CHOCOLATE LAPTOP BIRTHDAY CAKE!

My oldest son had a birthday last Thursday, and he wanted me to make a laptop cake, well I had to put on my thinking cap, and figure this out, and I knew I had to use fondant icing, this was the first ime ever using fondant, I found it tricky to use, and you need a few days in advance to prepare it. But all in all it was fun, and it didn't turn out to bad. At least the kids were pretty excited about it! I made the cake out of chocolate!


TEXAS CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE

2 Cups White Flour
2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs Beaten
3/4 Cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Cup Butter or Margarine
1 Cup Water
4 Heaping Tablespoons Cocoa


(1)In a bowl mix together Flour, Sugar, Eggs, Sour Cream, Salt and Baking Soda. Set aside.
(2)In saucepan, bring Butter, Water and Cocoa to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool.
(3)When cool stir into Flour mixture and beat with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth.
(4)Pour into 2 17 inch jelly roll pans, lined with parchment paper ( easier to get the cake out later)
(5)Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes, or until cake tests done.
(6) Cool before icing.


CHOCOLATE FROSTING

4 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Butter (butter is a must)
1/4 Cup Milk
4 Tablespoons Cocoa


(1)Ina bowl mix Icing Sugar and Vanilla set aside.
(2)In saucpan combine Butter, Milk and Cocoa. Bring to a boil.
(3)Remove from heat and add to Sugar and Vanilla. Mix well with mixer at medium speed.

The picture below is the cake taken out of the pan and is ready to be frosted! You will only Ice one pan of chocolate cake. The other pan will be for the laptop.

FONDANT RECIPE

1 Tablespoon Unflavoured Gelatin

1/4 Cup Cold Water

1 teaspoon Almond Extract

1/2 Cup light Corn Syrup You can make your own (1 1/4 Cup Sugar and 1/3 Cup Water boiled together til syrupy, this will work jsut as well)

1 Tablespoon Glycerin (This is a must you NEED it, you can find it at your local health store. but ask for the edible kind)

2 Pounds of Icing Sugar (it is a regular bag it equals 2 LBS)

1/2 teaspoon White Vegetable Shortening

(1) Sprinkle Gelatin over Cold Water in bowl and let rest 2 min to soften.

(2)Place in microwave for 30 secs on high until gelatin dissolves.

(3)Add almond extract.

(4)Add Corn Syrup and the Glycerin and stir untill mixture is smooth and clear (if mixture is not truning smooth and clear microwave for additional 15-20 secs on high and stir again)

(5)Sift 1 1/2 pounds of the Icing Sugar into large bowl

(6)Make a hole in the middle of the sugar and pour the liquid mixture into it

(7)Stir with wooden spoon until mixture becomes sticky.

(8)Sift some of the remaining 1/2 pound of Sugar onto a smooth clean work surface and add as much of the remaining Icing Sugar as the mixture will take.

(9)Knead the fondant, adding a little more Sugar if necessary to form a smooth pliable mass.

(10)Rub the Vegetable Shortening onto your thumbs and knead into the Fondant.

(11)Wrap the Fondant in plastic wrap and place in tightly sealed container to prevent it from drying out.

If Fondant does dry out and becomes hard, pop into microwave and knead back to life.

And this is what it will look like!

COLORING FONDANT

(1)Roll The fondant into a ball on your counter and smash it out a bit until soft and pliable

(2)Make a pit in the middle of the Fondant and using a toothpick add dots of GEL FOOD COLOR (don't use liquid food color it will make the Fondant soggy) into the pit. Inportant thing is to add a little bit a time, then knead it it over and over until you get an even spread of color all over

(3)If FOndant is still to pale use same method to add more color

(4)Once you finish coloringt he FOndant shape into disks wrap each in plastic wrap and place in air tight container.

(5)Fondant will darken overnight and lighten in Sunlight.

(6)Wear rubber glovrs when adding color to Fondant, it will stain your hands.

(7)When putting on cake you need to roll the Fondant out thin, and you lay it over your cake, tuck in edges to make it look clean.

I kept some Fondant aside that I didn't color so I could make the keys for the keypad, be creative it is fun!

The other pan of cake I used only half of it, for the bottom half of the laptop, that I fondanted, and laid it on top of the cake that was icinged, (but before you lay the fondanted cake on top put a bit of icing where you are going to put the cake, it acts like a glue, to keep it in place, and the FOndant can take moisture from that and not the cake.) You have quite a thick cake once the Fondanted part is put on but is tastes great all together. For teh sreen part of the laptop, I didn't use cake it would have been to heavy and just fallen, so I cut out a piece of cardboard, and taped a piece of blank paper to one side(so I could write Happy Birthday on it)and Fondanted the rest so you can't tell it is not cake, then I took 3 skewers and pushed them up through the back of the card board, and then stuck it into the cake to stand up. Give yourselves a couple of days to do this all, it can all be made in advanced and then assembled the day of. Happy Baking!