Tie Dye Poke Cake And Giveaway Recipes

THE TIE DYE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans or line them with wax paper or parchment paper and butter the paper.
• Divide the Classic Vanilla Cake batter evenly among 5 small bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl--1 drop at a time--until the desired intensity of each color is reached. Scoop each color into a disposable pastry bag and snip the tip of the bag. I tie the ends of the pastry bags with plastic wrap or rubber bands to keep the batter in. Pipe the batter into the first pan, one color at a time, one over the next. (You could also use a spoon, but the pastry bags make this much easier.) Repeat with the remaining 2 pans.
• To make the tie dye effect, carefully drag a skewer completely through the batter from the center out to create a pattern with the colors. Don't overmix the colors.
• Bake until the middle of the cake feels springy when you gently press your finger against it, 35 to 40 minutes. Set the cakes aside to cool completely before icing.
• Level the cakes with a serrated knife. Place one layer on a cake turntable and frost the top with the Vanilla Icing. Add the second cake layer and frost the top. Place the third layer on top and cover the entire cake with a "crumb" coat of vanilla icing. I do a crumb coat--a thin layer of icing spread around the cake to seal in all the crumbs and ensure a neat finish. Unless it's a chocolate cake, the crumb coat is done with vanilla icing. It looks so clean and creates a nice blank canvas for decorating.
• Divide the Vanilla Glaze between 2 mixing bowls. Add pink food coloring to one bowl and blue food coloring to the other bowl--1 drop at a time--until the desired intensity of each color is reached. The food coloring will thin out the glaze a bit. You can always add more liquid, but you can't take it away. Working with an offset spatula, spread pink glaze over the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides. Spread the blue glaze over the pink, but do not let it completely cover the pink. Finally, spoon more pink glaze onto the center of the cake top. Alternate the glazes just like you did with the batter. Use a skewer to pull the glaze from the center out to the edge and make the tie dye design. Work quickly before the glaze starts to dry.
• With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter for 1 minute on high speed, then scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the granulated sugar and beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Add the vanilla extract. While mixing at medium-low speed, add the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the edges of the bowl midway through.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, and sea salt in a separate bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add half the flour mixture. When it's mostly incorporated, add half the milk. Add the remainder of the dry and wet ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Stop mixing as soon as you have a smooth batter.
• With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the butter on high speed for 1 minute. Add the vanilla and whip just to incorporate.
• In a separate bowl, mix the confectioners' sugar and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the sugar mixture 1 cup at a time until completely incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl between additions. Whip on high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
• With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla. Mix on low speed until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, add a little more milk to thin it to the desired consistency.
• If not using within 10 minutes of mixing, cover the bowl with plastic wrap to keep the glaze from drying out. Store at room temperature.

TIE DYE POKE CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with baking spray with flour. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan, using water, oil and egg whites. Cool in pan on cooling rack 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in 3 separate bowls, pour 1/3 cup of the boiling water over each flavored gelatin; stir until gelatin is dissolved. Poke warm cake every inch with wooden skewer halfway into cake, twisting skewer back and forth. Pour each color gelatin randomly over cake, allowing gelatin to fill in holes. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Frost cake. With decorating gels, draw vertical lines 1/4 inch apart on frosting, alternating colors. Pull fine-tip paintbrush in straight line across all colors. Repeat, working back and forth from one side of cake to the other to create a tie-dye effect.
• Roll fondant to 1/8-inch thickness; cut into rounds and flower shapes. Insert toothpicks halfway into cutouts; decorate cake slices as desired.

RAINBOW POKE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Spray a 9" x 13" cake pan with non-stick cooking spray then line bottom with parchment paper and spray again with non-stick cooking spray. Set pan aside for now.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt until well mixed. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat together butter, granulated sugar and vegetable oil until well creamed together (about 5 minutes of beating with electric mixer on high speed).
• Beat in eggs and vanilla extract until well mixed (about 1 minute).
• Beat half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Don't overmix - just beat until most of the flour is combined.
• Beat in all of the milk until combined (again, don't overmix).
• Beat in the remaining half of the dry mixture just until you no longer see dry flour in the batter. Don't overmix or your cake will be dry.
• Separate batter evenly between 6 bowls. This works out to be about 235 grams of batter per bowl.
• Use gel food coloring to color each bowl of batter a different color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). Stir just until color is mixed in well but try not to overmix the batter.
• Lay the prepared cake pan vertically in front of you on the counter. Use a spoon to scoop a small amount of red batter (about 1/8 of the red batter) into the top left side of the cake pan. Then move onto a scoop of orange, then yellow, green, blue and purple. There should be 6 spoonfuls of batter in the top row of the vertical-facing cake pan.
• Start on the second row of batter by starting with the orange batter, then yellow, green, blue, purple and finishing off on red. Again, 6 spoonfuls of batter across the second row. As you start each row, start with the next color in the rainbow. So for example, the first row was red first, the second row was orange first, the third row will be yellow first, and so on. Continue until you use up all the batter and fill the cake pan. You don't want any space between the rows so give the pan a little counter tap to level it out or use a spoon to fill in any holes in the batter before baking.
• Place cake in oven for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
• While cake is still warm, add the vanilla pudding.
• In a large bowl, whisk together vanilla pudding mix and cold milk for two minutes until pudding thickens.
• Using the round handle end of a wooden spoon, poke multiple holes ¾ of the way through the cake. You'll want lots of holes here for the pudding to go into.
• Use a spatula to spread pudding evenly over the cake and into each of the poke holes.
• Let set in refrigerator for 1 hour before adding frosting.
• In a large bowl, beat together heavy cream and confectioners' sugar until soft peaks form (about 5 minutes.
• Spread frosting evenly over cake. Add sprinkles if desired.
• Store in a sealed food storage container in fridge for up to 3 days.