Doughnut Cake - Why Don't You Make Me?

A couple weeks ago many enjoyed FX Network airing every Simpsons episode ever. The marathon brought back such great memories of episodes I hadn’t seen (or ever seen!) for a very long time! It also inspired me to create a cake in honor of the show. I settled on the famous pink doughnut…sprinkles and all!

1. The very first step is to bake a cake in your favorite flavor! I used two 8 inch pans. Refrigerate your cakes until completely cool. This will make it easier to ice and stack! Begin by cutting off the tops of both cakes to get an even surface. Ice the top of one of the tiers, then stack the second tier on top.

2. Use a swiss buttercream to crumb coat the outside of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for a minimum of 30 minutes. We want a nice cold cake for sculpting.

3. To begin sculpting the rounded doughnut shape, trim the top edge of the cake at an angle. Start slowly! It’s better to cut off too little, than too much!

4. Your cake should start to look a little something like the picture above.

5. To create the doughnut shape, cut out a hole in the center of the cake.

6. Create a more rounded edge by trimming the edge at an angle just as before.

7. Slowing keep trimming the inner and outer edges of the cake until they are nice and rounded! *Don’t forget to trim the bottom edge of the cake as well!*

8. Once your cake is sculpted, cover the cake in a layer of buttercream. Refrigerate until cool. Use your fingers to smooth the buttercream to get an even surface for the fondant.

9. Dye a piece of fondant a light tan for the base of the cake. (I used about the size of a grapefruit in order to cover the sculpted 8 inch cake.) Roll out the fondant until it is just big enough to cover most of the cake.

10. Place the fondant overtop of the cake and pull down the edges until the whole cake is covered. Use your hands or a fondant smoother to smooth the fondant over the cake.

11. Trim any excess fondant with a knife.

12. Use the non-serrated edge of the knife to smooth the bottom edge of the fondant to give the cake a cleaner look.

13. Cut a small hole in the center of the fondant and push down into the inside of the cake. If the fondant does not cover the entire center, cut a smaller piece of fondant to fill it in. Don’t worry about the seam as it will get covered by the frosting.

14. Dye a piece of fondant (about the size of an orange) pink. Roll out the fondant into a circle. *Or as close as you can get to a circle. As you can see, I struggled a bit*

15. Use your fingers or a pastry brush to add a thin layer of water to the top of the cake. It will serve as a glue between the two layers of fondant.

16. Place the rolled fondant over the top of the cake.

17. Trim the edge of fondant in a ‘wave’ pattern to create the drizzled frosting look.

18. Again, use your finger or knife to smooth the edges of the trimmed fondant for a cleaner look.

19. Dye small pieces of fondant in multiple colors for the sprinkles. Roll out a thin piece into a long snake. Cut the fondant into about 1/2 inch pieces to create the sprinkles.