Guest Post: Polka Dot Cake!

**This is a guest post by my friend Holly P, who has been with me for many of life's moments--good and bad--over the past 8 years or so. She was so happy with the outcome of this dessert that she asked if she could share it on Stuff I Ate! The best part--you don't have to be a Super Baker to pull off this treat!**

Admission: I’m giving this to Lori over 4 months late. But in my defense, this isn’t just an Easter Recipe; it’s fun for ALL SEASONS!

Every year my boyfriend’s family asks me to bring the dessert to Easter dinner. Oh, the pressure! So I spent two weeks scouring blogs and websites for the perfect idea. My challenges:

1. Needed something that would travel well in a car ride for 4 hours.

2. Needed something that I could make two days in advance that wouldn’t dry out or need refrigeration or be difficult in any way.

3. I suck at baking. I love to cook, but baking has never been a strong suit of mine, so I needed something easy.

So, after much searching, I found the delicious answer here!

What could be more adorable? It seemed easy enough to adapt into a spring themed cake, all I needed to do was modify the colors. You could just as easily make a red white and blue cake, or a red and green Christmas cake.

I don’t actually own a cake pop maker, but I do own a mini muffin tin, so I figured I’d try it out. And it worked like a charm! And the end of the day, you don’t need absolutely perfect circles. I bought 2 boxes of cake mix from the store, and prepared just as directed. I poured some batter into 3 separate containers then added drops of food color. I filled the muffin tins just over ½ full and then baked for about 9 minutes (checking regularly w/ a toothpick).

Once they were done baking, let them sit for a minute or two before running a knife along the edge and popping the “muffins” out onto a cooling rack. I let them cool for about 10 minutes before assembling them into the remaining cake batter. In the original blog the chef had taken pains to cut the dots into halves and stick them to the sides and the like, but I didn’t really think it was going to make much of a difference, so I didn’t waste time.

What I found was, as the cake baked, the balls raised to the top. So in hindsight, I would actually try to “glue” some halved balls to the bottom of the pan prior to putting in the remaining batter. I ended up using all 24 cupcakes, and probably should have baked up about 12 more, as there was room for it and would have made it even more colorful.

I then baked my two 8” cake pans for about 20 minutes more, as per the directions on the box. Again, you have to check it with a toothpick to ensure it’s done. After it comes out of the oven, simply slice the tops off of both pans so your cake is nice and even. Flip it out onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely before attempting to frost.

Use your favorite frosting recipe and decorate for whatever holiday event you are celebrating. I guarantee once you cut into the cake, everyone will be impressed, and nobody will ever know that you aren’t a master baker!

This was simple, easy and actually a lot of fun to construct. Oh, and one last tip, if you aren’t skilled at decorating, you can do what I did and just but something cute like the “peeps” that I got from my local bakery, you don’t need to get all fancy with trying to pipe frosting.

Happy Holidays, whatever colors you use! ~ Holly

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