Cut-Out Pound Cake

One thing I used to love back when I could eat gluten was those little Pillsbury cut-out shape sugar cookies.  You've probably seen them; they have different ones for each season, and recently I've seen (and purchased and made for others to eat) TMNT ones.  They are so easy to make in a hurry, and I've brought them to home fellowship many many times.  I always wondered how they made the different shapes.  This recipe reminded me of those cookies, although I don't think they could employ this method with cookie dough...The recipe in Simple & Delicious is with a shamrock, with the shamrock cake flavored mint.  But since we are long past St Paddy's day, Emma and I decided to do a star since we're close to Independence Day, and we didn't add any extra flavoring.  Here's our finished product:

Cut-Out Pound Cake
2 pkg (16 oz each) pound cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
10 drops food coloring (I used a lot more than that and still couldn't get it any redder than that...I had gel food coloring too which is supposed to be better)
Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3-5 tsp 2% milk

Preheat oven according to package directions.  Grease 9x5 loaf pan.  Prepare one package of cake mix according to package directions, adding food coloring before mixing batter.  Transfer to prepared pan.  Bake and cool as package directs.

Cut cooled cake into 1" slices.  (I have a knife that my mother in law gave me a few years ago that is perfect for this...it's meant to cut homemade bread into uniform slices.  It has measurements from 1/8" up to 1"

See how uniform?  Perfect).  Cut slices with a 2 1/2" shaped cookie cutter

(I had trouble with this in that my cookie cutter was half the length of the slice.  But I think if I had cut the cake any thinner, it would have crumbled.  So I put the cookie cutter down as far as a I could with each piece, and used a sharp knife to cut away the remaining cake.)  Save remaining cake for another use (in my house, that "other use" is children, husband, and friends nibbling on pieces as they walk through the kitchen).  Stand cake pieces upright at an angle in a clean greased 9x5 loaf pan.

Prepare remaining cake mix according to package directions.  Pour batter around and over the cake slices (if I was making this again, I would put a thin layer of batter down first, then the cake slices, then the remaining batter).

Bake and cool as package directs.  For glaze, combine sugar, vanilla, and enough milk to reach desired consistency.  Pour glaze over cake, allowing some to flow over sides.

I do wish the color was more pronounced.  My mom told me years ago that when you get to the point that adding more color isn't changing the color of your batter, just stop, because too much coloring can change the flavor of the cake.  So I stopped.  You can still see it though.

I was pretty excited about how this came out, and people said it tasted good too.  I made sure to point it out to multiple people at home fellowship too ;)  This took a long time to make, but wasn't really technically difficult.  So I might make it again someday, for some fun occasion.