Origami Cube Cakes

Adorable origami AND cake? What!?

Yeah, I know, it's pretty awesome.

These mini cakes are baked prepackaged - so they're instantly portable, stay moist longer, and are cool enough that you don't have to spend the extra time frosting them! And if you need to take them anywhere, they can be stacked perfectly in a box, for the easiest way to transport cake ever!

Ingredients:

- Cake mix of choice (and whatever the mix requires) - Each box of mix makes 12 little cakes

** Yes, you can always use your own recipe, but the batter needs to be thick. Cake batter that is too liquidy or too chunky will not work!

- Optional: Food dyes, sprinkles, other small add-ins

Supplies:

- Parchment paper cut into 8.5" squares

- Piping bag(s) and tips

- Cookie Sheet

Step 1: Fold your parchment square diagonally. Unfold it, and fold it diagonally the other way. Unfold it. Now fold it once horizontally. (pic 1)

Step 2: With your creases, tuck the sides of the paper in (pic 2) so that you form a triangle (pic 3)

Step 3: Fold each of your bottom corners up to meet your top corner (pic 4) Repeat on the other side. You should end up with a diamond shape (pic 5)

Step 4: Fold your outter corners into the middle of your diamond, touching the center line. (Pic 6) Repeat on the other side.

Step 5: Fold the small flaps at the top of your shape down, and tuck them into the pockets you created in step 4. (pic 7 and 8) Repeat on the other side.

Step 6: Now it's done! Repeat for how many cakes you want. We'll cover blowing these up next.

Alternatively, there are some other nice instructions on this wiki page

The standard way to inflate these is to locate the hole on the end, and gently blow into it.

But, since cake is going in these, you can coax them open without blowing into them. Grab on your flaps and gently pull at the corners, switching corners when needed, until they're in little cubes.

However you decide to open these, make sure they're flat enough at the bottom so they sit correctly on your cookie sheet while baking.

Preheat your oven according to your box mix or recipe.

Make your cake batter, and add any food dye or sprinkles you'd like. Spoon your batter into a piping bag, fitted with a tip. You *can* use a zip bag with a corner snipped off, but it's usually a bit messier.

Place 12 of your origami balloons on your cookie sheet, with the small hole facing up. I know it's tempting to fit more on the cookie sheet, but the cakes won't bake evenly if they're too crowded.

Carefully pipe your cake batter into each cube, alternating colors as you wish to create marbled effects. When using cake mix, I fill these 2/3 full. Mix were perfectly baked after 16 minutes, but you can always check with a toothpick!

Once these are out of the oven, move the cubes (still in the wrappers) onto a cooling rack.