The Cake Is Not a Lie, It's in the Companion Cube

My friend recently graduated (that lucky bastard) and I decided her deserves something yummy and fun. I decided then to make a cake and get some experience working with fondant. Being the nerds we are while trying to maintain a minimal skill level requirement I decided to make a Rubik's cube cake. So I mixed up the cake batter and poured it into three pans and baked them to perfection. This recipe is fantastic. It's a moist yellow cake with a medium denseness. Someone said it reminds a little of cornbread but it's a lot gentler both in texture and flavor. Unfortunately, I only made enough batter to fill the pans half way and I thought it would rise a good bit. It rose but not enough for a Rubik's cube so I had to rethink my plan. I didn't want to make more cake and it was already pretty big so I changed one cube into half of another and aimed for a Companion Cube from the game Portal. The cake ended up being a three layer yellow cake with strawberries in syrup and orange butter cream in between the layers all covered in fondant. Here is what I've managed.

So before you even look at the recipe let's go over some things you should think of ahead of time. First off. What do you want to make? How much is your cake going to rise and how tall is your pan? How many layers do you need? Are you planning to move the cake from the spot where you make it? How do you plan to move it? Just keep asking questions, it's a good habit.

Recipes

Yellow Cake
(Taken from Smitten Kitchen)
Yields three 8 inch squares 1 inch tall or two 9 inch rounds 2 inches tall.

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Cream the sugar and butter. Add a the eggs in one at a time. Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients in. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and whisk them together to break up the clumps and add some air in for smoother mixing. Add the dry ingredients in to the wet ones and mix just till incorporated in several batches. Pour into your pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.
Before using make sure you cool it thoroughly and possibly even get it near frozen. Cold is good

Strawberry Syrup
 
Meanwhile, you can start your strawberries. I bought about a pound of strawberries (could have used half as many) and put them in a pot with a little bit of water, just enough to cover them, and about a cup of sugar. Let it cook till the strawberries give up their juice and the syrup is red and thickened a little. Once done let it cool as well.

Buttercream
 
You can also mix together the buttercream while your cake is cooking and cooling. Now there are many recipes but I was feeling lazy so I kind of eyeballed this and kept it super simple. It was nothing more than 2 cups of butter with enough confectioner's sugar to get the consistency I wanted. Keep in mind that it will harden when cooled and softened when heated so be careful of extreme temperatures. I also added a bit of orange extract for a nice citrus tang.

You are now ready to assemble the first part. First thing first, get a nice working surface that's sturdy enough to withstand the 10-15 lbs your cake will weight. IT'S HEAVY! I didn't think ahead of time and goodness did it start to crumble and break. Transferring it later was a pain!

Once your cake is baked and cooled I recommend at least cooling it in the fridge but possibly freezing it. This will make it easier when you're frosting it and will keep it from crumbling. Cakes are not particularly sturdy creatures. I find the more moist and delicious they are the more they crumble.

Now you have your cake and a base but don't cut the sides yet. Level all layers to the same height. find some dishes that are of the desired height as a template. Now start adding your strawberries and butter cream between the layers. I did the strawberries on bottom so they soak through the cake and then butter cream over that. Keep the wet layer away from the edges though. This will make it easier to handle the edges later. Once you have your layers and filling assembled, you can cut your cake into the shape you want. Mine was a flat square the height of half of a cube. Cover this with a generous layer of buttercream. The outer layer matters. It is what's keeping a nice barrier between your fondant and the wet stuff that will kill it. Also, you should keep in mind that the shape and smoothness of your buttercream layer will determine now nice your fondant drapes the cake. Once done, set it to chill in the fridge while you make yourself some fondant.

Fondant
Again this is something I eyeball. Fondant isn't much more than marshmallows and confectioner's sugar. Other recipes aren't that different, they just make the marshmallows from scratch more or less. Melt the marshmallows carefully in the microwave in a well greased bowl. I prefer using butter than crisco, mostly because I never have any crisco in the house, but I melt a generous chunk in the bowl and just leave the excess in there to mix with the marshmallows. I ended up using about a bag and a half of marshmallows total though maybe I could have used just one bag. Half a bag went into making the gray layer which I rolled very thin. 1/8 of an inch or 3/16. Something like that. Melt your marshmallows carefully in the microwave (they will puff so watch out). Once melted, this is a good time to add color. Use gel food coloring. The liquid stuff is not concentrated enough AND water is bad for your fondant. Now add some powdered sugar in and mix with a greased spoon. Once you feel like that spoon just isn't doing it for you dump the whole thing on a pile of your confectioner's sugar and start kneading with your hands keeping a generous layer of powdered sugar between you and the fondant. While it's hot, the consistency should not be tough. It should be pliable and kind of like playdoh. Pretty soft even. It's up to you how hard you want to make this stuff. More sugar leads to tougher fondant which is better for shaping, harder for handling. Repeat this for the other colors and remember to keep all of your fondant in air tight bags or containers. Don't worry, you're nearly at the finish line. Keep shaping, molding, and rolling out some more until all the details are made.

I got many many complements!!! Came out great!!