Squeeeeeeeee!
Wandering through Williams-Sonoma (because I like to live dangerously), I turned the corner and stumbled over The Great Cupcake Cake display. After regaining control of all my faculties, I turned to my husband and immediately began with the imploring and the bouncing up and down. Don't scoff, it usually works. Thank God one of the kids had a birthday coming up. Valid argument, case closed.
Once I got it home I began immediately freaking out about whether it would actually work. There is a recipe provided on the packaging. I mean come on, this is W-S, of course there is a recipe. I didn't use it as it probably involved home-threshed wheat and fresh quince jelly. I simply proceeded with my usual tactic when confronted with a molded cake pan: use 2 box mixes and have leftovers. I'm a rebel like that.
Pro tip: Always, always thoroughly lube the hell out of your molded cake pans. Go crazy, grab that butter and get into every crack and crevice. I used to just spray a little Pam but now I'm more diligent than a German proctologist. I get it ALL, twice. Then dust with flour. Don't skip this step, don't underestimate the importance of being able to FREE your cake from the pan. A molded cake still half stuck in the mold is kinda sad.
It will take a long time to bake a cake this deep. You will probably get nervous and chew your nails. It's okay, this is a normal step in the process.
You will need a lot of frosting, especially if you are doing the cupcake bottom in frosting, so plan ahead for this. It ended up looking so cool we had several people disbelieve it's realness. You thought that only happened on Ace of Cakes? Me too.
We baked the leftover cake mix into a large flat circle for a "plate", which my husband covered and decorated with fondant. Yeah, he's pretty awesome.
Then for some reason, we lost our minds and made a bunch of cupcakes, worried there wouldn't be enough cake. Reality check: THERE WILL BE ENOUGH CAKE WITHOUT THE CUPCAKES. Anyway, they turned out cute and Pete jumped in again with the fondant to make Happy Birthday letters.
Here is a 12-second video of the cake in action, with all her little cake babies. You can hear me stage whispering "Go!" and beelzebebe grunting in the background, so it's extra exciting. And yes, THE Ariel Waldman left a comment. That elicited squeeeeee #2.
Giant Cupcake Cake! on 12seconds.tv
