Jackson Pollock Cake

This is a fun project for kids to help decorate. For parties, you can make individual cupcakes and have the guests decorate their own. Just make sure to put down A LOT of drop cloths or plastic (have you seen Jackson Pollock at work?)

Cake mix

Food coloring (gel colors will get you more intense colors)

Fondant

Powdered sugar

Most Fondant you find in stores tastes awful and is expensive. It does hold up better in warm weather. I make my own by adapting a recipe from "Joy Of Cooking"

1 stick butter (room temp)

1/2t vanilla

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Beat all this until everything is light and fluffy.

Add 1 cup at a time 6-7 cups of powdered sugar. Depending on the humidity you may need a little more. Have extra ready to use when rolling out your fondant.

Use your favorite recipe or cake mix and bake in most size pans. If you use the larger, sheet cake pans, plan on leaving the cake in the pan (unless you're skilled enough to get it out in one piece ).

Dust your work surface with powdered sugar. Using a marble rolling pin, or a clean PVC pipe (less sticking than a wooden rolling pin), roll out your fondant to slightly larger than your cake. Carefully drape over your cake, smooth out any bubbles and trim the excess as you tuck the edges under your cake

Royal Icing is just powdered sugar with water. A little goes a long way. Start with 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, coloring of your choice and add just a tiny amount of water at a time. Use a small whisk to blend. The consistency should be like real maple syrup. You want it thin enough to splatter, but not so thin that it runs everywhere. Good idea to test on a scrap of fondant. Mix up all the colors your plan on using, then cover the containers with plastic. Royal Icing will dry hard and pretty fast depending on the consistency.

Using food safe paint brushes, chop sticks, toothbrush (to create a fine splatter) decorate your cake. It's a good idea to let each color dry before proceeding to the next unless you're familiar with how colors blend. Mixing red and green together will create mud, so unless that's the look you're going for, let each layer dry before adding another.

Enjoy your Masterpiece. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Hope you enjoyed this "ible" :)