Fortress of Solitude Crystal Cake

‘Coat a vanilla layer cake in blue and clear crystal-like rock candy to create a tabletop Fortress of Solitude. You can make everything from scratch—cake and rock candy. Or decorate a grocery store cake the one pictured if time is tight.’ – The Official DC Super Hero Cookbook The cookbook also suggests to make this recipe even simpler, one can substitute their favorite vanilla cake mix (and vanilla frosting mix too) and spend time making the rock candy (which they also indicated one could purchase though I have not seen rock crystals quite like these).

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 40

Total Time 1 30

Servings

Calories 723kcal

Author Toni Dash

Ingredients

Ingredients for Vanilla Layer Cake:*

2 cups all-purpose flour+
1½ cups sugar (use 1¼ cup for a less sweeter taste or can use ¾ cup Splenda)
2½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup shortening
¾ cup milk (or half-and-half cream)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or use 1½ teaspoons almond extract)
2 large eggs

Ingredients for Vanilla Frosting:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons whipping cream
Blue Icing gel or food coloring if desired

Tools You’ll Need to make Rock Candy:

2 tall , clean glass jars
2 lengths of cotton string , each two-thirds as long as the jar’s height
2 pencils or 2 craft sticks (something longer than the mouth of the jar)
2 weights to hang on the string (a paper clip, washer, ring-shaped hard candy—something clean)

Ingredients for Rock Candy:

6 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
Blue liquid food coloring

Instructions

Instructions for the Vanilla Layer Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, mix together the flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt until combined. Add in the shortening, milk, vanilla, and eggs.
Beat on medium speed with an electric mixer, scraping the bowl constantly until just blended (the batter will be think; if desired you may add in a few more tablespoons of milk).
Pour batter into a parchment paper lined 8 x 8 baking pan and bake for 20–22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pans. Cool completely before frosting .

Instructions for Vanilla Frosting:

Using a mixer or food processor, combine sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended, then increase speed to medium and beat for another three minutes.
Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more.
To color the frosting, add just a drop of icing gel or food coloring at a time, mix, and repeat until you have the color that matches your preference (or leave it white).

Instructions for making Rock Candy:

Pour 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water into 2 separate sauce pans.
Heat both mixtures to a boil, stirring constantly. The sugar solution should just start to boil, but not boil for too long.
Stir the solutions until all the sugar has dissolved. Then add a few drops of blue food coloring to one of the pans.
Turn off the stove and let the solutions cool for 15 minutes. While they’re cooling, you can set up your crystal makers: Tie the string to the middle of the pencil or craft stick and attach a weight to the other end of the string. Repeat for your second crystal maker. One will be used to make clear crystals; one will be used to make blue crystals.
Pour the clear cooled sugar solution into one jar; and the blue solution into the other jar. Drop a single weighted string into the center of each jar, resting the pencil or craft stick across the mount of the jar.
Set the jars somewhere quiet, where they won’t be touched or disturbed. You can cover the jars with a paper towel or waxed paper, or coffee filter to keep the solution clean. In three to seven days, you will have a string of blue rock candy, and string of white/clear rock candy. Remember to cut the string off where the sugar crystal ends, then break or cut it into pieces to decorate your cake.

Notes

*For a Double or Triple Layer Cake: Double the quantities for a two-layer cake and distribute the batter evenly between two 8x8 pans. Increase baking time to 35 minutes. For three layers, triple the recipe, and distribute the batter evenly across three 8x8 pans.

+Swap your favorite gluten-free flour blend to make the cake gluten-free.

Recipe excerpted with written persmission from The Offical DC Super Hero Cookbook {Downtown Bookworks, Inc}

Nutrition