Hat Cake Food

HAT CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Bake and cool cake as directed on box--except use one 8-inch round pan and one 9-inch round pan. For easier handling, refrigerate or freeze cake 30 to 60 minutes or until firm.
• Cut 6-inch circle out of waxed paper; place on 8-inch layer. Cut cake around circle with small knife to make 6-inch round layer; place on 9-inch layer, attaching pieces with small amount of frosting. Frost with a thin layer of frosting. Refrigerate or freeze 30 to 60 minutes to set frosting.
• Frost cake. Trim hat with ribbon and flowers. Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

WITCH'S HAT CAKE

Steps:

• Prepare cake mix batter according to package directions. Place 2 tablespoons batter into each of five paper-lined muffin cups. Spread remaining batter in a greased 11x7-in. square baking pan. , Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Cool cake for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely., Cut cake into an 8x8x6-in. triangle. Cut the cake scraps into two 4x4x3-in. triangles. Save the remaining cake for another use., For hat, position the large triangle on a 16-in. square covered board. For the face, place the two smaller triangles below the hat with the 3-in. sides touching the base of the hat. Arrange cupcakes around the edge of the face. (see diagram/photo)., Place 1 cup frosting in a bowl; stir in baking cocoa. Place remaining frosting in a bowl; tint green. Frost witch's hat with cocoa frosting. Frost remaining cake and cupcakes with green icing., Cut marshmallow in half. Place on cake for eyes; add M&M's for pupils. Add spearmint leaf nose, red licorice mouth and a burnt peanut wart.

WINTER HAT CAKE

Steps:

• Prepare the cake mix according to the package instructions and bake it in a doll dress cake pan. Let cool for 10 minutes.
• While the cake is still in the pan, trim off the top, using the edge of the pan as a guide. This will give you a flat top. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
• Meanwhile, transfer the frosting to a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed, adding a couple of drops of food coloring at a time to achieve the desired shade of blue.
• Cut the cake horizontally into 4 layers using a long serrated knife. Use a 4-inch round cutter to cut a hole in the center of the 2 largest layers on the bottom. Reserve the cutouts.
• Place the bottom layer on a cake board or cake plate and frost the top with the frosting. Place the second cake layer on top, so that the sides and center holes line up. Fill the well in the cake with the candy-coated chocolates. Frost the top of the second layer, and place the third layer on top. Repeat with the frosting and top cake layer. Using a limited amount of frosting, frost a thin crumb coat over the cake. Refrigerate to firm up, about 30 minutes. Frost the cake with more frosting.
• Fit a pastry bag with a coupler (or you can use multiple piping bags). Fit the bag with a large star tip and fill the bag with frosting. (See Cook's Note.)
• Use a butter knife to lightly score 5 evenly-spaced vertical lines down the side of the cake. Using the pastry bag with the large star tip and following one of the scored lines from top to bottom, pipe overlapping diagonal 2-inch mounds of frosting, lifting and pulling down in alternating directions to make a braid. Repeat the pattern down the remaining scored lines.
• Switch to a smaller star tip on the pastry bag. Working from the top of the cake down, pipe overlapping semi-circles between each of the braided lines. Repeat around the rest of the cake.
• Switch to a small plain round tip on the pastry bag. Pipe straight lines down both sides of each semi-circle line. Next to these, pipe lines of dots, starting from the top to the bottom. Next to these, pipe straight lines. Repeat around the cake.
• To make the pom-pom on top of the cake, mix the reserved cake cutouts with 1/4 cup frosting in a medium bowl until mostly smooth. Form a cake ball the size of a baseball and refrigerate it on a plate until firm, about 10 minutes.
• Place the coconut in a 1-gallon resealable plastic bag and add 2 drops of blue food coloring. Shake the bag to color the coconut. Remove half the coconut to a shallow bowl. Add 6 more drops of the food coloring to the remaining coconut in the bag. Shake the bag to color the coconut and transfer it to a second shallow bowl.
• Roll the cake ball in the dark blue coconut followed by the light blue coconut until fully coated. Place the cake ball on top of the cake. Press the remaining coconut around the bottom of the cake to form the trim.

LUCKY CHARMS® LEPRECHAUN HAT CAKE

Steps:

• Line 10-inch round cake pan with sheets of plastic wrap. Lightly coat plastic wrap with cooking spray.
• In large heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows; cook, stir occasionally, until marshmallows are melted and well mixed with butter. Stir in cereal with large rubber spatula. Pour cereal mixture into pan; press in pan with buttered fingers. Cover; refrigerate until solid, about 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. Spray 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; lightly flour pans.
• In very large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric hand mixer on low speed until combined. Scrape down side of bowl; beat again on medium speed until well combined and no streaks of dry cake mix remain.
• Divide batter evenly among 6 bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each. Using food color, tint 1 bowl of batter red, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 violet. Pour 1 color of batter in each pan. Cover remaining 4 bowls of batter; refrigerate until needed.
• Bake cake layers 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans 5 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.
• Wash and dry cake pans. Bake 2 more colors of batter, repeating above steps. Repeat process until all 6 cake layers are baked and cooled.
• Remove Cereal Treat from refrigerator; unwrap. Place upside-down on serving platter so flattest part of cereal treat is turned upright. Spread small amount of vanilla frosting in center of cereal treat layer. Top with violet cake layer; lightly frost top of violet layer. Place blue cake layer on top of violet layer; lightly frost top. Continue in this manner with green, yellow and orange layers. Place red cake layer on top but do not frost.
• Place remaining frosting in large bowl. Add green food color; mix with electric hand mixer on medium speed until a vibrant green shade is achieved. Frost entire cake with green frosting.
• Using chocolate cupcake icing fitted with plain round tip, draw lines of frosting around base of cake to create "hatband." Fill in lines with more chocolate icing; smooth with off-set metal spatula. Press 4 pretzels into chocolate icing to create "square buckle." Break last pretzel in half; place 1 half horizontally to right of center of buckle to create "buckle latch." (Eat remaining half of pretzel!) Store cake loosely covered with plastic wrap at room temperature.