Fireworks Push It Up Cakes Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and egg whites with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Fill muffin cups half full with batter. (Cover and refrigerate remaining batter until ready to bake; cool pan before reusing and spray again with cooking spray.)
• Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pans to cooling racks; cool completely, about 15 minutes. (Repeat with remaining batter to make about 48 additional mini cupcakes. Freeze cupcakes for another use.)
• Spoon frosting into decorating bag (fitted with desired tip) or resealable food-storage plastic bag (with small corner cut off). To assemble, drop 1 cupcake into each push-up pop container; pipe desired amount of frosting on cupcake. Top each with second cupcake; pipe with frosting. Garnish with strawberry and mint sprig.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 36 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• In medium bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and egg whites with electric mixer on low speed until moistened; beat 2 minutes on high speed until well blended. Divide batter into 2 bowls. Tint 1 bowl of batter with a few drops red food color; tint other bowl with blue food color.
• Fill 18 muffin cups 2/3 full with red batter. Bake about 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven. Repeat with blue batter to make an additional 18 mini cupcakes. Cool completely.
• To assemble push-up cakes, drop 1 mini cupcake into each push-up pop container. Add generous teaspoon frosting to top of each cupcake. Top each with second mini cupcake; add dollops of frosting to tops of each. Sprinkle each of popping rock candy. Serve.

Steps:

• Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan, making sure to get in all the crevices; dust with flour and tap out the excess. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
• Beat the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the sour cream and vanilla. (The batter may look curdled.) Reduce the mixer speed to medium low and add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk; beat until combined.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool 15 minutes in the pan; loosen the edge of the cake with a knife and invert onto the rack to cool completely.
• Make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and 1 tablespoon water in a bowl; add a splash more water if the glaze is too thick. Spoon over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Decorate with nonpareils. Let stand until set, 5 to 10 minutes. Put rock candy sticks in the center of the cake.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Grease or spray bottoms and sides of three 8x4-inch loaf pans.
• Make cake batter as directed on box. Divide batter evenly among pans. Bake 27 to 34 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans; place rounded sides up on cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Spoon 1/2 cup of the frosting into small bowl; stir in enough black food color to make gray. Place 1/2 cup of the remaining white vanilla frosting in small resealable plastic freezer bag; cut small tip off 1 corner of bag. Spoon remaining white vanilla frosting into large bowl; stir in enough red food color until desired red color.
• Trim rounded tops from each cake to make flat surface. Cut cakes and arrange pieces on platter as shown in diagram (template can be found under the Tips below), attaching pieces with thin layer of red frosting, to form fire engine. Spread thin layer of red frosting over entire cake to seal in crumbs. For easier handling, refrigerate or freeze cake 30 to 60 minutes.
• Frost area between cab and back of engine with gray frosting. Place remaining gray frosting in small resealable plastic freezer bag; cut small tip off 1 corner of bag. Frost remaining fire engine with red frosting. Pipe on windshield, windows and ladder with white frosting. Trim and discard thin slice (about 1/8 inch) off bottoms of 4 red and 4 yellow gumdrops; attach trimmed gumdrops for headlights and taillights with white frosting. Attach remaining gumdrops on top of engine for lights. For wheels, pipe 1/2-inch circle of gray frosting on center of each cookie for hubcap; attach wheels to cake. Attach licorice coils on sides of cake for hoses.
• Pipe gray frosting around wheels and bottom edge of engine. For bumpers, pipe 1 or 2 lines of gray frosting on front and back of engine. Store loosely covered.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 40 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil and egg whites. Stir in 10 to 15 drops red food color. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. (Cover and refrigerate remaining batter until ready to bake; cool pan before reusing and spray again with cooking spray.)
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely. (Repeat with remaining batter to make about 32 additional mini cupcakes. Freeze cupcakes for another use.)
• In medium bowl, mix frosting and enough green food color for desired shade of green. Spoon frosting into decorating bag (fitted with desired tip) or resealable food-storage plastic bag (with small corner cut off).
• To assemble, pipe small amount of frosting in bottom of each push-up pop container. Drop 1 mini cupcake into each container; pipe frosting on cupcake. Top each with second cupcake; pipe with frosting. Add chocolate chips on top to look like watermelon seeds. Place caps on containers until ready to serve. Store in refrigerator.