December 15, 2011 - Christmas Stocking Cake
Click here for short instructions
This cake has it all: delicious cake, cherry pie (filling), and cookies:
To make this cake, you'll need a Cake-Shaping Strip (look here about how to make one), heavy-duty aluminum foil,sheet pan, prepared cake batter (see the Cherry-Pie Cake recipe below or use about 2 boxes of cake mix), 3 (16-ounce) containers white frosting, red food dye, frosted Christmas cookies, and 1 (3.5-ounce) red sparkle gel.
First, make a Cake-Shaping Strip as described here using eight sushi-mat segments. Line a sheet pan with 2 sheets of aluminum foil. Shape the strip into a shape of a stocking. (Don't worry yet about the stocking stuffers). Wrap the bottom foil sheets around the strip, tearing it where needed to wrap it. Push small loosely packed balls of foil along the bottom outer perimeter wherever you think that the batter might leak due (e.g., where you tore the foil). Essentially, just add foil however you need to fully wrap around the bottom of the strip.
Now prepare your cake batter. You can make the batter using about two boxes of cake mix, or you can use the recipe below. This recipe is gorgeous for the Christmas season and really tasty.
Cherry-Pie Cake
Ingredients:
2 boxes of yellow cake mix
6 eggs
2/3 cup oil
1 cup water
1 (21-ounce) can of cherry pie filling
1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a pan with cooking spray.
2. Beat the first 4 ingredients together.
3. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
4. Top the batter with the cherry pie filling. Using a table knife, scoop some of the pie filling down into the underlying batter and pull it back up. Repeat this swirling motion.
5. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the pie filling.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes or until done.
*****
This is what the cake looks like right before going into the oven:
And ~40 minutes later:
The basic ideas of decorating this cake are simple: make the bottom red, the top white, and add some cookie stuffings. More specifically, here's what I did: I added a lot of red food-dye gelto 2 (16-ounce) containers of white frosting and frosted the bottom of the cake with the red frosting. I frosted the sides of the top of the cake with white frosting, and then I put the remainder of a container of the white frosting in a piping bag and piped stars across the top of the stocking cake. By this point, the red frosting has dried a bit. So then, I applied a layer of red sparkle gel over the red frosting, which gave it a stronger red color and a great shine. Using the same piping bag filled with white frosting, I piped on "Ho Ho Ho" and I stuck some Christmas cookies into the top of the cake. Merry Christmas to all at the Christmas dessert table!
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