- Duncan Hines White Cake
- 1 cup of All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup sour cream room temp
- 1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter - melted
- 1 cup of water
- 4 large egg whites room temperature
- 1 tsp almond extract - to me, this is the ultimate trick! But if you don't like almond flavor, vanilla is totes fine!
- If you want funfetti- get jimmy sprinkles (that's the long style sprinkles)
Okay, through trial and error, I found that I prefer to use the dark colored round pans. Walmart sells them in a set of 2- I bought one off one, it was a lighter colored 6" round pan, but it did not work out the way the darker ones did, so I went back to Walmart to buy another set of 2. Find it in the cake/party section.
(Rings shown in picture: Anemone Ring, Satori Ring)
Set your oven to 350°F. Put all the ingredients into a stand mixer (start off on low first so it doesn't splash everywhere!) and once it's all combined, bump up to high and mix until white and fluffy, about 6 minutes or so. So this recipe actually calls for vanilla extract, but let me tell you friends, if you want to make your cake taste next level, try it with almond extract! It is FREAKING AMAZEBALLZ!!--You can thank me later! ;)
While your cake is mixing, get your 6" round cake pans ready by spraying it with a non stick spray or use oil or butter, and then lightly coat it in all-purpose flour making sure you get it up on the sides of the wall too. Tap out excess flour.
When your batter is ready you can either divide it up into the pans first or mix in your sprinkles first- doesn't matter. I forgot to mix in my sprinkles while in the mixer so I did it in the cake pans. (Shown is not mixed in, so mix it! don't just leave sprinkles on top like that!)
I lined my oven with foil just in case the batter overflowed. You can also use a cookie sheet, but I couldn't fit it in my oven with the three cake pans and I didn't want to do two separate baking cuz this mama ain't got no time for that!
The recipe I followed said this wouldn't rise, but this is my second time making this cake, and the first time it overflowed which is why I'm getting smart and lined my oven with foil. This time around it didn't overflow, but it still rose up like muffin tops. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle. Recipe I followed said 30-40 mins. For me it took 50-55mins. At 35 mins mine still looked "wet" in the middle just looking at it, so I left it in the oven until it looked nice and tan in color, about 50-55 mins.
When it's ready, take it out of the oven and let it cool. When it's cool enough to touch pans, flip it over onto cooling rack. The cake should easily fall out.
Once cool, wrap it twice in Saran Wrap and stick it in the freezer. Day 1 is complete and you can now rest mama! Whew!!
Ingredients for Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup or 2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
- 5 cups powered sugar, sifted
- 3 tsp almond extract
- 5 Tbsp heavy whipping cream or whole milk
- Pinch of salt to taste
Hello and welcome to day 2. Today we will be making the buttercream frosting and putting your cake together!
(Rings Shown: X Cuff Ring, X Ring)
Take your cake out of the freezer and remove saran wrap. Place on cake turn table. Get a bread knife and slowly cut the top and bottoms of your cake as straight as you can. It is so much easier to cut the cake while frozen, and way less messy. If you didn't freeze it, I think the cake would fall apart while cutting. I kind of use the turn table to cut the cake towards the middle, then turn, repeating until it's cut through. Save the excess cuttings!! We will need it later!! If you want to, you can cut the brown outsides. For this cake I didn't because I'm just not that skilled yet! (Insert sweat emoji here.)
(Rings Shown: Chain Ring, Satori Ring, Beautiful Chaos)
Now it's time to make the buttercream frosting. Make sure your butter has been sitting out and is now at room temperature. Whip just the butter in the stand mixer until it's light and fluffy, about 5 mins. Add in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, slowly incorporating it into the whipped butter. (I forgot to sift my powered sugar, and I'm not sure I would sift it because I'm just lazy like that tbh.) Add in the almond extract, heavy whipping cream and salt to taste. Mix on med high-high for about 7 mins because we want it to be mixed well, light and fluffy.
The consistency of your buttercream should be not too runny or too stiff. If you stick a rubber paddle in and out of it, it should form a slight peak. We want it to be spreadable. If it's too stiff, add small amounts of heavy whipping cream. If it's too runny, add in more powered sugar. (I also just continue to add these two ingredients if I need more frosting.)
