Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Pink Snowball Cake

Not really sure if I've made this clear, but I'm not really a pink girl. AS a kid I was a proud tomboy, often the only female at boy birthday parties and a fierce rejector of dresses. Heck, I once told the neighbor kid to punch me in the stomach just to prove how strong I was. Yep. 





I've definitely toned it down since then, but I still feel more at ease around males compared to females, get pretty tuckered out by shopping excursions, and would much rather play video games than watch something with the word Liar, Gossip or Vampire in the title. I'm gonna stop now before I make any more stereotypes, haha. 




Point I'm trying to make is...I made a pink, fluffy, girly cake and you should be surprised. It's pretty, and totally not my original idea. Sprinkle Bakes is a total genius and makes me want to be fancy and bake pink things. And that is something to be impressed with.



 Pink Snowball Cake
(This cake is modeled after those Hostess Snoball thingies you can buy at convenience stores. Mine didn't turn out as hemisphery looking as I wanted, so I'd recommend using a 2 qt bowl, nothing larger)

 Cake

6 tbsp. cocoa

6 tbsp hot water
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter (12 tbsp)
1 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
½ cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 2 quart heat-proof bowl (stainless or pyrex) with shortening and lightly flour. Set aside.
Whisk together cocoa and hot water.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour mixture into a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer until mixture has cooled enough to add the eggs without scrambling them.

Add eggs, vanilla, and then cocoa mixture.  Beat until well combined.  Reduce mixer speed and add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream.

Pour into greased bowl and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.  Let cool slightly. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, then turn out onto a cake stand or serving tray lined with wax paper strips. Let cool completely.  Cut the dome of the cake off about 1/3 of the way down from the top.  With your fingers, press to make an indentation in the middle of the base of the cake.  This will make room for the marshmallow filling without wasting any cake.

 1 lb unsalted butter, softened
1 16 oz. jar marshmallow cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 generous cup sweetened flaked coconut 
 Pink soft gel food color

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until fluffy.  Add marshmallow cream and beat again, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.  When thoroughly combined, remove 1 cup of the white mixture and place in the center of the cut cake.  Place the top of the cake over the marshmallow center and line up the edges as best as possible.

Add the 1 cup of confectioners' sugar to the remaining frosting.  Mix well. Use a small dab of pink food coloring to tint the frosting pastel pink.  Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl so no white streaks remain.  Frost cake with an offset spatula. 

In a medium bowl, tint coconut with a drop of pink gel food coloring.  Mix well - you can use a fork but I found my fingers did a much better job.  Coat frosted cake with pink coconut.  Remove wax paper strips from underneath the cake and tidy up the serving plate edges if coconut remnants are present.

2 comments:

  1. thanks for sharing this one, I have always wondered if there was a recipe out there for these! I will need to try this-I like the hostess ones, so I am sure these are delicious homemade. Great post.

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  2. If you're in a time crunch and you want something even simpler, here's the link for her inspiration http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/snowball-cake-114038.aspx

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