A “Happy Birthday Cake” for Jacque made by Jessica her sister. This was a fun cake to make you can see the links below for the decorating the cake idea below.

Chocolate Cake

Mix together:

*1 1/2 cups Cake Flour
*1 1/2 cups Sugar
*1/2 cup Butter, at room temperature
*1/3 Hershey’s Dark Cocoa Powder
*1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
*1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Add the following to the above:

*2 1/2 ounce unsweetened Chocolate squares, melted
*1/2 cup Hot Water, add slowly
*1 teaspoon Vanilla
*2 large eggs, at room temperature adding one at a time in mixer
*1/2 cup Buttermilk

*Parchment Paper, cut out two 6 inches circles
*Cooking Spray, spray pans and parchment paper
*2 6 x 2 inch Cake Pans, for Hot Tub Pig Cake

Pre-heat the oven to 350*F.

Mix the cake ingredients in a mixer starting on low speed then medium-low until all ingredients are blended together and smooth, being careful not to over mix.

Pour cake batter into cake pans filling 2/3 of the way. place filled cake pans in the center of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.

Cool, you can freeze cake until ready to decorate.

*Note: This recipe makes two 9 inch cakes or 24 cupcakes, so you will have extra batter for making the Hot Tub Pig Cake, I made cupcakes with the remaining batter. See a Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting/KitKat Cupcakes

Marshmallow Fondant from Taste Better from Scratch

The Decorating Instructions for Ganache recipe is from Here.

The Chocolate Cake recipe adapted from Baking from the Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro

Decorating Cake:

*Pink Marshmallow Fondant, fondant tools, etc…
*Full size Kit Kats, I purchased 8
*Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache

*7 ounces Hershey’s Dark Chocolate
*6.7 fluid ounces Whipping Cream

On stove warm the chocolate and cream in a double boiler/bowl over a simmering sauce pan of water, until combined and then let cool, whisk to make ganache light and fluffy.

Frost cake with a light coating of ganache, and add Kit Kats using the ganache as glue for holding the Kit Kats. Pour the remaining ganache on the top of the cake and add the marshmallow fondant pigs. See pictures and/or the above link for decorating.

Marshmallow Fondant

Recipe makes 2-3 cups fondant

*1 bag 16 ounce fresh Mini Marshmallows
*2-5 tablespoons of Water, adjust as needed for
*6-8 cups of Confectioners’ Sugar, adjust as needed
*1/3 cup Vegetable Shortening, for greasing hands, counter top and as a coating when storing fondant in the refrigerator
*Icing food coloring, pink for the pigs etc…

In a Microwaveable bowl place mini marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water for about 30 seconds melt the marshmallows in intervals of 30 seconds until melted.

Mix/fold gently 6 cups of confectioners’ sugar in melted marshmallows adding or as much as needed to knead the fondant. Fondant needs to be kneaded so, grease kneading surface and hands with vegetable shortening and re-apply as needed to keep from sticking. Add water as needed for making fondant (1/2 tablespoon at a time ) should not be crumbly or tear. Knead fondant until a firm smooth ball that doesn’t crack or tear, about 8 minutes. (For putting fondant on a cake, roll out flat about 1/8 of an inch thick and place on cake, cookies and etc…. or we used it to make the pig characters for our cake see instructions/link above.

Add icing color and knead into fondant. (I haven’t tried putting in the icing color in the melted marshmallow before adding confectioners’ but I will have to try that next time I make this recipe.)

You can store fondant in the fridge for a few weeks if stored properly. Cover fondant with a thin layer of shortening and cover with plastic wrap and then in a resealable bag with air removed. Re-knead when ready to use again and add 1/2 tablespoon of water as needed.

Enjoy!

Jessica and Lindy