Frozen cake how to

So…you want to make a Frozen cake? But you’re wondering if a decorated cake is way beyond your reach. Could an ordinary housewife accomplish such a thing? And yes you can slap me for using the term “ordinary housewife”. We HOMEMAKERS are anything BUT ordinary!!! Can I get an amen on that?

Update: for a little different take on Frozen, consider this cake. Click HERE for details.

Or maybe an Olaf in the Summmeeerrrr!?

First, let’s look at my cake photos.  Closeups HERE and HERE.

This shows the green royal icing trees (waffle cones) in the foreground. Background trees have white royal “snow” piped over the dried green trees.

Then think down. Yeah, down. Take everything you see in that pic and simplify it. Make it smaller. Like…

Instead of using a 10″ & 6″ cake, just make a double layered 10″ cake. That will serve 20 easily. Then follow the design for the top tier. Try all white instead of the light blue/aqua. Forget the bottom tier of my cake. Save that for “next time”!!

 

Use white gum balls from the local party store for the bottom border. Or use the smaller white Sixlets from Hobby Lobby or Wal Mart. I even found some really pretty icy blue Sixlets in HL on the baby shower isle. Just squirt some buttercream through a #8-10 tip around the bottom edge and push the gumballs in. Sooooo easy. And fast!!!

Decorate the top of the cake with purchased figurines…wash them first. Or use the towers from the Wilton Castle kit to create your castle…maybe go with 3. The roofs can be left as they are, white…or covered in a colored fondant. Or even use a colored paper if you fear fondant. Yes. It’s ok to fear fondant.

Photo courtesy of yahoo images.

I dug out my clear Wilton columns that I’ve used a hundred times as separators for wedding cake tiers, but since they were clear and could pass for “ice”, I envisioned them as tall, icy towers.

Photo courtesy of yahoo images.

Sprinkle some coarse sugar around for the snow sparkle effect. Or use iridescent sugar…or Wilton mini snowflakes…or pearl luster. All found in a hobby shop and in some grocery stores!

Punch out gumpaste snowflakes a day or 2 ahead so they can dry. Dust them with edible glitter dust. Use them as the top border attaching them to the cake with a tiny dot of royal icing.

All you have to do at this point is turn the punch down and the snowflake will fall out!

Or use that fabulous snowflake cookie cutter that you’ve been dying to use to cut out some great gumpaste flakes!!!?

Is this a great cutter or what??? Measures 7 1/2″ across…probably too big for this particular design, but you’ve got to get one for Christmas cookies next year?!!

Go to your local hobby shop and find a snowflake stencil. Use it on the top of the cake..say the cake is blue….so lay it on top of the iced cake and sprinkle powdered sugar over the stencil for a snowflake design. Or stencil the sides of the cake with royal icing applied to the stencil. Check HERE for a tutorial on stenciling…very, very easy and cool results.

The inspiration for my cake design was Bubbly Nature’s Frozen party page. The website seems to be burping a lot the last 2 days, so if it won’t load the first time try again. She has some great ideas! Here’s her collage pic…

Photo courtesy of Bubbly Nature Design.

Decorate the bottom of the cake with the blue hard candy.

If the thought of making hard candy scares your apron right off, don’t panic!! Head to your closest candy store where you can buy colored hard candy. It may be in a chunky, cube form, but it will work. You can order it online too…if you haven’t waited until the last minute. No. You wouldn’t do that. But…if your heart is set on sheets of ice, go for the candy!!

I used Bubbly Nature Design’s recipe. Remember, go slow. Start the heat at medium and reduce once the mixture starts to boil.  This will make enough candy to decorate 2 or 3 cakes and is something that can be made ahead of time!  Yay!  I love “ahead of time” things!!!!!!  PS Don’t STIR this. At all. Ever. And be careful. Liquid candy is to be handles cautiously!! 🙂

3 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup light Karo syrup
Food coloring
Flavor extracts…lemon, orange, peppermint, coconut, etc.
Candy thermometer
Large cookie sheet or pan, lightly greased

In a large pan (I used my Farberware 4 quart to insure no boilover mess) combine the first 3 ingredients and stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Clip a candy thermometer on the side of the pan. If you don’t have one, get one. They’re not expensive and making candy is tough without one. Oh yeah, you can make the softer candies without one, but the hard candy temps are touchy. So pop for a thermometer!

Don’t be tempted to jack the heat up to get the mixture boiling. All it will do is ruin the candy and then you get to start all over. BE PATIENT.

Once you reach a boil, reduce the heat to low. My burners go from 0 to 10. When I say low, I mean that on my stove, I’m down to 2.

You can fold some clothes, unload the dishwasher, make out that grocery list, write another chapter of your long-awaited novel…just don’t go too far out of the kitchen.

Check the thermometer every 2 or 3 minutes. You can add your coloring once the boil begins…or later. The motion of the boiling action will blend the colors nicely!  I used Wilton’s Royal Blue gel coloring (comes in the little plastic pots) by dipping a toothpick into the pot about 1/8″. I then carefully dipped the toothpick tip into the top bubbles. It doesn’t take much and I’d suggest starting with just a little bit. You can always add later and this hard candy ice is one thing you don’t want to have a uniform color. Different shades of the blue give a more realistic look. IMHO.

Once the candy reaches 300° , get the pan off of the burner, stir in the flavoring carefully (the hot mixture will bubble more when you add the flavoring due to the alcoholic base) and quickly pour into a lightly greased pan. I used a paper towel dipped in oil to grease the pan.

The candy will cool quickly but pour and handle WITH CAUTION. This stuff is HOT. Don’t get sidetracked when working with hot candy. Concentrate on nothing but the candy until you get it into that pan!!!

Once the candy is “touchable”, turn the pan over a large piece of wax paper. The candy should release fairly easily but tapping the pan may release it completely. A metal spatula will also help get the candy out of the pan. If the candy breaks in the process, you have WON!!

Broken candy is the whole point!!! Right?

blue “ice” candy

I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!