Carousel Cake

Ingredients List

Instructions

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350° F and arrange racks to oven center. Spray three 9-inch round layer pans with a non-stick spray containing flour and line bottoms with rounds of 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.

Divide batter evenly among pans and bake 30-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool layers in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto racks 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.

For the Sugar Cookies:

Cream butter with sugar until very light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract. Beat well. Sift flour with salt and gradually stir into mixture. Gather dough into a ball, cover and chill well, at least one hour, or overnight. If you like, dough can be prepared several days in advance and held in the refrigerator.

Divide dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a ¼-inch thickness. Cut into animal shapes (we used a Unicorn), hearts, diamonds, etc. to use as decorations on your Carousel. You will need 4-6 animals to decorate the cake’s top and about a dozen medium sized diamonds to decorate the sides of your Carousel. We also used small heart shaped cookies to simulate our Unicorns’ saddles! You will have enough dough to bake about 2 ½ dozen cookies, so bake extras to allow for breakage during “construction” and to serve with slices of cake at the party!

Arrange cookies 1 inch apart on a lightly greased (a nonstick spray is fine) baking sheet and bake in the center of a preheated 350° F oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Cool 5 minutes, then remove cookies to a rack to thoroughly cool before decorating.

If desired, cookies can be baked a day or two in advance and held in an airtight container at room temperature.

For the Cookie Paint:

Stir confectioners' sugar and milk with a whisk to a smooth “painting consistency”. Thicken with additional sugar, or thin with additional milk, as needed. This icing "paint" can be prepared in advance and held in a covered container at room temperature for several days. Paint cookies with icing “paint” and dust with colorful sugar sprinkles while “paint” is wet. (“Paint” will dry within 5-10 minutes).

To Create a Carousel:

Spread a spoonful of icing onto the center of the cake plate to secure the cake to the platter and prevent sliding. Stack layers, spreading icing evenly between the layers and smoothly over the top and sides of the cake. Do not worry if your icing is not perfectly smooth. Imperfections will fade away once your cake is fully decorated. Dust top of cake with a light coating of colored sugar sprinkles. Insert the decorating coupler into the pastry bag or a zipper-style freezer bag with snipped corner and attach the large star tip. Pipe decorative swirls around the base of the cake. Change decorating tip to a small tip and attach candies to cookies, as desired. Insert Candy Canes about 1 inch into top of cake. Pipe a swirl of icing to the backs of the Carousel animals and attach them to their “poles”. Let their feet touch the surface of the cake for added support. Top each pole with a swirl of icing and a colorful gumdrop. Pipe a small dab of icing to the backs of the geometric cookies and attach them all around the sides of the cake and let the ride begin!