Momma Told Me: I'll let you lick the spoon.
We've come a long way from boxed mixes, Toto. I still remember standing on my Little Tikes step-stool and peering over the kitchen counter as Momma calmly counted out egg whites into a mixing bowl. Baking Saturdays were especially exciting in my household because they meant the promise of sweet things to come. And, every now and then, Momma would open a box of 'just add water' brownie mix and I'd even get to lick the spatula of gooey chocolately goodness. It was pure heaven, and the only time it got any better was when I had the chance to plop those little drops of liquid color into the batter and turn our boring white cupcakes into tie-dyed perfection.
By now you know that I like to make unique cakes. I don't bake them often, in fact, I bake on average 3 cakes a year for very specific occasions; but when I do, I like to go all out. My friends and family, they think I'm a baking genius- I am far from a Cake Boss folks. I do, however, spend a year planning these cakes and even doing test runs in my small condo kitchen. Not everything comes out 'picture perfect,' so please, don't be intimidated by anything you see on this site.
This year I got the brilliant idea to do a 'Polka Dot Cake,' after seeing a viral post on Pinterest from a blog that specialized in baked goods. With a little further research I found that this style of cake isn't really delved into on too many websites. The concept seemed easy enough, bake cake pops into individual cake layers, so why weren't there more people posting their proud pics on Pinterest? Well, as it turns out, while boxed mixes are included in the process, the recipes can be far from 'boxed.' A little patience and some scientific finagling is required.
You'll want to start with a cake pop pan similar to the Bake Pop Pan, which can be ordered fairly cheap on Amazon. Most people who would ever attempt this type of recipe already have one laying around from the great Cake Pop Fad of the early 2000's. Next you will need boxed cake mix, pudding mixes, sour cream, and a handful of other ingredients (found below.) If you desire to go rogue and use your own cake pop recipe keep in mind that you are double baking the cake pop balls, so a more moist recipe, and a little under baking will yield the best result. You should also expect some 'bake-over,' which is always a nice treat when you're slaving your way through an all day cake event.
It's my suggestion to let all stages of the Polka Dot Cake cool before integrating them with the next. Placing your cake pops in the freezer for a few hours before baking them into the layers of cake will cause them to contract a little and consequently fluff up to bind with the surrounding cake mix while baking later. I've seen others have some success with room temperature cake pop balls, while others have noticed separating. Expect your cake pop balls to want to rise to the top of the batter while your layers bake. Don't worry about this, as you should be able to apply moderate pressure and a flat surface (IE the bottom of another pan) to help even out the top surface of your layers. Remember, you will be frosting these layers so don't worry if the surface is uneven.
If you want different size polka dots when you cut into your cake be sure to stagger the rows of dot layers so they are not all lined up when layered. The polka-dot effect will be most effective in three layer cakes, but can be easily achieved with 3 or less colors in a two-layer cake as well. My biggest tip is to make extra cake-layer batter, as you never quite know how well your batter will rise to cover the cake pop balls. When in doubt, more is always better. For my cake I used a chocolate frosting between layers; keep in mind that your frosting will want to smear the 'polka dot' effect when cutting and be sure to keep your knife clean between slices for the most picturesque effect.
What Daughter Says: Life's too short to bake boring cakes.
