My sweet friend recently turned 40. Her hubby told us that her favorite cake was vanilla with white icing. But, my friend is anything but plain and vanilla. She is the most beautiful, fanciest friend I have, so she needed a cake to match her personality! This crazy pink candy cake was a great way to dress up a plain vanilla cake.
Making a cake like this is great if you want to make something fun, but aren’t so great with an icing bag. Serious props to all cake artists and bakers because decorating a cake is no easy task. Ask me to pipe something on a cake or use fondant and I’m out. So, decorating a cake by topping it with a bunch of other candy and cookies is perfect for the decorating challenged!
This type of cake works best if you pick a color that you want to focus on. Once you pick the color, look for candy, cookies, sprinkles and chocolates that are that color. I created candy that matched the cake by making some pink white chocolate bar, topped with sprinkles like the animal crackers. I topped the cake, starting with the largest items, then filling in with the smaller candies. I also cascaded a few cookies and sprinkles down the front, side of the cake. But, just get creative with this style!
Fun Crazy Candy Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Frosting
2 white cake mixes
2 1/2 cups skim milk
2/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 sticks of butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons 2% milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pink & White assorted candies, cookies and sprinkles
Baking the Cake:
Start with 2 white cake mixes. Make the cakes as directed on the box, except substitute skim milk for the water. Also, add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Pour batter equally into four (4) 9″ inch greased and floured cake pans. Bake as directed on the box. Let cool completely. Place cakes in fridge to cool.
Making the Frosting:
Soften 3 sticks of butter to room temperature. Once butter has softened, beat butter until it is light and fluffy. Add one teaspoon vanilla extract to butter. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of 2% milk, alternating until you have added about 4-5 cups of powdered sugar. Add a little more powdered sugar until you have the frosting the consistency that you’d like.
Assembling the Cake:
Place bottom layer of cake onto stand you will be using. Top with light layer of frosting. Repeat with all 4 layers. Cover cake with a light crumb coat. This should take about 1/2 of the frosting you made. Place cake in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to seal in the crumbs.
Remove cake from refrigerator. Frost the cake with the rest of the frosting.
Decorating the Cake:
Immediately after finishing the frosting, decorate the cake. Start with a large, tall item. For this cake, I used white chocolate bark, cut into triangles. Place the tallest items in the back of the cake. Then, add the next tallest items. For example, I added white chocolate dipped wafers, animal crackers, and Lindt Lindor white chocolate truffles. After the larger items, add in the sprinkles. I like to have the sprinkles added to the top of the cake and cascading down one side of the cake. For the sprinkles that are cascading down the side, you will have to press them into the frosting. Place cake into refrigerator, until serving time, to set the decorations.
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