Cooking On Sale

I’m making my roommates fat. I went to class after baking a cake and I left it on my stove to cool. In the middle of discussion, my phone vibrates and I look down at the text. The preview says “Argg! Stop ma…” and I start to worry. “What did I do? Did I leave the oven on?!”

Fortunately I was wrong, the message went something like this: “Aargg! Stop making food that makes me fat!! Curse you allie mcdonough! Curse you!”

So roomies and other readers, I apologize for making so many desserts. Maybe I’ll have to write a post about how to exercise and cook at the same time. Who knows?

This week on sale at Shaws: Pillsbury Cake Mix and Pillsbury Frosting. I couldn’t resist making cake. (They’ll be on sale until tomorrow, so if you want to try the cake endeavor for yourself run to the supermarket now!)

You’re thinking: “That’s just cake from a box! What’s special about that?!” I’ll tell you what’s special about that–The way I decorated my cake. Take a look!

Allie’s Drizzle Cake

First things first, make the cake. I just followed the recipe on the box. It’s really easy and always comes out perfectly moist. Just make sure to remember to grease your pans. Personally, I’m a fan of Pam non-stick cooking spray. They even make one for baking that includes flour in the mix.

I also don’t usually bother to whisk my batter by hand for two minutes. Honestly, I get tired, and the batter is thoroughly stirred before then. One minute will usually do the trick.

Pour the batter in two 8-inch cake tins. You can use 9-inch, but it makes it harder to cut them in half and make more layers. Pop them in the oven for the allotted baking time. I left them in for 36 minutes.

Let your cakes cool for an hour. Then pop them in the fridge for another hour or two so they hold together better. (It is about this time that my roomie texted me telling me that I was going to make her fat).

Now we get to the fun part. Take two notebooks and a baking sheet. Put the cake on the upside-down on baking sheet and place the notebooks on either side. You want to the notebooks to just reach the middle point of the cake. They act as a guide while you cut the cake in half. (You think you can just eyeball it, but it’s much harder than you think.) Lay your knife over the tops of both notebooks and slice through the cake cutting in half. Do the same to the other. This makes 4 layers of cake instead of just 2.

Color your icing. I put 8 drops of green food dye into one tub of icing. Unlike the cake batter, this you’ll want to stir for awhile because the color should be the same throughout. Remember, your icing should be at room temperature or else it doesn’t spread easily enough–it’ll rip off the outside of the cake.

I find for icing, it is easiest to just turn over one of the 8-inch cake tins and build the cake on top. This way, when you’re frosting it, you don’t have to deal with hitting a plate with your knife.

Put the first slice of cake on top of an overturned cake tin. Put a dollop of colored icing on top and smooth out. Don’t worry if you have crumbs in the icing now because you’re just going to put another layer on top. After you add the second layer, put more icing on and smooth out again. Continue until all four tiers are on, but don’t frost the top yet! When you put the top tier on, make sure that it is one of the halves that has been exposed to the air during baking. It should have a harder surface and not crumb as easily.

To frost the top put a large dollop of icing on top. When frosting, it is easiest to put more on and have to take some away. This helps prevent crumbing. Also, to help prevent crumbing, once you start frosting, don’t lift the knife off the cake. If you do, you risk the chance of taking the frosting off and some of the cake may come with it. Instead, when you must take the knife off the cake, slide it off an edge.

Spread a thin layer over the entire cake. You’ll be able to see the cake and some crumbs may get in the icing, but it’s ok. Refrigerate for an hour and a half–just enough time for the first layer of icing to start hardening.

That thin, initial layer of frosting acts as a buffer between the cake and frosting. It prevents crumbing and helps protect the cake. You’ll probably have to make more colored frosting at this point. If you want different colors later, you should set aside some of the plain white frosting and then turn the rest green (or whichever color you use).

Just like the first frosting layer, put a lot of frosting on the top. Use your knife to spread it to the edges and then down and around the sides. Smooth it out so it is even and pretty.

Here comes the fun part. Color the leftover frosting. I added some blue to the leftover green to make a dark blue-green. Put the frosting in the microwave for 8 seconds. No more, no less! When microwaving frosting, every second counts! This makes the frosting much more liquid so you can drizzle it over the cake.

To drizzle the frosting, dip a fork in the frosting and stir around until the fork has frosting in between its prongs. Then wave it over the top of the cake and the frosting will drip on. To decorate the sides, just tilt the cake and do the same thing.

You can re-color the frosting again. I added some red to the blue-green to create a muted purple. Repeat the drizzling process. You can do this as many times as you want, but be careful. You don’t want the cake to look too chaotic (or maybe you do–it’s up to you!).

Finally transfer the cake to a serving dish. I just put mine on a regular plate because I have no fancy cake tray. Sad, yes, but that’s college. What kind of college girl has a fancy cake tray?

The last step: Call your friends. Mine came over at 2am when I finished this cake to eat it. I was surprised that they’d drag themselves all the way here, but I guess college boys will do anything for cake!

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Currently Cooking to:

Cake! Yes, Cake. I am cooking cake to Cake. Well, at least I think it’s clever. I tried to pick a song that’s not to weird, because we all know that Cake writes some odd lyrics. “Love You Madly” is really fun and appropriate. I’m a huge fan of the trumpet. “Italian Leather Sofa” is a little weirder, but still has a wonderful trumpet sofa. Also, it references a freezer and ziplock bags, which makes it mildly relevant to cooking, right?

Love You Madly – Cake
Italian Leather Sofa – Cake

So go! Bake! Make your roommates fat!