Firecracker Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease a 12-cup tube cake pan. Make cake batter as directed on box. Pour 1 cup of batter into a bowl and add the red food coloring, mix well. Pour another cup of the batter into a bowl and add the blue food coloring, mix well. Pour the red cake mix into the bottom of the greased pan. Carefully pour the white batter over the red batter in pan. Then carefully pour the blue batter over the white batter. The blue batter does not need to cover the white batter completely. It looks better if it just forms a ring in the center of the white batter. Bake as directed on box or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack that is placed over a cookie sheet. Cool cake completely, about 30 minutes. Once cake is cool, equally divide the frosting into 3 bowls. Microwave the white frosting for a few seconds on high until it is smooth enough to drizzle over the cake. With a spoon, drizzle the white frosting back and forth around the whole ring in a striping pattern until you use it all. Then microwave one of the other bowls. Before drizzling, mix in a few drops of blue food coloring. Then drizzle over the cake, scattering back and forth. Repeat with the red food coloring, making sure you can see the red, white and blue colors. Set cake aside to dry. When you add the batter, do not mix with a spoon. Just pour it in so the colors don't mix but rather, just rest on top of each other in the pan. Store loosely covered and unrefrigerated. Cake can be made a day or two in advance.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Generously spray 12-cup fluted tube cake pan with baking spray with flour.
• In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and whole eggs with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. In small bowl, place 1 cup of the batter; stir in 1 teaspoon of the red food color until blended. In another small bowl, place 1 cup of the batter; stir in 1 teaspoon of the blue food color until blended.
• Pour red cake batter into bottom of pan. Carefully pour remaining white batter over red batter in pan. Carefully pour blue batter over white batter. (Blue batter does not need to cover white batter completely; it looks better if it just forms a ring in the center of the white batter.)
• Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven. Let stand 10 minutes, remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Place cake on cooling rack over waxed paper or cooking parchment paper. In small microwavable bowl, place 1/4 cup of the frosting. Microwave uncovered on High 10 to 15 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle over cake. With spoon, drizzle warmed frosting back and forth over cake in striping pattern. Divide remaining frosting between 2 small microwavable bowls. To 1 bowl, stir in 1/4 teaspoon red food color until well blended. Microwave uncovered on High 5 to 10 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over cake. Repeat with remaining bowl of frosting and 1/4 teaspoon blue food color. Sprinkle candy sprinkles on top. Let stand about 30 minutes or until frosting is set. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

Steps:

• Prepare the cake mix as per package instructions. Separate evenly into three bowls of about 1 ½ cups batter each. Color one bowl red, and one blue. Gently stir color into batter. Pour into three loaf pans that are lightly greased and lined with a parchment sleeve. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake tests clean. The cakes should be fully cooked through. Allow to cool completely.
• Using a 1-inch biscuit cutter, cut 8-10 circles out of each of the cakes. Gently brush the outside of each of the cut-outs with simple syrup and then coat in sanding sugar. Let the cut-outs dry for 10 minutes before assembling.
• Dab a ¼-½ teaspoon of frosting on each of the red cakes, and then top with a white cake. Dab with another ¼-½ teaspoon of frosting and then top with the blue cakes. Using a straw, cut a hole through the center of the cakes, discard. Fill the cakes with popping candy and top with a 1-inch length of black licorice. Serve within an hour.
• TIP: Letting the sanding sugar dry is necessary to prevent the colors from bleeding.