Zooper Cute Carousel Cake

Hey all! What's baking?

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates--my summer has been crazy busy and chock-full of travel, work, and family events. Hopefully, this is the start of a more normal blogging routine.

Earlier this summer, we threw my adorable nephew a fantastic, fun-and-food-filled first birthday party. My in-laws prepared the majority of the main meal: cheesesteaks, hoagies, pizza, salad, etc. Luckily for me, I had the honor of baking the best little birthday boy ever his first little birthday cake ever!

I wanted my nephew's cake to be something cute, whimsical, and representative of all of the joys of turning one year old. After discovering these adorable cupcakes on my Betty Crocker recipe app, I knew exactly what I would bake: a giant carousel cake complete with rainbow sprinkles and adorable animal cracker figures!

My nephew celebrating with a slice of cake

I decided to wing it and recreate this edible merry-go-round on a larger scale using my favorite cake and frosting recipes, allowing for one white cake layer and one chocolate layer. However, any good cake and frosting combo will do (even store-bought or packaged mixes), so try this with strawberry, coconut, red velvet, or Funfetti cake and dress it up with chocolate or cream cheese frosting. The chocolate pudding layer can also be substituted with custard, extra frosting, or another pudding flavor.

 The sky truly is the limit with this super fun cake. I used plain Barnum's Animal Crackers for my creation, but it's more than OK to use iced animal crackers, animal-shaped cookie cut-outs, or even plastic animal figurines instead. Remember: carousels (and this cake) are meant to be fun and playful; let your creativity take over and shine.

Zooper Cute Carousel Cake 

Ingredients:

1 10-inch white cake

1 10-inch chocolate cake

1 3.75-oz. instant chocolate pudding

Frosting (any color)

1 2.125-oz. box animal crackers

Pretzel rods

1 C semisweet chocolate chips, melted

Multicolored sprinkles, jellybeans, chocolate-coated candies, or other decorative candies

Plastic drinking straws

10"x10" piece scrapbook paper

Place chocolate cake on cake tray or cake carrier. Prepare chocolate pudding according to package directions. Spread thin layer of pudding on top of chocolate cake (there will be extra pudding). Gently center white cake on top of pudding layer. Spread frosting over top and sides of entire cake. Gently shake sprinkles over top and sides.

That's the way the cake crumbles!

Open box of animal crackers and discard broken animal crackers. Arrange whole animal crackers on a clean baking tray face-down. Melt chocolate chips in microwave, about 1 minute. Working one at a time and using a small spoon, dab a small amount of melted chocolate onto the back of each animal cracker and immediately place a pretzel rod vertically onto the chocolate. Press gently to ensure pretzels stick firmly to chocolate. Let completely dry for 20-30 minutes.

Once animal figures are dry, arrange them in an evenly-spaced, circular pattern around the perimeter of the top cake layer. Animal faces should be facing the outside of the cake while the pretzel rods should be toward the center of the cake. Decorate with jellybeans, chocolate-coated candies, etc. as you wish.

Use a compass to draw as large a circle as possible on scrapbook paper. Cut out circle. Cut a slit into the middle of the circle. Fold paper into a cone/tent shape and tape together. Tape plastic straws to center and sides of paper tent. (These will be the "support beams" for the carousel tent.) Carefully place paper tent on top of cake, gently sticking straws deep enough into the cake so that the tent will not fall over.

Voila--you've got a zooper cute carousel cake!