- 2 boxes Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Decadent Cake Mix
- 3 containers Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Classic Vanilla Frosting
- Pink gel paste food color
Special Tools:
- Pastry bag
- Petal tip
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Make Triple Chocolate Decadent Cake Mix as directed on box in two 8-inch round layers. Let cakes cool completely.
- Put cake layers, uncovered, in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Empty vanilla frosting into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 10-second bursts, just until frosting is soft enough to easily spread and mix.
- Add pink gel paste color by dipping a toothpick into color and transferring color to frosting. Mix completely until no more white is visible in frosting. Add more color as needed.
- Remove cake layers from freezer. Frost surface of bottom layer of cake, then place top layer on bottom layer. Lightly frost sides and top of whole layer cake, then place cake in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Put remaining frosting in piping bag with petal tip attached.
- Take cake back out of refrigerator. Hold pastry bag straight up and down with narrow end of petal tip facing you and wider end of the tip against edge of the cake.
- Beginning at bottom of the cake, squeeze bag and move tip back and forth as you build a vertical "wall" of ruffles, one on top of the next, up entire side of the cake. When your first column of ruffles is done, start piping your next ruffle column next to the completed ruffles. Proceed all the way around cake until complete.
- If you want to ruffle the top of your cake, use the same technique but tilt the piping bag at a 45 degree angle. Instead of lying on top of each other, the ruffles will overlap each other (like shingles).
Ups & Downs of Frosting
When creating perfect ruffles for a beautiful Duncan Hines ruffle cake, you should begin with a lightly frosted cake. You'll also need a petal decorating tip and a pastry bag. Next, put the tip into the bag and fill it up with frosting. You can color your frosting with a colored gel paste. Once you're ready, hold the bag straight up and down with the narrow end of the tip facing you and the wider and facing the edge of the cake. Squeeze in an up-and-down, back-and-forth motion all the way up the side of the cake. When you've finished the first column of ruffles, move all the way around the cake until you end up with your own beautiful work of art. Enjoy!
What sort of variations would you try of the Pink Ruffle Cake recipe?
I took the Triple Decadent Cake Mix and combined it with the Strawberry Cake Mix. And instead of just mixing them completely together, I marbled them. It almost tasted like a strawberry cordial.
Do you have a tip for creating a perfectly marbled look?
Well, I use something we're all born with, and that's a finger. If I have a white cake mix in the pan and I'm using chocolate to marble with, I will take the pan or the bowl and just zigzag the chocolate over the vanilla. Then I take my finger and I zigzag in the opposite direction.
Would you try another mix flavor in place of the chocolate in the recipe for the Pink Ruffle Cake?
French Vanilla Cake Mix could be a fun way to change the recipe. French vanilla is so unique. It's got just a little bit different flavor to it versus the standard white cake mix.
