Crazy Cake - Wacky Uncle Dave Bakes with the Kids

Now this would be a star on anyone's table!

Well, Jackie and I,  the famous empty nester's are entertaining this week.  It's been awhile since we have had kids in the house, and even longer since they left me in charge.


Aunt Jackie and her favorite Niece went Black Friday shopping (really, is this what the world has come to???  But I digress).  Our favorite nephew-in-law, a plumber by trade, was fixing a broken toilet (less details the better).  So, wacky Uncle Dave got to spend the morning with Megan, Melanie and Matt (ages 7,6 and 4... and boy, is he ever 4).


As to the details on the cake, it's a box.  I used a Lemon box mix, one of those that has pudding all mixed in.  The icing is scratch (and one of the best ever), an orange buttercream...


2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
2 TBS orange juice
the zest of 1 orange


The crazy look comes from using those new gel food colorings.  Don't be shy, use enough to get the bright almost neon looking colors.  The box I have only has 4 colors (red, yellow, blue and green).  The other colors were made from mixing different combinations.  Worked great (except the brown was supposed to be purple)...

It was very easy, just took a little time (which was the goal).  And, it was great fun.  


Here's what the kids did...

We always start by washing our hands...

Mat did the mixing...

Then we divided the batter into 8 Mis en Place bowls and added the color gel.  Mix well.

And then just drop spoonfuls of each color into two greased pans.  Once the batter is dropped, be careful to not mix.  The colors did not mix, creating the wacky look.

While the cake was baking (see the box for directions), we learned about the cooks reward...


Licking the spoons!

Also, while it was baking, we mixed the icing and then cleaned the dishes so Aunt Jackie could really enjoy the cake.

A work of art!

And Aunt Jackie didn't have any idea what it would look like inside...  


Oh, the giggles while she cut the cake!

And everyone loved getting our just desserts...