Olympic Champion Cake

A list of ingredients you will need:

Equipment and Decorating Supplies:

One 9 X 13-inch sheet cake pan

Wax paper or parchment paper, for lining pan

Large Rectangular Cake Platter (we used a glass cutting board – about 11 X 15 inch)

6-inch Lollipop Sticks, located where cake decorating supplies are sold, for flag poles

Construction Paper or Colorful Card Stock, for flags

Scissors

Non-Toxic Craft Glue

Markers – we used Gold and Black

One 3-inch round cookie cutter or a glass/cup with about a 3 inch diameter, for “drawing” Olympic Circles on top of cake

food coloring (paste, for more intense colors)

Six Pastry Tubes or Zipper-Style Freezer Bags

Six plastic Decorating Tip Couplers (available where cake decorating supplies are sold)

Star Tip # 19 (for piping Olympic Star Circles)

Leaf Tip # 70 (for “skirting” around bottom edge of cake)

Star Tip # 32 (for festive flag pole rosettes)

For the Cake:

1 cup - butter, softened

½ cup - vegetable shortening

2 ¾ cups - Domino® Granulated Sugar

5 - large eggs

3 cups - cake flour, sifted

¼ tsp. - baking powder

¾ cup - evaporated milk

¼ cup - water

2 tsp. - vanilla extract

For the Icing:

1 cup - butter, softened

1 cup - vegetable shortening

2 lbs. - Domino® Confectioners Sugar

¼ cup - cake flour

2 tsp. - vanilla extract

4-5 tbsp. - milk

Instructions »

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F and arrange rack to oven center. Spray one 9 X 13-inch pan with a no-stick spray containing flour and line the bottom with wax paper or parchment paper. Spray top of paper again for a little added insurance!

Cream butter and shortening with sugar until very light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour with baking powder and set aside. Combine milk with water and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture to batter alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan and bake 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to complete cooling. Cool thoroughly before icing.

For the Icing:

Beat butter and shortening until smooth and creamy. Whisk confectioners' sugar with flour until evenly blended, then gradually beat into butter mixture. Add vanilla extract and milk, beating to a good spreading and piping consistency.

To Create Olympic Champion Cake:

Spread a spoonful of icing directly onto cake plate to “glue” cake to plate and prevent sliding later. Then cover top and sides of cake with a smooth layer of icing. Do not worry if your icing is not perfectly smooth. Imperfections will virtually fade away once your cake if fully decorated! Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter or a drinking glass with about a 3 inch diameter, “score” five interlocking Olympic Circles onto the center of the cake. If you make a mistake, simply wipe your slate clean and try again.

To use a zipper-style freezer bag as a pastry tube, simple snip off one corner of the bag and insert a plastic coupler into the bag so it will stick out of the hole, but fits snugly. Add Leaf Tip # 70 to the outside of the coupler and screw on outer fastener. Fill bag with icing and zip shut. Hold tip perpendicular to cake and squiggle out a “skirt” using a back and forth motion all around the bottom of the cake. Change out tip (That’s why we used the coupler!) to a large star (we used # 32) and pipe large rosettes around the top edge of the cake.

Divide remaining icing into five equal portions and tint each a different color using food coloring. Snip one corner on each of the five zipper-style freezer bags and insert couplers as above. Fill each bag with a different color icing. Attach a small star tip (we used # 19) to the first bag and pipe small stars over one of the scored Olympic Circles. Repeat, washing tip between colors.

Now, if you used zipper-style bags, you can simply discard your zipper bags and save on clean up, but remember to remove couplers from each bag before discarding. They are re-usable!

To make flags, cut paper into rectangles (we used a 2 X 6-inch measure). Fold in half and glue around the top of a 6-inch white lollipop stick. Allow glue to dry, then decorate each flag with the name of one of your Olympic Guests. Insert flags around the edge of the cake and let the games begin!