Graduation Cake and Ice Cream

A friend and fellow dancer in Hawai'i Club asked me to make dessert for his graduation BBQ. He is going back to Hawai'i in a few days and since he's from Hawai'i and does Hawaiian dancing...why not a Hawaiian themed cake. I was done with finals really early so I decided to make a fairly elaborate cake and some goodie goodie for his birthday. Goodie goodie is a strawberry ice cream that [I think] can only be found in Hawai'i. It's super delicious and if you have an ice cream machine, ridiculously easy and tasty. Anyway I google'd Hawaiian Cakes and found a bunch of waterfall cakes so I thought that might be cool.

The 09 and palm trees are made out of sugar cookies, flood frosted with thinned royal icing. The flowers are made out of royal icing and the cake is covered with marshmallow fondant. Underneath that is buttercream frosting and chocolate cake. I feel like it's a bit more elaborate that it looks. And I totally had to borrow a saw and hammer from the neighbors to put in those dowel rods...they thought i was crazy.

Everyone really liked the cake though, it came pretty close to getting attacked by seagulls but it was saved. I think this is the first 3 tierd cake I've made on my own for 'fun' plus our apartment fridge can only hold so much cake. I majorly cheated and used a tweaked version of a box cake but noooo oneee could tell. I swear.

Too Much Chocolate Cake
Allrecipes.com

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm coffee
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips [optional]
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and coffee. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.
3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

* This cake rises a lot. If you are using a different pan, fill till the batter is halfway up the sides of the pan and bake. It will rise to the top.

Goodie Goodie

- 1 can evaporated milk
- 6 cups strawberry soda
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk

1. Mix all three ingredients together. Taste and if it is too sweet you may want to add more evaporated milk.
2. Freeze in ice cream maker according to directions.