Episode: Operation: C.A.K.E.D.
The Delightful Children’s Birthday Cake

Oh my good golly gosh! My baby blog, Cartoon Cravings, is a year old! Thank you so much for all the love and attention! It’s because of you that we’ve made it this far. It’s truly been a labor of love and quite the learning experience. I know I’ve made mistakes and this whole blogging thing isn’t perfect, but I can only see Cartoon Cravings getting bigger and better in the future.

In honor of Cartoon Cravings 1st Birthday, I’m going back to where it all started: Codename: Kids Next Door. You all remember Nurse Claiborne’s Apple Crumble, right? Well things are about to get scarier because I’m taking on the Delightful Children From Down the Lane and their birthday cake. Every year, the Kids Next Door tries to foil the Delightful Children’s birthday party of horror by stealing their cake. This year, it’s my turn. “Kids Next Door, Battle Stations!”

Recipe makes one double-layered, 3-tiered cake so you need to make at least 2 batches of everything

Ingredients

Coconut Cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature, separated

3 cups cake flour, sifted

3 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

 

Seven-Minute Frosting

1 ½ cups sugar

1/3 cup water

2 egg whites

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

 

1-2 cups shredded coconut (Optional)

 

Buttercream Icing

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

½ cup shortening

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

4 cups (1 pound) powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons coconut milk

Blue food coloring

Green food coloring

Red and yellow food coloring
OR
Red and yellow candy melts

 

Directions

Coconut Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour a 6-inch, an 8-inch, and a 10-inch cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add vanilla and coconut extracts and beat in egg yolks. Add flour mixture and coconut milk alternatingly, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter until just combined.

Divide cake batter amongst pans. Gently tap or drop pans on the counter to remove air pockets. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when the cake is tested. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and wrap completely in plastic wrap. This will help keep your cakes moist. Cool completely on baking racks.

Repeat.

Seven-Minute Frosting:

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan or bottom of a double boiler. Combine sugar, water, egg whites, corn syrup, and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl or top of the double boiler. Place the bowl over the boiling water. Be careful not to let the bowl touch the water or else the frosting may become grainy. Begin beating the mixture with an electric hand mixer on low speed for a minute. Increase the speed to high and beat until stiff and glossy, 5-7 minutes. Remove the frosting from the heat and add the vanilla and coconut extracts. Beat again for 1 minute. 

Repeat.

Buttercream Icing:

In a stand mixer, beat butter and shortening until fluffy. Add vanilla and coconut extracts. Beat powdered sugar in, a little at a time. Scrape down sides of the bowl and add coconut milk. If the icing is too thick, add more coconut milk, ½ teaspoon at a time.

Repeat.

Putting It All Together:

Unwrap cooled cakes. Trim excess cake from the layers so they are all level. Place one of the 10-inch cakes on a strong board or tray. Top the cake with a layer of the seven-minute frosting. Sprinkle some shredded coconut on top of the frosting or mix some in before spreading. Place the second layer on top and ice the entire cake with the seven-minute frosting. Chill until the icing sets. Place one of the 8-inch cakes on a cardboard cake circle. Repeat the filling, layering, and icing process and chill. Do the same thing for the 6-inch cakes.

The cake isn’t too big but it’s heavy, so I used a few dowels to keep everything in place. You don’t necessarily have to do it if it’s not going anywhere or it will be eaten quickly, but it’s better to be safe than saggy. Use a cardboard circle to measure where the middle tier will sit on the bottom one. Lightly trace the circle. Place a dowel (Fat drinking straws work well too.) In the measured area. Mark the height of the cake, remove the dowel, and cut 4-5 dowels to that size. Shove them into the cake along the circle pattern with one in the middle. Repeat the doweling process with the middle tier using 2-3 dowels. Place the middle tier on the bottom one, making sure it’s centered. Stack the top tier on the middle one and chill again. The seven-minute icing needs to be very set before you can decorate it.

Divide the buttercream and color. Scoop the blue icing into a piping bag with a star or other appropriate tip and dot along the top and bottom edges of each tier. Scoop some green icing in a piping bag with a petal or other appropriate tip and pipe small banner decorations along each tier. Each banner has yellow or red decorations, so I cut colored candy melts and pressed them into the banners. Piping small dots using yellow and red icing is fine too. Chill the cake one last time. Light some candles and serve! (Captive party guests are optional.)

Variations: My bottom tier is on the stubby side. I didn’t notice it until it was too late. It doesn’t help that I put it on a deep tray. That was stupid of me. Don’t do it. You’ve got options to increase the height on that bottom tier. You can bake up more cake and add an extra layer. You can even try to steal a little batter from the other layers. 
If you want different sized rounds or edges, just adjust the sizes of the cake pans to fit your needs.

Too bad the Kids Next Door didn’t get to taste their victory. But it beats being the Delightful Children. Laura (The Big Badolescent) isn’t afraid to let them know she hates coconut. They get to feel the agony of defeat twice as hard. As for me, I’d say my mission was a success. (No, my cake decorating skills still aren’t there yet, but I’ll get better eventually.) So pull up a chair and grab a slice of cake. We’re playing party games next!

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!