Today I am going to show you how to make an easy pink castle cake! Even when the frosting looks bad you can still make this cake look beautiful enough for a princess 🙂
I was seriously doubting myself as I started frosting this cake and wondered how I could fix it to make it look pretty. Sometimes frosting and cake don’t like to cooperate! Unlike this chocolate cake with amazing Nutella frosting
I will share my secret with you as we get into the process of how to make this easy pink castle cake.
How Big to Make Castle Cake?
Playing around with cake pans and ice cream cones you can decide how big to make the cake. I needed enough room on the base to hold the 4 ice cream cones plus one in the middle.
There was going to be about 16-20 people at the party so I knew it had to be pretty good sized.
I ended up using 2 8″ square pans for the base and 2 6″ rounds for the top.
Making the Cake Batter
To make my cakes I use this formula- 1 cake box mix (I prefer pillsbury), 1 box of jello pudding, 4 eggs, 1/2 c water, 1/2 c oil and 1 c sour cream. The cakes always turn out amazing! Here is one of my favorites a layered lemon cake with whipped cream frosting!
Super moist and full of flavor.
Tip one- I like to add some shredded orange peel into my batter especially when I make chocolate cakes. It just kind of adds a little brightness to the flavor. Then just follow directions for baking on package.
For this castle cake I made two cake mixes! One lemon (I added lemon zest and lemon pudding) and one chocolate strawberry. The strawberry was supposed to be only strawberry but I only had a chocolate pudding in my cupboard. So it ended up being chocolate strawberry!
For the square base I baked the chocolate strawberry in two 8″ square pans. The lemon was baked in 2 6″ round pans. I had batter left over so I baked another 6″ round and froze it.
Tip 2- Refrigerate your cakes by wrapping them in saran wrap the day before. It keep the cakes really moist.
Tip 3- Spread some jam in between the layers to also keep the cake moist.
Pink Buttercream Frosting
I split each cake layer in half and used buttercream frosting tinted pink. Buttercream is my favorite type of frosting. I like to add nutella to it when I am making a chocolate cake.
Like when I made this football cake.
I was in a hurry when I made this cake and the frosting was not laying as nicely as I was hoping. The more I frosted the worse it was looking haha. It tasted amazing but for some reason…maybe because the cake was cold and kind of wet the frosting just didn’t look pretty.
Tip 4- If you have time frost the outside with a light coat and refrigerate for a few hours or over night. Then frost again the next day.
Since I had no time, I just kept frosting. I did run a large plastic serrated edge all around the base of the cake and that seemed to help.
Adding the Ice Cream Cone Turrets
Once the cake was entirely frosted it was time to add the castle turrets. Sticking them into the cake and mushed a little into the sides held them in place perfectly.
It looked a little bland.
Melting some white chocolate chips in the microwave and adding sprinkles to the taller sugar cones was the magic touch!
Melt the chocolate 30 seconds at a time and stir until smooth. It doesn’t need to be perfect because the sprinkles will cover it up. I do this same trick when I make dipped pretzel rods like these.
Tip 5- To add the darling crown tooth picks to the cones, I stuck a wet wooden skewer up through the middle of the cone.
I twisted it ever so gently but firmly to poke a hole through the top. Then I placed the tooth pick in.
Speaking of crowns you need to see the pink princess birthday party my daughter and I did a few years ago for my oldest granddaughter. We went all out!
Finishing Touch To The Pink Castle Cake
To finish of the pink castle cake I ran out into my yard and plucked some pink flowers to place all around the cake! I also used this trick to decorate a store bought cake for this small wedding reception we held in our backyard. It turned out so pretty!
It really helped make the cake look so pretty! You don’t notice the bad frosting job….. as much 😉 #birthdaycakeforthewin
Tip- 6 You could cover more of the not so pretty frosting with candy like we did with this easter cake or more sprinkles or maybe forget frosting all together and use whipped cream and berries like this one.
The very best part was seeing our little princess Harper’s face light up when she saw the cake. She didn’t care if the frosting was a mess she just loved it!
In fact everyone loved the cake!
It really turned out to taste absolutely amazing! Even better than the store bought one I fixed up for her Fancy Nancy birthday tea party that you can read about here.
More details on the family birthday party for Harper coming soon!
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Castle Cake Recipe
Lemon and Chocolate Strawberry Easy Castle Cake Recipe
Equipment
- 2 8" square cake pans
- 2 6" round cake pans
- oven
- Mixer
Ingredients
Cake batters
- 1 box cake mix Lemon
- 1 box cake mix strawberry
- 1 box Instant lemon pudding
- 1 box instant chocolate pudding
- 2 c sour cream
- 1 c vegetable oil
- 1 c water
- 1 zest lemon
- 1 zest orange
- 8 eggs
Buttercream Frosting
- 4 c Powdered Sugar
- 1 c softened butter
- 2 tbsp cream or milk
- strawberry jam spread between layers of cakes
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1-2 drops red food coloring use a little at a time to get the pink color
Turrets for castle cake
- 5 kiddie ice cream cones
- 5 pointy sugar cones
- 1 pkg white chocolate chips
- sprinkles.
Instructions
Lemon Cake
- Into mixing bowl add lemon cake mix, lemon pudding, 4 eggs, 1/2 c oil, 1 cup sour cream , 1/2 c water and lemon zest.
- Mix on high until well combined.
- Pour into oiled and floured 6" round pans. (you will have leftover batter so you can make another round or cupcakes and freeze)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Strawberry Chocolate cake
- In mixing bowl add strawberry cake mix, chocolate or vanilla instant pudding, 4 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 c water and zest of small orange.
- Mix on high until well combined
- Pour into oiled and floured 8" square pans (I used aluminum pans)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean
Buttercream frosting
- Into a mixing bowl add all ingredients except jam, Mix on low to incorporate ingredients and then on high mix until fluffy. Adding in more or less cream to the frosting.
Ice cream cone turrets
- Melt half a bag of white chocolate chips in microwave. 30 seconds at a time and stir until smooth. Dip ends of sugar cones in melted chocolate and add sprinkles.
- See instructions in blog post for how to put the castle cake together and tips for frosting
That’s a beautiful cake and I can tell how excited your little one is for the cake! Well done!
xoxo
Lovely
http://www.mynameislovely.com
Thank you so much Lovely 😊 Harper squealed when she saw the cake… it eas the cutest thing ever! Thanks so much for coming by!
Hugs,
Karin
she’s so precious and so is that adorable cake. great job, Karin!
Thanks so much Debra! 🙂