… Come on, let’s go and play!

Next, I am working on a “simple” giant cupcake for my friend at work. We are obsessed with Disney’s Frozen, as are some others around the office. It has become a bit of an on-going joke around here. I watched an amazing video on YouTube about how to make Olaf out of fondant, which made me feel better about trying it myself. I made him even more like the original by adding very light blue around his eyes and in his crevices. I can’t let my daughter see him, or she would would want to keep him!

Here is the video:

So, one night after the kids were in bed, I got to work! And he wasn’t that hard, relatively speaking. I added toothpicks in the bottom of his feet so he will stay in the cupcake better.

I also had to bake a cake! The birthday girl had a unique idea. Why not mix chocolate cake and funfetti cake? I thought about this and decided that it would be worth a try. If I did it the way you make marble cake, then it wouldn’t be to hard. How do you make a marble cake? Many recipes call for making a basic yellow cake, then adding chocolate (cocoa powder or melted chocolate chips) to half the batter, then swirling them together.  That’s what I decided I would kind of do. But funfetti cake is usually just white cake with sprinkles thrown it, so I did some research and figured I would try yet another white cake recipe.

I found this one from a blog called Add a Pinch: http://addapinch.com/cooking/2013/08/09/the-best-white-cake-recipe/#axzz2ziYZjeJo. Best White Cake EVER? That’s a tall order!

I whipped up a batch of the stuff, divided it in half. I added Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa Powder to half the batter and a handful of sprinkles to the other half:

 

Then, I added the batter alternatively into my Giant Cupcake pan (which I sprayed with Pam with Butter baking spray) and let it bake for well over an hour. I definitely think I added too much batter! It took way too long to bake.

 

Since I had to level the cake anyway, I stole some off the top. And, you know what? I think this may actually BE the best white cake recipe EVER! I can’t wait to make it again! After it cooled a bit, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and tin foil and stuck it in my freezer.

When I was ready to make my cake, I took butter out as SOON as I got home so it could get room temperature. I will be making a post about how to make buttercream at some point.  I made a nice double batch of buttercream, Crisco-free this time.

I filled the inside of the cake with chocolate buttercream. I took some buttercream from the big batch, added cocoa and some more cream and mixed it together. Then I proceeded with a quick crumb coat. over both the top and the bottom of the cake.

I usually cover the bottom parts of my giant cupcakes with fondant, but I didn’t feel like getting everything out for fondant on a Wednesday night. And I was tired. So I dyed some of the frosting a nice blue to go with the Frozen theme. I crossed my fingers that I would have enough buttercream for the top of the cupcake … I tried a technique I saw on a google search of making verticle lines with my buttercream with my offset spatula. I went around a few times until I thought it was right. Then I decorated the top of my cupcake using a basic #18 swirl. I BARELY had enough buttercream, which is nerve wracking! I know now to make a full triple batch (5 lbs) of buttercream when making a cupcake this way. I added my border to the bottom of the cake and declared it DONE.

On Thursday morning, I stuck Olaf in a plastic container and his hair fell off! Note to self: stick in the hair LAST! When I GET to a party or whatever as opposed to ahead of time. Then I stuck him into the cupcake as soon as I got to work and waited for my friend to show up and see him! It was a great birthday surprise!

Here is the finished cake:

And here is what it looked like all cut:

 

Om nom nom nom. Swirls of chocolate and funfetti goodness! Since I had to bake it so darned long, it got just a bit dried out around the edges, but it was still good, homemade cake!  It was rich and sweet and the buttercream was as addicting and sugary as usual! 🙂

Questions? Comment me!

Nichole