Candy Corn Bundt Cake

Most of my friends know that I love candy corn.  I'm wearing candy corn earrings right now.  I love it.  I love the smell of it and the taste of it.  I don't like the variations, like Easter candy corn in pastel colors, or Christmas candy corn in red & green, but regular classic white orange yellow candy corn....lip smacking good.  A friend who knows this about me sent me this recipe.  It's actually a yellow cake made to look like candy corn, and is only garnished with the real stuff.  I thought it would be fun to try for home fellowship last Friday.  My faithful assistant Barbie was here to make it fun.  Things did not exactly turn out as we had hoped, though....

Here is a link to the original picture, and as always with my blog, I don't make up any of my own recipes, I find things (or they are sent to me, as in this case), I make things, I (try really hard to remember to) take pictures of how things ACTUALLY turned out, and then I tell you.  http://blommi.com/wp-content/uploads/Candy-Corn-Bundt-Cake.jpg  The actual recipe is from a blog called MomFoodie.com .  I think this mom must have more time and perhaps professional experience than I have.

Candy Corn Bundt Cake

• ½ Cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 2 egg whites
• 2 eggs
• 2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¾ Cup buttermilk
• 1½ Cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Orange, and yellow gel food coloring

Frosting:

• 1 Cup soft unsalted butter
• 4 + Cups confectionery sugar
• 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
• Orange and yellow gel food coloring

Bundt Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep bundt cake pan.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl.
3. Beat butter on high for 30 seconds.
4. Add sugar and vanilla extract to the butter until well combined.
5. Add egg whites, one at a time, mixing after each.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each.
7. Add ⅓ C flour mixture to the wet mixture followed by adding ⅓ C of the buttermilk; add ⅓ C flour mixture again then add ⅓ C buttermilk mix on low speed, add ⅓ C of flour and add the rest of ⅓ C of buttermilk mix in low speed until thoroughly blended.
8. Divide the batter into three bowls.... add orange gel food coloring to one.... add yellow gel food coloring to the second and Leave the batter white in the third bowl.
9. Spray the bundt pan with Pam spray.
10. Begin by spooning in the white batter then the orange next then last the yellow batter on top.
11. Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
12. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes then remove the cake from the Bundt pan and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.

Frosting:

1. -Cream the butter and powder sugar until it looks light and creamy.
2. -If it doesn't cream add several drops of the heavy whipping cream until it creams. Once the frosting has the right consistency then divide it into 3 bowls.
3. -In two of the three bowls add several drops of gel food coloring. 1 st bowl add orange, 2nd bowl add yellow, 3rd bowl stays white. After each color addition stir well to mix the colors.
4. -When the colors are right, starting with the orange frosting using a spoon drizzle the frosting on the cake. Allow the orange frosting to dry. Next again using a spoon drizzle the yellow frosting on the cake. Allow it to dry. Lastly, drizzle the white frosting on the cake and allow it to dry completely.

That is the whole recipe, copied right from this lady's blog.  Here are my observations and what I did differently:  #1 I don't use unsalted butter.  Because then I would have to buy unsalted butter, and I don't want to buy two kinds of butter.  Maybe I'm crazy but that seems like a lot to keep up with.  It's just butter.  Plus my mom told me that it doesn't make that big of a difference.  Mother knows best.  #2 I know that gel food coloring is supposed to make more vibrant colors than drop food coloring.  I bought gel food coloring but no matter how much I added, the colors got no more vibrant than what you see pictured (my mom also told me that if you add too much food coloring, the taste of whatever you're coloring can turn a bit bitter.  Barbie said with this type of food coloring you don't have to be AS careful about that...so we kept adding and adding...to no avail).  Consequently, this looked more like an Easter cake than a fall cake.

#3 The texture of this frosting was definitely not drizzling consistency.  It would not fall off a spoon, except in clumps.  We did exactly what it said, and it tasted AMAZING, but there was no drizzling...we had to spoon the 3 colors of frosting into ziploc bags and squeeze them over the cake...which is why our cake looks like this:

because we were like...well, it doesn't look like the picture.  Go big or go home. 

Okay so how was it received, and how did it taste?  The kids at home fellowship were super excited to see this cake.  They ooh'ed and aah'ed.  So that was very satisfying.  All but one kid ate their whole piece (I always scope out their plates because I am like a cooking spy).  One of the dads said he liked how the frosting wasn't too sweet (that was nice since we dumped so much on there).  I couldn't taste the cake (because of gluten) but I did taste the frosting and it was so perfect.  And people all said the cake was good. 

In summary.  I'd make this cake recipe again, and the frosting too.  But I totally wouldn't bother with the food coloring.  Unless it's Easter, I guess.....