Cake of the Day: Test Tube Twinkies Cake

Every day, Yahoo Food features delectable cakes. They taste good, they look good, and they’re made by good people — talented bakers from around the world. Today Karen Tack and Alan Richardson shares a spooky laboratory cake from their cookbook Cake My Day!. Tune in this week as we countdown the days to Halloween with the most mouth-watering, ghoulish cakes around!

Twinkies and Halloween candies are made into a spooky cake from the Candy Lab. (Photo: Karen Tack and Alan Richardson)

By Karen Tack and Alan Richardson

Test Tube Cake
Surprise Inside!
Makes 24 servings

A Halloween experiment from the Candy Lab! Mix 13 parts Twinkies, six parts candy, and two parts ice cream with one part fun.

Vegetable cooking spray
1 family-size (16 ounce) frozen all-butter pound cake (Sara Lee), thawed
3 quarts cherry chocolate ice cream, softened
13 vanilla creme-filled snack cakes (Twinkies)
1 bag (12 ounces) neon green candy melting wafers (Wilton)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon white nonpareils (Wilton)
1 cup white candy melting wafers (Wilton)
1 cup vanilla frosting
Red food coloring
1 can (16 ounces) dark chocolate frosting
17 spice drops, mixed colors
17 large white gumballs (SweetWorks)
3?4 cup each light green plain and light green pearlized round candy-coated chocolates (Sixlets)
1?2 cup light green pearlized small candies (Celebrations)
1?2 cup light green pearlized gumballs (SweetWorks)
17 small brown candy-coated chocolates (M&M’s Minis)

Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with wax paper and spray with vegetable cooking spray. Cut the pound cakes crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices (about 25 slices). Arrange 11 slices side by side, vertically, against the side of the prepared pan to line it. Line the bottom of the prepared pan with 6 of the cake slices, trimming to fit (see photo, next page). Set aside 6 slices of pound cake for the top of the cake. Cut the remaining slices into small cubes.

Cherry chocolate ice cream and poundcake serve as the base of the cake. (Photo: Karen Tack and Alan Richardson)

Spoon half of the softened ice cream into the bottom of the cake-lined pan and smooth. Press the cake cubes into the ice cream and top with the remaining softened ice cream. Smooth the top. Arrange the 6 reserved cake slices on top, trimming to fit, to cover the ice cream. Press down on top of the cake to flatten. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Spray a wire rack with vegetable cooking spray and place on top of the lined cookie sheet. Place a snack cake bottom side down on a work surface. Cut a ?-inch piece crosswise from one short end and discard (see photo, above). Transfer to the wire rack. Repeat with the remaining snack cakes. Transfer the cookie sheet to the freezer to chill, about 30 minutes.

Place the green candy melting wafers in a microwave-safe bowl with the vegetable shortening. Microwave, stirring every 10 seconds, until smooth. Spoon the melted candy over the tops of the chilled snack cakes to cover completely, allowing the excess candy to drip onto the wax paper. Sprinkle each snack cake with some of the white nonpareils while the green candy is still wet to look like fizz. Refrigerate the coated snack cakes until set, about 5 minutes. Gently remove the snack cakes from the wire rack, trimming any excess candy drips from the edges.

Twinkies are dipped in melted green candy to look like fizzy test tubes.(Photo: Karen Tack and Alan Richardson)

Place the white candy melting wafers in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, stirring every 5 seconds, until smooth. Dip the trimmed end of a coated snack cake ½ inch into the white candy melts to create the lip of the test tube. Allow the excess candy to drip back into the bowl. Return the snack cake to the cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining snack cakes.

Tint 3 tablespoons of the vanilla frosting red with the food coloring. Spoon the red frosting into a freezer-weight ziplock bag. Spoon the remaining vanilla frosting into a freezer-weight ziplock bag. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the chocolate frosting into a freezer-weight ziplock bag. Press out the excess air and seal the bags.

For the eyes, cut a ¾-inch slice from the flat end of each spice drop, discarding the round end. Press a large white gumball into the sticky side of each slice to attach.

Unmold the frozen cake by running a thin knife around the outside edge of the cake and then inverting the pan. Transfer the cake to a serving platter. Working quickly, spread the remaining dark chocolate frosting all over the cake and smooth. Attach the coated snack cakes, white end up and flat edge against the cake, evenly spaced all around the side of the cake, pressing into the frosting to secure. Return the cake to the freezer until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, snip a small (1/8-inch) corner from the bags with the white, red, and dark chocolate frostings. Pipe some of the vanilla frosting on top of the snack cake test tubes, adding some frosting down the sides of the snack cakes to look like overflow. Press some of the green candy-coated chocolates in both colors, the small candy pearls, and the green gumballs into the frosting on top of the test tubes to look like bubbles. Press a few small candy pearls into the drips of frosting on the sides of the test tubes. Sprinkle the remaining green gumballs, candy-coated chocolates, and small candy pearls on top of the cake to cover. Arrange the white gumball eyes, facing the spice drops in different directions, on top of the candy bubbles. Pipe thin lines of red frosting to look like blood vessels on the white gumballs. Pipe a dot of dark chocolate frosting on the spice drops and add the brown candies as the pupils.

Excerpted from Cake My Day!, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Cake My Day!, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson

More devilish Halloween cakes:

Gingery Pumpkin Cheesecake

Salted Caramel Apple Snickers Cake

Pi?ata Cake from ‘Sweet Envy’