Chapter Thirty-Five

The Holler Holler

October Volume One

It’s the month of tricks and treats, and we’re giving you a little of both with this showstopper of a cake. From the outside it just looks like a fancy Halloween cake, but when you slice into it, there’s a special little treat inside – and all it takes is a couple little kitchen tricks. Now, this cake is on the sweet side. It’s candy corn, y’all. So, you might want to plan a bit of a heavier supper before you eat it or brew up some extra strong coffee to cut through the sugar. Courtesy of Delphine Maguire.

Cake

(you’ll need to make this recipe three times to make three layers)

1 ½ cup sifted cake flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

½ cup unsalted butter

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

½ cup whole milk (or if you don’t have whole, just use ¼ cup 2 percent and ¼ cup cream)

Candy corn

Yellow and red food coloring

• Preheat oven to 400

• Prepare three 8-inch cake pans (if you only have the one you’ll have to bake one layer, clean the pan, prepare another batch, and so on. Just keep the other layers covered in between baking)

• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a big mixing bowl

• Beat in little bits of the butter at a time until the mixture looks like sand. You don’t want to go too fast or it will melt

• Mix in the sugar one tablespoon at a time

• Beat in the eggs one at a time, cracking into another bowl first

• Add in the milk and vanilla just until blended. Don’t overwork it or you’ll end up with a tough cake

• Pour into prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes until a knife poked into the middle comes out clean

• Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then turn out onto the cooling rack to cool completely

• Repeat process, adding several drops of yellow food coloring

• Repeat process, adding a few drops of yellow food coloring and red food coloring to make orange

• Cool all layers completely before assembling

Candy Corn Frosting

Ice

Water

1 ½ cups candy corn

3/4 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 ½ pounds powdered sugar

Dash salt

• Make an ice bath with the ice and water in a big bowl

• Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add cream and butter

• Whisk until melted and combined

• Add in candy corn a little at a time, stirring until melted

• Remove pan from heat and add powdered sugar and salt

• Put the pan in the ice bath, but be careful not to get any of the water in the pot

• Use a hand mixer to beat the frosting until it’s fluffy

Buttercream

1 cup butter

1 container marshmallow fluff

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

Orange and yellow food coloring

• Cream butter and fluff together

• Add in vanilla

• Add powdered sugar a little at a time until totally blended

• Divide into three bowls

• Color one yellow and one orange

Put it all together…

• Put the orange layer of cake on your plate and slice into two layers

• Slather the bottom later with buttercream and add the top layer

• Use a small bowl or large soup mug to trace around with a knife and cut through just the top orange layer, removing the middle. You want a couple inches all around

• Repeat the slice-and-slather with the yellow cake and place on top of the orange, cutting out the middle of both

• Repeat again with the white layer and cut out the circle

• Fill the hole in the cake with candy corn and place the white cake on top so that the top is solid

• Do a crumb coat with buttercream then ice with the candy corn frosting

• Put the three colors of the buttercream in a piping bag so there is a wide stripe of each color

• Pipe little stars around the bottom so it ends up all swirly

• Add a candy corn in the middle of every few little stars