How to Make an Ice Chest Cake
An ice-chest cake is both a delicious treat and a visual delight for your guests. With ten layers, loads of frosting and several advanced decorating techniques required for its execution, an ice chest cake is not something to be started an hour before guests arrive. Enlist friends to help you not just with the preparation, but with transporting the cake to its final destination -- with all those layers, your ice chest cake may be as heavy as the real thing. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- 10 1-inch cakes
- 10 13-by-9 inch pans
- Red or blue frosting
- Fondant
- Six to nine Ding Dongs or other round snack cakes
- Edible sugar decals
- Isomalt
- Heavy plastic or stainless-steel ice cube trays
- Vegetable oil
- Edible silver dust
- Silpat or other silicone baking mat
- Bamboo Skewers
- Knife
- Spatula
Instructions
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Prepare the desired cake layers and filling flavors, using your favorite recipes or a boxed cake mix. Bake cakes in 13-by-9 inch pans. You will need enough layers for approximately a ten-inch tall cake; prepare enough batter for approximately 10 to 12 13-by-9 inch pans. When cakes have cooled, stack with a coat of frosting between each layer. Apply a thin coat of frosting the outside of the cake, then chill in the refridgerator for approximately half an hour. This "crumb coat" will catch any crumbs and hold them in place while you frost the cake. A coat of red or blue frosting around the sides of the cake will naturally create the stucco texture of many coolers, though rolled fondant can be used for a smoother look.
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Frost the top of the cake with light blue icing, then roll two, one inch thick ropes of fondant. One will be twenty-six inches long, the other will be eighteen inches long. Cut each rope in half, and apply around the edges of the top of the cake. This will form the lip of your cooler.
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Melt isomalt in a heavy, stainless-steel pan on a stove over high heat. Stir frequently until the isomalt begins to bubble, then allow the isolmalt to boil until all of the pearls are completely dissolved. While isomalt is melting, prepare several plastic or stainless steel ice cube trays by rubbing the inside of each cube with vegetable oil. Place ice-cube trays on a silpat baking mat, then slowly pour the melted isomalt into the trays. Fill approximately half-way and let set until they are completely cool to the touch. Remove the cubes from trays as you would regular ice, then set aside.
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4
Stack three round snack cakes, like Ding-Dongs, on top of each other.Thread the cakes on a bamboo skewer that has been trimmed to the same height for additional stability. Roll out a sheet of fondant, either white or tinted gray, then place the snack cake at one end. Slowly roll the fondant around the cakes, gently pressing the seams together at the back of the can. Trim the ends off the fondant tube, then press down to flatten. Cut two discs of fondant that are the same diameter as the snack cakes, then attach one each to the top and bottom of the can with dots of royal icing. Paint the labels on with foodcoloring, or print the labels on edible transfers and affix to the can. Silver the top and bottom with edible frosting, and attach pop-top tabs to the top of each can.
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Lay the beer cans on top of the cake, then surround with the isomalt ice cubes. If the beer cans are too dimensional, slice them in half length-wise before laying them on the cake. Add any creative decorations that add to versimilitude of the cake. Professional cake artists Roland and Marsha Winbeckler create the illusion of melting ice cubes by pouring small puddles of isomalt on a silpat baking mat and setting an isomalt ice cube in the puddle shortly before it hardens. Pipe the recipients name on the front of the cake, or print it on an edible sugar decal. Set on a table covered with a checkered picnic cloth for a finishing touch.
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References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
