Slumber Party Cake

Ingredients List

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 then 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.

For the Candy Clay Stars and Moons:

Beat shortening with corn syrup, salt and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Mixture will be crumbly. Add food coloring, gather together by hand and knead until smooth and pliable. If mixture become too pliable, add a little more confectioners' sugar—too stiff, add a drop or two of water. Store in plastic zipper-style bags at room temperature. Candy Clay can be prepared several days in advance, if desired.

Roll candy clay out onto wax or parchment paper and cut into stars and moons with miniature cutters. Peel away excess clay, knead and re-roll scraps. Allow extra stars and moons to dry at room temperature overnight and serve as homemade candies at the party!

To Create Slumber Party Cake:

Spread a spoonful of icing directly onto the cake platter to secure the cake well. Tint about 1 cup of icing pink and spread across 1/4 of the top and over the sides of the cake to simulate the “bed sheet”. Spoon remaining pink icing into a small pastry bag or a zipper-style freezer bag with one corner snipped away fitted with a straight flower tip (we use # 150) and set aside. Smoothly ice the remaining 3/4 of the cake with untinted icing. Slice Twinkies in half lengthwise and place rounded side up on cake top, beginning just at the line of white icing. (Discard bottom, flat half of Twinkie.) Spread icing over tops and sides of “bodies” and allow to stand about 30 minutes to “set”. Once icing has set, it can be patted smoothly with the back of a spoon over the “bodies” to simulate a snugly fitted blanket. Spoon remaining untinted icing into a pastry bag or zipper-style freezer bag with one corner snipped away fitted with a large leaf tip (we used # 70). Pipe “dust ruffle” around bottom edge of cake by holding the leaf tip perpendicular to the cake and piping with a slight back-and-forth motion.

Slice marshmallows in half to form two semi-circles and place cut side down onto the pink icing to form pillows. Rest vanilla wafers onto the “pillows”, then pipe the “blanket’s binding” just below the “chins”. Ruffle the binding with a slight back and forth motion for a realistic look. Divide remaining icing and tint as desired for hair, eyes and mouths. Any leftover pink icing can be re-tinted to red for mouths or to orange (by adding yellow) for hair. Fit pastry bags or zipper-style freezer bags with one corner snipped with grass tips (# 233) for hair and small round tips (# 4 and # 5) for eyes and mouths. Pipe faces onto the wafers, then add several different hair styles onto the “sleepy-heads”—curly, straight, page-boy, etc. While icing is still fresh, tie small hair bows with thin satin ribbon and press into hair with a toothpick.

And last, but not least, add a finishing touch of candy clay stars and moons onto the “blanket” and let the lullaby (yeah- right) begin!