Solar System Cake

Ingredients

• 2 8-inch round layer cakes, baked and refrigerated until cool

Tip: purchase the cake baked and iced, with no border or decoration.

• 2 1/2 pound buttercream icing
• Food color paste in red, yellow, royal blue, green, black, white
• Sugar cookie dough
• Round colored candy covered chocolate
• Silver sprinkles

Supplies

• Apron
• Baking sheet
• Cookie cutters; stars and circles
• Cutting board and knife
• Icing bags
• Decorating tip -large round
• Mixing bowls
• Mug of hot water
• Icing spatulas
• Cake box (unless you buy a ready-made cake)
• Cardboard base (unless you buy a ready-made cake)
• Ruler or tape measure
• Paper towels
• Parchment baking paper
• Paring knife
• Rubber gloves (to avoid staining hands when mixing icing)
• Wax paper to cover your work area
• Toothpicks to remove crumbs from icing
• Trashcan
• Wood barbeque skewers

Directions

Tip: To save time, consider buying an 8-10 inch round iced layer cake already made at your local grocery store or bakery. Ask for the cake frozen and iced in white with no border. A cold cake will be easier to decorate. Ready made buttercream icing is easiest to decorate with, and gel paste food coloring can be purchased at your local cake supply or craft store.

To make the icing:

1. Make colored icing and set aside. Use any colors that you think that will look nice on your planet cookies, but here are colors that Sprout recommends.

   Tip: When using gel paste food coloring, you can make your icing slightly lighter than you want it, it will darken as it sits. To make the dark blue icing, mix royal blue with black and violet to get a nice deep midnight blue.

   You will need:

   • 5 tablespoons black
   • 1/4 cup yellow
   • 1/4 cup  white
   • 5 tablespoons green
   • 1 cup light blue
   • 2 pounds very dark blue

To make the cookies:

1. Using either your favorite sugar cookie recipe, or store-bought dough, make the sugar cookies in several different sized stars and circles. Stars are easiest to make using cookie cutters.
2. Insert the pointed end of the skewer into the star shapes while laying flat on the cookie sheet, lollipop-style.
3. Press the dough into shape using your fingers.
4. Bake, with skewers in, until cookies are dark golden and remove from oven. Let cool.
5. Ice with yellow icing when cool. Decorate with sprinkles or sparkly sugar if desired.
6. Bake various sized circles that will represent the planets. After cooling, add icing in stripes and swirls and blended colors to resemble real planets.  Tip: Make the rings of Saturn with a bit of licorice rope (choking hazard for children under 4).
7. Make the rocket ship by cutting an oval and 2 smaller triangles with a pizza cutter. The oval will be the rocket ship and the triangles will be the wings.

To decorate the cake:

1. To make the cake, you will need two 8-10 inch round cakes, trimmed, flattened and chilled.
2. Use icing between layers to adhere together.
3. Ice the entire cake with dark blue icing. (Tip: The secret to a nice, smooth cake is to use a LOT of icing and spread with a warm, wet spatula to remove the excess. If you get a lumpy spot, add a glob of icing, dip your spatula in hot water and touch up. If you get any blemishes on the cake that you want to smooth, chill the cake so the icing hardens a little, then tap and smooth with a clean, damp finger.)
4. Attach the wings and candy decoration to the rocket, using icing like glue.
5. Press the Sun, rocket, and a planet or two into the top of the cake, using a skewer or toothpicks to help prop them up.
6. Put the large round tip on an icing bag, or trim the end straight across, and fill with dark blue icing for your border. Set aside.
7. Add dark blue dots with a round decorating tip (or flat trimmed end of icing bag) around the bottom and top edges of the cake to create a border. You can also opt to use small round candies to create a border as an alternative to icing.
8. Put a dab of icing on the backs of your decorated planets and press onto the sides of your cake all the way around.
9. Add the star cookies on skewers pressing in at different heights.
10. Embellish cake with silver sprinkles, round candies, or any other treats that you think will look out-of-this-world on your Solar System cake!
11. Remove skewers before serving!
12. You’re cake is ready for blast off!

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