I spent a lot of time thinking about how I didn't have a lot of time to make the cake. And then I spent even more time thinking about how great the cake would look if I did actually have a lot of time to make the cake. And then I got a little bit sad and kind of depressed when I realized that all of my ambition was a little out of my league and definitely out of my time constraint. So then I started to panic a little bit because I could see Failure staring at me from my window. It was totally creepy. I had to move to another room. And choose another cake design. And I chose this one because it was absolutely, without a doubt PERFECT. Easy? Check. Quick? Check. Still randomly impressive and appealing to everyone of every age? CHECK. I couldn't go wrong.
And as it turns out... it was just as perfect as I had hoped. And I was kind of thinking that maybe you would like to also make a quick, easy, and randomly impressive cake that would appeal to everyone of every age. But I didn't take any pictures for you because I was in a hurry. And also because I was still worried that it would be a failure. And nobody wants to see pictures of Failure. Well, maybe you do, but that's not why we are here today. We are here to make this cake.
1. Start with two baked cakes. They should both be on cardboard cake rounds.
2. And make this.
3. Just kidding, let's break that down a little better. You are going to need some cake dowels or some bubble tea straws. I always use the straws because they are MUCH easier to cut.
4. Basically we are going to use those straws and a cake round to make a table.
5. Except, instead of lemonade, we will put our top tier of cake on that table. (I made the cake round bigger in the drawings so you could see where it goes. In reality though, it should be the exact size of the top tier of cake so that it is not seen when you put the two cakes together.)
6. On the bottom cake, identify where you will put your straws. Push one straw into the cake to the bottom and mark where the top edge of the cake meets the straw. Pull it out and cut it off there. Cut all the straws to the exact height of the cake.
7. Place all 4 straws into the bottom cake and push 90% of the way down. Leave them about 1 inch out of the cake.
8. Set the top tier of cake (on it's own cake round) on top of the straws. The weight of the top cake will push the straws down the rest of the way and you won't get frosting on you or smudge up an already perfect frosting.
9. Not that that the frosting has to be already perfect for this kind of cake.
10. You can frost it before or after you put it together because you are going to be covering it in beautiful delicious looking candy.
11. Start on the bottom. Put two pieces of candy of the same color next to each other. Switch colors and keep doing that until you come back to the front. Try to give them just a little wiggle room as not all candies are the same size and if they get too tight they will just fall off when you drive across town. Or when your 3 year old has a wee bit of a tantrum in the kitchen next to the completed cake. You've been warned.
12. When you get back to the beginning, move over one space and put more candy on. Just keep putting candy on like a mad person until it's all completely covered in candy. On the very top of the cake, I just made concentric circles until I got to the middle. It was much less stressful than trying to figure out how to make it all work out in a perfect swirl pattern.
And then you will have this. It took only about 45 minutes to put this cake together. But everyone will think it took hours. And that you drove yourself mad trying to line up the candies. But you didn't because you will LOVE to make candy cakes. Seriously. They are going to be my new thing.
Want to make the cookies too? Click here --------> Tropical Luau Cookies
