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Sesame Street Cake
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Cake Submitted by Heather H. from The Colony, Texas.
I baked an 11"x15" Sesame Street cake using 2 ½ boxes and two 8"x8" square cakes using 1 ½ boxes of Betty Crocker's Golden Vanilla flavor cake mix – my most popular flavor!
I test each cake's doneness with a toothpick and take the cake out when the toothpick comes out slightly tacky – not all the way clean. This keeps the cake from being too dry as the cake will continue to bake on it's own for a few minutes simply from the heat that it retains. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, I place a clean kitchen towel over the entire cake and gently press down on the towel all over the cake – this presses out any air pockets and levels the cake without cutting any of the cake away. After pressing the cake until it's level, I layer a couple more towels over the cake while it cools completely – this keeps all the moisture trapped in the cake! These techniques make for a "melt-in-your-mouth" consistency!
I made two batches of homemade buttercream frosting: For one batch mix on low speed: 2 cups Crisco with 2 Tbsp meringue powder. In a measuring cup combine ½ cup water, 1 tsp clear vanilla extract, 1 tsp clear butter extract, ½ tsp almond extract, 1 tsp salt. Alternate adding 2 lbs powdered sugar and the extracts mixture a little at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Do not beat for too long as air bubbles will get trapped in the frosting and will make it harder to smooth the frosting on the cake.
I frosted the 11"x15" cake with white frosting and let sit for about 30 minutes to "crust". I reserved about 1 ½ cups of white frosting and tinted the rest: measures are approximate ~ ½ cup yellow, ½ cup red, ½ cup orange, ¼ cup black, 1/8 cup pink, 1/8 cup brown, all remaining frosting I tinted royal blue. This is the most time consuming part of the process – that's a lot of color!!
To form the squares for each character, I used a clean ruler to mark the center of the short edge of the Sesame Street birthday cake at about 5 ½ inches and then marked 5 ½ inches from the end on each of the long sides. I then drew 5 ½" x 5 ½ " boxes using a toothpick and the straight edge of the ruler – two squares at each short end of the cake. I smoothly frosted in each square with the corresponding color of frosting: The top left box I frosted with red for Elmo, the top right box I frosted yellow for Big Bird, the bottom left box I frosted orange for Zoe, and the bottom right box I frosted royal blue for Cookie Monster. I free handed Elmo and Cookie Monster's mouths in black with a #4 tip and then smoothed with a spatula.
I free handed Zoe's mouth in red with a #4 tip and smoothed with a spatula. For Big Bird's mouth, I felt a little apprehensive about free handing it, so I scanned the invitation into the computer and cropped to just show the Big Bird square. I enlarged that square to be 5 ½" x 5 ½". I cut out his facial features and laid the paper on the Sesame Street cake on the yellow frosted square and traced around it with a toothpick. I was then able to use a #3 tip with orange frosting to trace his beak and feathers detail. I gave each character their googly eyes using a tip #12 with white frosting. I just squeezed in place until the mound was the right size and shape for each character. If any smoothing was required, I used a tapered spatula to carefully smooth out the eyes without ruining the shape. I added the black circle on each eye with a #5 tip.
I let the frosting set while I finished the other details and then came back and gently pressed the black with my finger to flatten. I used the same technique for Elmo's nose in orange and Zoe's nose in pink with a #12 tip. I freehanded Zoe's eyebrows and Cookie Monster's Cookie with a #4 tip and brown frosting - Zoe's bows with a #3 tip and pink frosting - as well as Big Birds mouth and eye details with red, pink and blue frosting and #3 tips. I bordered each square and the top of the Sesame Street cake with #18 tip shell border and then bordered the bottom of the cake with a #21 tip shell border. I wrote the Happy Birthday message with a #3 tip in pink frosting in the center of the cake where the "You're Invited" message was on the invitation.
For the coordinating Cookie Monster "family" cake, I layered the two 8"x8" square cakes with blue frosting in the middle. Then I frosted the entire cake with royal blue frosting. I freehanded his big black smile with a #5 tip and then smoothed it with a tapered spatula; and his white googly eyes with a #12 tip smoothing as necessary with a tapered spatula. I added the black details for his eyes with the #5 tip and allowed it to "crust" then came back and pressed them with my finger to flatten. I filled in the rest of the top of the cake in blue frosting with tip #233 to make Cookie Monster's fur. I free handed the cookie with brown frosting and a #4 tip and then added the chocolate chips with black frosting and a #5 tip. I bordered the bottom of the cake with a #10 tip smooth shell border.
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