How to make flip flop cakes

Preparing the flip flop cake

1. Bake a regular sheet cake in a 13 x 9-inch pan.
2. Pre-tint three colors of frosting using food coloring. One color will be the all-over base color, the second will be the accent color and the third will a secondary accent color.
3. Slice off the top of the sheet cake, using a serrated knife, to make it flat.
4. Flip the cake over.
5. Cut the cake right down the middle (the long way).
6. Make a template with cardboard or paper to use as a stencil to cut out the shape of each flip flop on the cake. (Hint: Trace around a shoe to create the flip flop template. But, be sure to put the clean side on the cake, not the side that touched the shoe!)
7. Place the flip flop stencil on one half of the cake and use a small knife to cut it out. Repeat this for the other side of the cake.
8. Crumb coat both flip flop cakes. A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that goes over the whole cake and seals in the crumbs. Apply a thin layer of frosting to the top and sides of the cakes. Freeze the cake with the crumb coat for about 30 minutes.

Decorating the flip flop cake

1. Apply the final coat of frosting, starting on the sides of the cake. Put an accent color of frosting on the sides. Don't worry about the accent color smearing onto the top of the cake, as you will apply another layer of the base color to the top.
2. Frost the top of each flip flop cake with another layer of the base color frosting - about 1/4 inch. Spread the frosting right up to the edge of the cake. It doesn't have to be perfect; you will add an accent border, which will hide where the sides and the tops of the cake meet.
3. Use a large spatula to remove the two flip flop cakes from the baking tray, using your hand to support the cake as you move it to a platter.
4. Make a pastry cone using cellophane or wax paper (or use a pastry bag) and fill with the tinted frosting. Apply a different color of frosting to the border of the flip flop cake. To find out how to make a pastry cone, watch How to decorate desserts using pastry cones and pastry bags
5. Use colored candies to decorate the sides of each flip flop cake.
6. Cut a Fruit Roll-Up into pieces about 4 inches long, cut the ends at an angle and fold the bottom portion under about 1/4 inch to provide stability.
7. Place two pieces of Fruit Roll-Up at the front of the flip flop cakes to serve as the straps.
8. For the final touch you can use some silk flowers and place them between the straps of the flip-flop.

Betty Crocker's flip flop recipe serves 15.

For more on the Flip Flop Cakes recipe visit BettyCrocker.com

 

 

 

 

Sheet cake (13 x 9)

Frosting

Food coloring

Serrated knife

Offset spatula

Wax paper/cellophane or pastry bag

Fruit Roll-Ups

Silk flowers

Assorted candies

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi. I'm Laurie Gelman from howdini.com. If you're going to be hosting a summer birthday party for a little girl, or planning any summer party, how about making this really great flip-flop cake? Now, I know what you're thinking. Who, me? But I'm here to tell you yes, you. Or actually, Liv Hansen for Betty Crocker Kitchens is here to tell you yes, you can do this. Hi, Liv, how are you?

Hi, Laurie.

I love the idea of a flip-flop cake.

Oh, great. So I'll show you how to make it.

I would love to.

This is a regular sheet cake that I've baked in a regular 13 by 9 inch pan. And I've also premixed some colors. And the cake, you can use any cake you want, whatever the birthday girl's favorite is.

So we're going to take the cake. And basically, we're going to slice off the top of it just to make it flat. I'm using a serrated knife. Just a little bit.

Not too deep, right?

Nope, just the top dome that forms when you bake it. Would you like a bite?

Can I eat that?

Sure.

I was going to say. Thanks.

So then I'm going to flip over so that the flat side is here. And now I'm going to cut it right down the middle.

So one of those cakes will do two flip-flops?

Yes, two flip-flops. A little pair. And instead of just going ahead and cutting the shape of a flip-flop out-- you might mess up and then you're going to have to bake another cake-- I recommend making a template. So you just place them down. And I'm going to use a small knife to cut it out. Have a little bit more control. And basically, you're just going to carve around it.

So we're going to do a crumb coat right on this inverted sheet pan.

