Ghostly Cake Push Ups

Hello everyone!

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. I have actually posted another tutorial to the blog! You are not dreaming LOL! Things continue to be very time consuming behind the scenes around here as we build our new website and prepare for our membership area to open soon. We are putting together a really wonderful community with loads of features that I think you all will really love. I am also preparing for some new DVD filming days coming up in the next few months. So stay tuned for some new and exciting things to come!

At times like this, when it seems there are not enough hours in the day, it can be a real challenge to come up with some cute and creative confection ideas for our families, friends and customers. I am sure you experience this a lot too. So my next few blog posts will feature some designs that are high on impact but easy in the labor department.

I am sure most of you are familiar with the cake push up craze by now. It has been around a couple of years now. It’s a really fun clever way to  present cake and icing in a whimsical manner; a nice change of pace from the beloved cupcake. So let me please share with you these easy ghost push ups that took no time at all.

 

 Let’s make them really spooooooky…….

 

 What you will need:

cake
push up tubes (can be found all over the place including Ebay and Amazon)
colored icing
sugars, jimmies, sprinkles
mini chocolate chips
icing decorations (the little ghosts shown below are from Wilton)
large  round piping tip and bag

 

 

 

Color your cake batter with gel colors if desired, then bake and level your layers to the height you want your pieces in your push ups to be. Use the end of the push up tube to cut out the circles of cake.

 

 

With the plunger of the tube pushed all the way down, push the first layer of cake all the way in.  Now how do we get the icing down deep into the tube in a clean and level manner? I wanted my parfait layers to look as clean and straight as possible from the outside of the tube. So I made my own contraption to get the icing  down in there.

 

 

I put a portion of a bubble tea straw into the opening of the coupler and taped it in place well. You have to tape it really really good or it will pop off under the pressure of piping. (Ask me how I know that! lol)

 

 

Use your straw tuby piping thing to pipe a nice level ring of icing on top of the cake layer.

 

Repeat with another color if desired. It works beautifully! It keeps the icing level and also keeps the side of the tube clean of smears. Maybe I should patent my straw tuby piping thing? What do you think? I could get it on QVC and make a fortune! I could become the queen of the straw piping thingy! …… Sorry, I digress.

 

Back to the push ups….

 

I added a top layer of cake and put a very thin layer of icing on top to keep the cake fresh.

 

 

I pressed that into some colored sanding sugar.

 

 

Now you have a pretty top, but the cake will stay sealed in and not dry out.

 

 

With a huge round tip (Ateco 808), I piped a dollop of icing on the top to make my ghost.

 

Added some mini chocolate chips for eyes and mouth. (This is a really bad photo but you get the idea.)

 

You can add some jimmies around your ghost if you like, or use some premade decorations on top like my little ghost holding candy corn shown above.

 

 

Vary up the color combos, add sprinkles into your layers, let your imagination go!

 

 

 Have fun with it!

 

For my presentation here I used Styrofoam in a metal bucket, stuck the pop handles into that, and covered the top with Halloween grass. Very cute presentation I think, don’t you?

And it’s just that easy!  If you give it a try, please send me photos. I would love to see your take on it.

Happy Halloween Caking!

Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com