallows with a pasta machine before cutting them out for two reasons: ease of cutting and more yield per marshmallow. Worked great! No mixing of fondant or gum paste or waiting to dry. Just flatten, cut, apply, admire. Continue. If you are using a regular cookie cutter and it is smaller than the rectangle or if you want a thicker shape, you can skip the rolling out part. The pasta attachment on a KitchenAid also works well if you happen to own one.

Oh, and the scraps make a tasty snack or you can save them for Rice Krispie treats later on. Just throw them into an airtight container until you need them. That is, if you have any left after the snacking part.

StackerMallows can also be rolled with a rolling pin to flatten them if you don't have a manual or KitchenAid pasta thingy. Takes a tiny bit longer but the result is the same. This option would be great for little ones that want to help but aren't quite ready for heavy machinery. So when they holler, "I help!" while you're baking, you can give them this little portion of the work load to assist you. Many hands make light work, even if they're tiny.

The shapes can be cut well in advance of when you plan to use them and stored in a single layer in an airtight container or Ziploc type bag. Just be sure that all of the cut edges have been sealed with powdered sugar and they shouldn't stick together. A bit of powdered sugar on the rolling pin or outside of the StackerMallow before it goes into the pasta machine helps ensure that any gummy parts won't stick to the roller.

Have fun playing in the kitchen!

No compensation has been received for promotion or use of any products or companies mentioned here.

Just me spouting off about things I want to share with you. : )