Watermelon Push It Up Cakes Food

WATERMELON CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 8-inch cake pans and a 2-quart (8-inch) metal bowl with cooking spray and coat with flour, tapping out the excess. Line the bottoms of the cake pans with circles of parchment.
• Toss the chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon of the flour in a small bowl and set aside.
• In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, the remaining flour and 2 cups cold water. Beat on low speed just to combine, then increase the speed to high and beat until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Add red food coloring to deepen the shade from light to dark pink (15 to 20 drops). Stir the flour-coated chocolate chips into the batter. Pour half of the batter into the bowl and divide the remaining batter between the 2 cake pans.
• Bake all 3 cakes until the cake rounds (not the bowl) are risen and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes. Remove the cake rounds to a cooling rack, reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and continue to bake the cake in the bowl until it is risen and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes more. Cool the bowl cake on a rack, then unmold all three cakes and remove the parchment from the rounds.
• With a serrated knife, cut the domed tops from all 3 cakes to flatten them, and dust off any excess crumbs.
• Remove a heaping 1/4 cup of the frosting to a small bowl and stir in enough red food coloring to approximately match the color of the inside of the cake. Place 1 cake round, cut-side up, on a serving plate. Spread a very thin layer of red frosting on the layer. You do not want the layer to be visible when you cut the cake, it is just to glue the layers together. Top with the second cake round, cut-side down. Spread with another very thin layer of red frosting. Top with the domed cake.
• Frost the entire cake with a layer of white frosting about 1/4 inch thick to make the watermelon "rind." Let the frosting dry and harden in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes
• Meanwhile, put the remaining frosting in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and add green food coloring, about 15 drops to start, to make a medium-pale green color several shades lighter than your fruit candy.
• Smooth the green frosting over the white layer, taking care not to combine the two colors. Drape the green fruit candy over the cake, cutting to fit as necessary, starting in the center like spokes in a wheel to make the lines on the watermelon. Top with the black or brown licorice candy as a stem.

WATERMELON PULL-APART CUPCAKE CAKE

Steps:

• Reserve about 3/4 cup white buttercream in a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Color about 1 1/2 cups buttercream deep green. Color about 3 cups buttercream deep pink, with a few drops of red added to make the color of ripe watermelon.
• Arrange 19 cupcakes in a triangle shape, starting with 1 at the top and ending with 6 at the bottom, sloping the bottom sides up to resemble the curved rind of a watermelon wedge.
• Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to dollop about 1/4 cup green buttercream on each of the 6 cupcakes in the bottom row. Smooth with a small offset spatula, covering the tops and sides (but not the paper liners), to make a solid line of green for the rind.
• Wash and dry the ice cream scoop and offset spatula. Dollop about 1/4 cup pink buttercream on each of the remaining cupcakes and smooth the tops and sides with the offset spatula. Shape the frosting on the top cupcake into a point to resemble the tip of a watermelon wedge.
• Wash the offset spatula again. Pipe a curved line of white buttercream along where the pink and green buttercream meet. Smooth with the tip of the offset spatula to make the inner white part of the watermelon rind.
• Press jelly beans in a random pattern to make watermelon seeds.

WATERMELON 'CAKE'

Steps:

• Cut 2-inch-thick slice from both ends of watermelon; discard trimmed slices. Stand watermelon on cutting board. Starting at top of melon, use long thin sharp knife to carefully cut between rind and fruit all around watermelon to separate rind from fruit. Remove and discard rind.
• Pat melon with paper towels to dry; place on platter. Frost with COOL WHIP.
• Decorate with remaining ingredients to resemble photo.