What's a crumb coat?

A crumb coat is just a thin layer of frosting that seals in all the crumbs. Just going to spread it on as thin as possible.

So that'll be your all over color? These are pink flip-flops.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Got it.

And just around the sides, too. And that creates a little lip of frosting. And then all you have to do to get rid of it is just come in, like a little airplane landing and then taking off again, and scrape off that little lip of icing. So I have one done.

That's an interesting looking knife you're using there. What is that?

This is actually an offset spatula. There's a little bend in it. And it allows you to get into tight areas, like this right here, and frost it a little bit better.

But if you only make one cake a year, chances are you could use just a regular butter knife?

You can use a butter knife. So I actually do have one that I've already crumb coated. And I've chilled it for about 30 minutes, and it's ready to be iced. So we could start the decorating process if you want.

Let's go, because that looks like the most fun part.

Thank you.

Ooh, those look good.

So we're ready for the final coat. Now, what I do for these is I actually start on the sides first. And I've made an accent color of purple just to set it off a little bit from the top color.

Those frosting colors are gorgeous.

Aren't they fun? I'm frosting the sole of the flip-flop in the purple. That'll give it a nice accent color. And the top we'll do in pink.

So I have it all covered. I'm just going to go around one more time just to smooth it out a little bit. I'm just going to take off as much of the purple frosting as I can, just by sliding my offset spatula towards the center.

You're not worrying about wrecking the pink?

You don't have to worry about being too neat on the top because we're going to frost some pink frosting right on top. So I'm going to take a dollop. Place it on.

Now here, also, you want to go up to the edge. But if it's not as perfect as you want it to be, don't worry, because we're going to do a little border to hide where the two colors meet.

How thick is this layer?

This is a thing layer. It's a little less than a quarter inch, just enough to cover the purple so that it doesn't come through in this coat. So now I think we're ready to start the decorating. So I have these large-- you can use a pancake spatula. Just going to put it right underneath, my hand under it, and then just gently place it down.

So is there a trick to doing it?

Well, you just to make sure that you get the spatula right underneath the cake and push it in as far as it will go. And you start to lift a little bit, and then place your hand underneath, towards the back. And then place it down. And again, just slide it out the same way that you pulled it in.

And now, we're going to start the decorating. So what we have here is some yellow frosting. And I've actually placed some in a pastry cone. I'm just going to start piping. So basically, I'm just squeezing with consistent pressure but moving the bag up and down to create that little zigzag pattern.

You always do such a crisp end. Is there a trick to doing that?

Yeah, it's called tailing off. And what you do is as you're squeezing, you release the pressure. And then you pull away. If you keep squeezing as you pull up, you'll get a little tail.

So now, we get to add some little candies just as decoration. We have some fun candies here that match our color theme. And basically, you can just stick them one up, one down--

Whatever way you want?

-One up. Yep.

You can get these at any store, can't you? These candies?

Yeah, grocery stores, the bulk candy shops, your corner candy store. You can find them all over. Now, basically we have Fruit Roll-Ups. And I've cut them. I've trimmed them into a little triangular shape at both end. And I've folded down about a quarter inch, and that'll just give it a little stability.

And then I put one end in here. And then I wrap it around like that. You can do it on both sides.

Are patterned Fruit Roll-Ups hard to find?

No, you can find this at the grocery store. They're pretty easy to find. And we'll do that for both sides.

You can find solid colored ones, too. It doesn't really matter, just as long as it matches the cake you're doing.

Well, for the final touch, we can just take some silk flowers. And we can press them right between the straps.

Pretty. The only inedible thing on this cake.

Yes. And there you go.

Look good enough to wear. And eat. Thanks, Liv. I can't wait to go to a beach party so I can actually make this, and bring it, and impress my friends. And if you're going to do a beach party theme, it's fun to have sand buckets on the table and fill them with goodies. You can also use sunglasses, beach balls, and seashells to decorate.

And of course, this flip-flop cake can be frosted in any color you like. You should really have fun with it. I'm Laurie Gelman for howdini.com.