This Great Cake Contest entry was submitted by goodyearaz from Galloway, Ohio: I found this "Magician's Hat" on the internet and tweaked it a bit for my husband's grandfather's 83rd birthday. He just loves doing magic tricks.
Find More: Birthday Cakes, Holiday & Seasonal Cakes, Birthday Cupcakes
What you'll need
- 1 1/2 CUPS OF GRANULATED SUGAR
- 1 CUP MAYONNAISE***
- 1 TSP VANILLA
- 1/4 CUP OF BOILING WATER
- 1 CUP OF COOL WATER
- 2 CUPS OF FLOUR (SIFTED)
- 1 TSP OF BAKING SODA
- 1 TSP OF BAKING POWDER
- 3 TBLSP OF HERSHEY'S COCOA
- ***I usually use Miracle Whip
How to make it
In a large mixing bowl blend with a spoon the SUGAR and the MAYONNAISE until smooth and creamy. Stir in the VANILLA.
In a small bowl stir together the HERSHEY'S COCOA and the BAKING SODA. Very carefully add to it the 1/4 CUP OF BOILING HOT WATER and stir together till smooth with a spoon. Mix this COCOA mixture thoroughly with the SUGAR, MAYO AND VANILLA mixture in the large mixing bowl. You can use beaters on a low speed now as you slowly mix in the 1 CUP OF WATER.
Sift together the FLOUR AND BAKING POWDER. Add this to the cake batter slowly using a med speed on the beaters until blended smooth. Do not overbeat.
Grease and flour your baking pan. It is a very moist cake. BAKE at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes depending on your oven. Like with other cakes you can test doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean it is done OR when cake is done the sides will be dry and will pull away from the edge of the pan. Cool in pan at least 15 minutes before trying to remove it. Cool completely before icing.
To make this cake, I followed the direction for my chocolate cake(above) and baked it in 2 8x3 round pans. Once cool, I torted the cakes into 3 sections, placed icing between them and then stacked all 6 layers (I followed a Wilton recipe for making the chocolate icing). Once stacked, I colored the icing black with gel icing color and iced the sides.
I made the brim of the hat with several cake boards taped together, fancy-foil wrapped and then iced-with the same icing I used to ice the cake. Once it crusted over a bit I used additional icing to adhere it to the cake itself. The rabbit is a sugar cookie- store bought premade dough. (Sorry I'm not good with cookies). I rolled out the dough according to the directions on the package, I used the largest bunny cookie cutter I had.
Once cooled I decorated it with colored buttercream icing, jelly bean cut in half for the nose and dark brown candy coated chocolate for the eyes. When I inserted it into the cake, I just piped the icing onto of the hat to give the illusion of arms and paws.
Next I made the playing cards out of fondant. I rolled the fondant as thin as I could possibly roll it, greased up an old playing card, set it directly on the fondant and traced it with a toothpick, several times, then I cut it out with a pizza cutter. Once the fondant dried I placed it on top of the cards I was wanting and just traced them with edible food markers. The cookie and cards were then adhered to cookie sticks using royal icing.
The wand and handkerchief were formed with colored fondant. To make the gloves I rolled out some white fondant, placed my hand on it and traced it lightly with a tooth pick then I used a paring knife to cut it out completely. The coins are the chocolate foil wrapped ones that you can buy nearly anywhere. And finally the dove was purchased at a local hobby store in their wedding department. It was "glued" to the wand with royal icing.
So in all, everything on the cake is edible with the exception on the dove and the rim of the hat.
