Popcorn Bag Birthday Cake

My husband loves popcorn, so for his birthday I wanted to make him a popcorn cake. Having never worked with fondant or even attempted to make a 'fancy' cake before, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I went to Michael's to get the fondant and was excited to see that Chef Duff has his own line of cake mix, fondant, and icing! We loved watching Ace of Cakes when it was on Food Network so I had to get his products so we could say that we ate a Duff cake.

I greased a 9 x 13" square pan with cooking spray

I followed (almost) the exact instructions on the cake box. They are a little hard to read here so what it says is...

First: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease one 9" round pan and dust with flour or spray with non-stick cooking spray. (I used a square 9 x 13" pan) You will need two 1/4 cup scoops, one for chocolate and one for white cake batter. (I used 1/3 cup scoop for chocolate and 1/4 cup scoop for white because I did not have two 1/4 cup scoops.)
Mix: Prepare cake batters.
Chocolate cake mix:                                                      White cake mix:
2/3 cup water                                                                 2/3 cup water
1 large egg                                                                     1 egg white
1/4 cup oil                                                                      2 tbsp oil
Blend in separate bowls at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium. (I used my stand mixer for one and an electric hand mixer for the other.)
Pour: Start with the chocolate batter. Put one scoop into the center of the pan and let it spread out by itself. Do not touch the batter once in the pan. Next, put a scoop of the white batter in the center, on top of the chocolate batter. Continue to alternate the batters, working quickly and letting each scoop of batter spread out evenly on its own. It should look like chocolate and white circular rings on top when finished. (My batter did not want to spread in the pan so I helped it along by tilting the pan around in small circles after I poured in the batter.)
Bake: Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350 degrees F. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan. (Mine was ready in 50 minutes.)

Chocolate and vanilla layers

Finished with the batter!

When the cake was done, I removed it from the oven, let it sit in the pan for 15 minutes, then moved it over to a cooling rack to cool almost completely before spreading the icing.

Hot out of the oven!

Spread icing all over the cake with a butter knife or icing spatula so the fondant will adhere to the cake. 

My icing

Microwave your fondant for 10 seconds per pound to soften. You will want to roll it out with your roller so it is approximately 1/3" thick. The thicker your fondant the heavier it will be. If it is too heavy it could cause your cake to collapse. It can also get hard to slice through if it is too thick. If fondant is too sticky, you can sprinkle a small amount of powdered sugar or corn starch on your work surface to absorb some of the stickiness and the white of the starch or sugar is easily wiped off of the fondant with your fingers. 

White fondant

Once the fondant has been rolled out, use your dough knife (photo in case you are unsure what this is) http://0.tqn.com/d/cookingequipment/1/0/-/9/-/-/DoughScraperSurLa.jpg to get it from off of your counter to on top of your cake. Be gentle and use the palm of your hands to work with the fondant versus your fingertips as it can easily stretch or break apart.  

Gently lay white fondant over your cake and trim the edges with your dough knife. As you can see, my fondant ripped on me on the front right end of the cake. I patched it up using another piece and smoothing it over the hole and by the time the red stripes were added on top, it was barely noticeable.

Roll out the red fondant into a thin layer the same way as the white was done but cut it into strips using a dough knife as wide as you like. Put a few dots of icing on one side of the strip so it will stick to the white fondant and lay the strips over the white fondant. Trim the overhang of the strips with your dough knife.

Red fondant

Progress pic! 

I popped a handful of popcorn kernels and placed them on the top end of the cake to make it look like the corn was spilling out of the bag. 

Side view

The zebra lines on the inside

Overall, I would definitely get Duff's fondant again, but probably not the cake mix. At $8 a box I can't say it's better than Dunkin Hines or Betty Crocker. The cake was very crumbly, however, after a night in the refrigerator it did not crumble as much the second day and it did taste slightly better than the first night. The raw cake batter was tastier than your average grocery store cake box, but I wouldn't recommend eating too much of it as there are raw eggs in there. Next time I think I will opt for a cake from scratch. I am not super crazy about the taste of fondant, but the birthday boy liked it very much so that is all that counts. Pin It