Monday, January 26, 2009

Valentine Sponge Cake Cubes

SIMPLY DIVINE!!!

Cut a frozen sponge cake into 1-inch cubes.

  • Tip: I bought my sponge cake at Harmons for way too much money. I suggest making your own large batch (maybe sheet cakes) because you throw a lot of it away carving it into perfect 1 inch cubes. You can reuse the discarded pieces in a trifle or something. I wish I had a best ever sponge cake recipe to share with ya'all but I don't yet.
  • Best to have a really really sharp knife because perfectly straight edges are key.
Melt canned frosting in the microwave at 30 second intervals until it becomes the consistency of heavy cream.
  • Tip: What the heck is canned frosting? Not sure why they say canned when all the frosting comes in plastic containers. Why don't they just say 'premade' or something so I don't have to wonder whether I got the right thing. For a novice like myself these little inconcistencies cause me stress only b/c I know if you don't follow the recipe exactly it could flop. And I HATE flops. Anyway, the frosting in the plastic container worked great... just be sure it's the normal stuff and not the 'whipped'. (I'm assuming that wouldn't work so great)
  • Tip: On the cover of Women's Day their little sponge cubes were pink and white and dark red. Well, so I try to make dark red frosting and I empty my entire little bulb of food coloring and my frosting is still just dark pink. GAH! I still haven't figured it out. I'm thinking I have to buy a really big glass vile of red food coloring and just use it all. I must figure this out.
Dip the frozen cubes in the frosting like you were dipping chocolates.
  • Tip: I just plop them in there one at a time making sure they're completely covered with frosting and then gently lift them out with a fork so that the excess frosting drips off.
Then the recipe said to slide them onto tinfoil (not sure why you would use tinfoil instead of parchment paper).

Sprinkle immediatly if you're going to put sprinkles on them. The frosting begins to set immediatly.

They need to set out for quite some time for them to truly set up. I'm guessing because the frozen pound cake continues to defrost which means it releases moisture making the frosting take awhile longer to really set up.

On the cover of WD each cube was in it's own little square white cupcake liner type thing which I thought was SOOOO cute. I think 4 or 6 of those in a cute little box would make for the perfect little valentine gift. One was dark red with white sprinkles (so cute), another was light pink with a red gel frosting heart on it (tried this.... didn't look so cute when I did it).

2 comments:

Sadie said...

Very, very cute!! Since I can't eat any kind of sugar anything, I'll have to wait awhile to test these. But I'm thinking they would be even better with homemade frosting. I could never stand the taste of the canned. I'll have to try it and tell you.
And the only way to get RED frosting is to use red and black food coloring. Start by adding red and then gradually add a drop of black until you get the red you want. When you get a red frosting, it also tends to darken over time, so make it a shade lighter than you want it. It's tricky but so worth it to achieve that beautiful red color.

Jami Key said...

It's all about the food coloring GEL. It is freaking amazing and you need very little to do the job!