Tie Dye Sprinkle Cake

This cake was created as a last minute, "we're going somewhere what should I bring" dessert.

Ever have one of those?

Usually, in times of desperation I just go to the grocery store.  This past weekend, I challenged myself to make something fabulous out of what I had in my pantry.  I'm not going to say this is fabulous, but everyone under the age of fourteen was pretty excited about it.  And truthfully, that is so my crowd when we're talkin' food preferences.

To make this bad boy, you'll need:

1 box cake mix (prepared)
1 container Snack Pack Pudding (or similar, I used vanilla)
1 container vanilla frosting
rainbow sprinkles (an abundance)
food coloring (assorted)
2 round 8" or 9" cake pans
1/2 cup flour (for dusting pans)

Preheat oven to 350.  Thoroughly grease cake pans and dust with flour, making sure to remove excess flour.  Prepare cake mix, and pour into cake pans as evenly as possible.

Bake according to package instructions, I baked my 2 round 9" cake pans for 24 minutes.

Remove from oven, and cool completely on wire rack.  If you are pressed for time (as I was) allow to cool about twenty to thirty minutes and remove from pans by loosening sides with knife and turning them upside down onto rack and gently tapping underside of pan. 

The danger in this method is you are risking the perfection of your cakes, as seen below.

The good news is that most small imperfections can be easily hidden in the stacking and decorating process.

You need to let the cakes cool completely before you stack and decorate, and to speed this process along I placed mine in the fridge.

I am truly, Martha Stewart's nightmare. 

Once cool, place bottom cake on plate.  Spread vanilla pudding over top as a filling.  Cover pudding with rainbow sprinkles, and stack second cake over top.

To prepare the frosting, you need to empty vanilla frosting into a bowl, and drop a few drops of food coloring in and mix JUST enough to see some streaks.  Go easy here, you don't want a brown sloppy mess.  A few drops of two to three colors (I recommend primary colors) is all you need.

This is after gently mixing a few drops of yellow, blue and red.

Remember, you will be spreading this frosting and the colors will blend more.

Frost the cake.  For sprinkles, you'll have to hold cake plate on an angle and pour rainbow sprinkles along sides, catching excess in a bowl or pan underneath as you turn cake.  You can reuse the sprinkles until the sides of cake are covered in colorful, child pleasing sprinkles.

Voila.  A delightfully colorful tie dye sprinkle cake that is guaranteed to excite munchkins everywhere.

Happy Tuesday!