Get your cake board and place on cake turn table. Put a small dollop of frosting on the center of the board, then put the bottom layer right on top. Add frosting all over, then place your next layer, repeat until all layers are sitting pretty.
Gently pressed down just so the cake is sitting evenly. Now you're gonna crumb coat it, which means putting a thin layer of frosting all over the cake. If your cake is uneven in some parts, this is the time to hide it with frosting! Once you're done with the crumb coat, stick the cake in the fridge for the cool air to firm it up.
We will now create the colored frosting. Choose whatever color you want, today I am using teal. I bought these gel food coloring at Walmart, and it's so amazing because all you need is a small toothpick worth of color. Add in slowly because this gel coloring is strong! I dip my toothpick in the gel and add it to the frosting in mixer, mix it up, and add in more if I want the color to be darker.
Once you get the color to your liking, make a pipe bag. (You definitely don't need to do this step but I found it made it waaayyy easier to smooth out my cake.) You can google how to make a pipe bag.
Pipe your cake all around, spinning your cake turn table as you pipe. I didn't do it perfectly as you can see, but give me a break, this is my first time piping it and this is my second cake I ever made!!
Using an offset spatula or a bench scraper, slowly go around your cake frosting and smooth it all out. I don't have a bench scraper so I just used the offset spatula. Running hot water on your spatula (wipe it clean after) helps to make the buttercream frosting smoother. Scrape and clean your tools as you go. (This is the longest part of your cake making. It is not easy to get it smooth and even. Maybe I got to buy that bench scrapper..?)
Once you get it all smooth to your liking, it's time to add sprinkles! Yes, we can't let the frosting harden just yet. If it hardens, the sprinkles won't stick.
I use my hands and have the sprinkles in the palm of my hand to get the initial sprinkles on the bottom of the cake. Then I take a spoon and press it into the cake ever so gently. Be prepared for a sprinkle disaster...not gonna lie, it's messy! Good thing my dogs love to clean up my mess! LOL!
To get that sprinkle fade going up the cake, I had to individually grab and press the sprinkle into the cake and place where I desired it to go.
Yay! You are almost done!! Day 2 is complete. Stick this baby in the fridge to firm up!!
Ingredients for Ice cream and melt:
- Candy buttons- I chose the pink ones which is a strawberry flavor.
- Heavy whipping cream
- Ice cream cone
- Leftover cake cuttings
- Sprinkles!
(Bracelets Shown: Forever Bling or you can buy them with a clasp: Ami Bracelet, Mimi Bracelet)
Day 3 is here! Cheehuuuu!!! Grab your leftover cake cuttings from the day before and crumble them up or put it into a food processor to grind up. Form a ball and stuff it into an ice cream scooper. Pack it in so it's really not gonna fall apart and then place it onto wax paper.
Next, get your candy melts and stick them in the microwave at 30 second intervals, taking it out and mixing it until melted. Add in heavy whipping cream, and eyeball it till you get the right consistency. Start off with very little to start, maybe 1 tbsp at a time. I eyeball it because I'm a risk taker like that! lol! The consistency should be a slow run for the drizzle. With your spoon, pour the drizzle on the top of your cake and then push it out over the edge with your spoon so it drizzles down your cake. Do this all around your cake and push more drizzle melt if you want the drizzle longer, just a little if you want it short. The consistency has to be good for this to work good!!
Next, add your ice cream scoop of cake onto the top of your cake and then add pink drizzle on top. Dip your cone into the pink drizzle in the bowl, and then add sprinkles all around the cone, then place cone on top of ice cream scoop and gently push down until it sticks good. Add more drizzle if you need to "glue it" down. Then go to town on the sprinkles because sprinkles are awesome!!
To get the sprinkles going down on the drip parts, I individually placed the sprinkles on the drippings one by one. I know, tedious, but it looks so good!!
And you're done! Place your masterpiece into the fridge to firm up!! Now to transfer your cake, well I have no idea!! Sorry guys, I didn't promise that part. I have the fun task of transferring this baby to my friend's daughter's 1st birthday party tomorrow, so wish me luck~ I'm gonna need it!!