I ended up at the hospital yesterday with my daughter and have to stay for 24 hours for observation. So if my post for tomorrow doesn’t go up or I don’t get to you emails, please bear with me. Now onto today’s post. Let them eat cake! The next station I went to at Baking with Betty was all about cakes. The focus of this hands on part of the class was Halloween. It will be here before you know it. We made a jack-o’lantern cake.Â
Lucky for us, at this station the cakes were all pre-made. We got to do the fun part -decorating . Most jack-o’lantern cakes I have seen require a bundt pan or other special pan. This jack-o’lantern cake is easy for anyone to make because you bake the cake in a bowl to get it’s shape. Everyone’s got bowls, right?
Then they had cute mini pumpkins to frost.Â
The recipe for the cake is made using a white cake mix with a little orange peel for flavor. Then food coloring is added to make these mini cakes orange. Finish them off with some orange frosting and a cute jack o’ latern face. Too cute!
They showed us some tie dyed cupcakes that get that cool tie dyed look from sprinkles. Then, for me, this was one of the big “ah ha! ” moments at Baking with Betty. They showed us how to make ice cream cone cupcakes. I am sure you have seen these before, ice cream cones filled with cake. But here is where the “ah ha!” part comes in. They make them by doing regular cupcakes in the tin and sticking the ice cream cone in the cupcake to bake. I’ve always cooked them right side up and filled with batter which is tricky to do.Â
Trying to get those ice cream cones to stand up while baking is not an easy feat.Â
No problems this way. Just invert after cooking and remove the cupcake liner and you have a perfect ice cream cone cupcake. The cake rises as it cooks and fills the cone beautifully. This for me was GENIUS, pure genius. There will definitely be more ice cream cupcakes in my baking future.
Jack-o’Lantern Cake
Ingredients
- 2 boxes Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil’s food or white cake mix
- Water, vegetable oil and eggs or egg whites called for on cake mix box
- 2 containers (1 lb each) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
- Yellow and red food color
- 1 green flat-bottom ice-cream cone
- Betty Crocker® Fruit Roll-Ups® chewy fruit snack rolls (preferably the green kind)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour 2-quart round casserole or 2 1/2-quart ovenproof bowl. Make 1 box cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs or egg whites. Pour batter into casserole.
- Bake devil’s food cake 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, white cake about 1 hour 10 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes. Remove cake from casserole; place rounded side up on cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Make and bake remaining cake mix using same casserole or bowl.
- With sharp knife, carefully slice piece from top of each cake to make flat surface where cakes will be placed together to form pumpkin shape. (Cake scraps can be saved and added to another recipe such as pudding or trifle if desired.)
- In medium bowl, place frosting; tint with 9 drops yellow and 6 drops red food color to make orange frosting. On plate, place 1 cake, rounded side down. Spread 2/3 cup of the orange frosting over cake almost to edge. Place second cake, rounded side up, on frosted cake to make round shape. Frost entire cake with remaining orange frosting.
- Trim ice-cream cone to desired height for stem; place upside down on cake. Cut out eyes, nose, mouth, vines and leaves from fruit snack rolls. Place on frosted cake to form face. Store tightly covered at room temperature.
Mini Pumpkin Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 box (18.25 oz) Betty Crocker Super Moist white cake mix
- Water, vegetable oil, and egg whites called for on cake mix box
- 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
- 6 to 8 drops red food color
- 6 to 8 drops yellow food color
- 1 container (1 lb) Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
- 6 drops red food color
- 8 drops yellow food color
- 3 tubes (0.68 oz each) Betty Crocker black decorating gel
- 3 rolls Betty Crocker Fruit by the Foot chewy fruit snack, any green variety (from 4.5-oz box), or small green candies
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place mini paper baking cup in each of 48 mini muffin cups. In large bowl,
beat cake mix, water, oil, and egg whites on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2
minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in orange peel and 6 to 8 drops each red and yellow food colors. Divide batter evenly among baking cups, about 1 heaping tablespoon each. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.Cool in pan 5 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely, about 10 minutes. - In medium bowl, stir together frosting, 6 drops red food color and 8 drops yellow food color.
Frost top of each cupcake. Using black gel, draw two triangles on each cupcake to look like
pumpkin eyes, and draw a circle to look like a mouth. - Cut fruit snack into 48 (1-inch) pieces; tightly roll each piece to make a stem for each pumpkin
Place stem at top of each pumpkin.
10 comments
[…] Jack O’ Lantern Cake […]
[…] Jack O’ Lantern Cake […]
I absolutely love love love this I am def. Going to make w my 2 and 4 yr olds
I absolutely love love love this I am def. Going to make w my 2 and 4 yr olds
Those cakes are so cute! I hope your dtr is doing much better.
Those cakes are so cute! I hope your dtr is doing much better.
I hope everything is okay! Cute cakes too, btw 🙂
I hope everything is okay! Cute cakes too, btw 🙂
Very cool!! you make it look a little too easy though… I know mine wouldn’t have the same great results!
Very cool!! you make it look a little too easy though… I know mine wouldn’t have the same great results!