Cookie Monster Cake
This is the first post that I started my food blog with. I wanted to repost it today, because yesterday was my little one’s second birthday. This was his first birthday cake. We had a traditional large first birthday party and lots of food and goodies at his party. This year was much more low key. This year’s theme was Elmo, and I will be posting the Elmo cake very soon. Its funny, I had little knowledge of baking when I started this blog, and used a boxed mix for the cake, nowadays I have to do as much as possible from scratch. Its great how making new friends can broaden your horizons. I have learned so much about baking and cooking in such a short time.
This is my favorite cooking accomplishment to date. I thought this would be the best recipe to start my new food and cooking blog with. This is a chocolate lovers dream. It is ultra moist devils food cake, layered with chocolate ganache, and then topped with the baby blue colored buttercream frosting. I made this cake for my son’s first birthday party on October 23, 2008. I was not going to take a picture of it, but thankfully my sister-in-law did. I made this cake before I ever thought of having a food and cooking blog, so I had no intentions of taking photos of my dishes. I wasn’t really happy with the finished result until about an hour after completion. I am very critical of my cooking skills. I think this could have been done better, but for a first attempt, not too bad. I preferred it to most I found pictures of cookie monster cakes. I also liked it better than what our neighborhood bakery was going to do. I found the template for cookie monster’s face on the Martha Stewart website. Her recipe was for cookies, but I just traced the image on my cake.
Yield: Serves 8
Cookie Monster Cake
5.00 stars (1 reviews)
Loading...This recipe uses cake mix with a secret ingredient to make it super moist. I have tried many recipes for basic yellow and chocolate cake, and I always go back to my great grandmother's method. It is super easy, fast, and always produces reliable results. The first thing you need to do is download the cookie monster template from the Martha Stewart website here. To view and print the file, you need a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader, which most browsers already include. If you have trouble downloading the file, you can obtain the software for free from Adobe's website. Then you can resize this image easily by printing it, and then copying the image and scaling it to your desired size. This recipe calls for a 10 inch cake pan, so I enlarged the image with a copier until it was about 8 inches across.
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
2 packages moist cake mix, I like Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 small packages instant chocolate pudding mix
2 2/3 cups water
1 cup oil
8 extra large eggs
For the Chocolate Ganache Filling:
16 oz or 2 cups whipping cream
16 oz good quality chocolate chips or a bar, chopped in very small pieces
For the Baby Blue Frosting:
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 2 lb.)
4 tablespoons milk
Blue food coloring
For the White Royal Frosting Ingredients for Eyes:
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups confectioners powdered sugar
Additional Ingredients:
Black fondant - for the mouth and eyes. You can also use black licorice circles for the eyes. You can buy pre-made fondant that is already black. I have read dying fondant black is very difficult, and you should just take the short-cut and buy the pre-made. You can find this at some specialty stores or online
Blue Jimmies - Royal blue jimmies can be found easily online or in specialty stores.
Directions:
For the Cake:
As you can see, you follow the package directions, with the exception of using extra large eggs, using 1 additional egg, and adding the package of pudding mix.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After blending all ingredients on slow speed until it is incorporated, you should blend at medium speed for 2 minutes. Then pour batter into three ten inch cake pans. Then increase the baking time about 10-15 minutes. Remember to use the toothpick method for checking cake's doneness. If the tooth pick, when inserted in the middle of the cake is clean when removed, its ready. Let cakes cool and begin preparing icings and filling.
For the Chocolate Ganache Filling:
Heat the cream over low heat. Do not let boil, pour over chocolatein a microwave safe boil. Mix until chocolate melts. If the chocolate is not completely melted, put in the microwave for 30 second increments, and then remove to mix until chocolate is completely melted. Cool completely. When ganache is cooled use a hand or stand mixer to whip the mixture until it is thickened.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
For the Baby Blue Frosting:
Cream butter and shortening together. Add vanilla and blend well. Add sugar slowly, 1 cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until all of the sugar is well combined. Then add the milk, and beat until light and fluffy. Then add blue food coloring, a few drops at a time, until desired color is achieved. Remove all but 1 cup of frosting. Refrigerate until ready to use. Makes about 6 cups of icing.
For the Blue Cookie Monster Frosting:
To the remaining 1 cup of baby blue frosting, add additional drops of blue food coloring until you achieve the same color as the blue jimmie candies.
For the White Royal Frosting Ingredients for Eyes:
Beat the egg whites and lemon juice until well combined, add the sugar and beat on low speed until well combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembly:
Cut out cookie monster template. When cakes are cooled, level with a knife, if needed. Divide ganache in half and spread a layer over the first cake layer. Top with another cake layer and the rest of the ganache. Put on the top layer and frost the cake with the baby blue frosting. Then lay cookie monster template in desired position on cake, and trace with a toothpick. Roll your fondant and cut the mouth and eye shapes. Then put your darker blue frosting in a piping bag or ziplock bag, and snip the end. I just used a ziplock bag. Trace the cookie monster image in the dark blue frosting, and trim around the bottom of the cake. Place the black fondant mouth shape on the cake. Then fill the cookie monster face with the blue jimmies with a teaspoon. This step is the most time consuming. Then use the royal frosting to fill the eyes. Lastly, shape the black fondant for the eyes and put in position. You're Done! Serve with delicious chocolate chip trifle for the adults and chocolate chip cookies for the kids.
