Star-Shaped Cake
Ingredients:
Cake-Shaping Strip (from 7 sushi-mat segments)
Heavy-duty aluminum foil
Sheet pan
Prepared cake batter (see the Crushed Pineapple Cake batter or prepare batter using about 1 box of cake mix)
White frosting (see the Cream-Cheese Buttercream Frosting recipe or use about 2 (16-ounce) containers of store-bought white frosting)
Yellow, orange, red and blue food dye (or gold, red and blue food dye)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Instructions:
1. Line a sheet pan with two sheets of aluminum foil. Shape the Cake-Shaping Strip into a shape of a star. Exaggerate the spatial features, as they'll seem smaller after you unwrap and ice the cake. Wrap the bottom foil layers around the strip. Cut the foil and add extra bottom foil strips as needed to wrap around the strip. Press small balls of loosely packed foil into outer corners or edges if you think that the foil didn't wrap around the portion well enough to prevent cake-batter leakage.
2. Prepare your cake batter. Spray the strip and foil with cooking spray. Pour the cake batter into the prepared "pan" and bake until done. Let the cake cool.
3. Cut away any cake batter that leaked through the strip. Carefully remove the Cake-Shaping Strip. Insert the flat edge of a table knife between the strip and the cake if this helps.
4. Dye one cup of the frosting red, and set it aside. Dye another cup of the frosting blue, and set it aside. Dye the rest of the frosting gold (by adding mainly yellow food dye and a little bit of orange food dye).
5. Frost the cake with a medium-thick layer of gold frosting. Place a flat edge of an icing spatula on the surface of the frosting and lift it up to create a wave. Repeat this over the entire cake. Next, using an icing spatula, smooth out the frosting a center square of the cake. If needed, refrigerate the cake until the frosting is completely dry. Then dip a table knife in warm water, and smooth out any wrinkles in the middle square.
6. Fill two icing bags with the red and blue frosting. Pipe on text in the center square.
7. Carefully sprinkle the shredded coconut around the square.
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