Recipe: Little Red Barn Cake (using cake mix)

LITTLE RED BARN CAKE

1 (18.25-ounce) package Moist Supreme white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cans (16-ounces each) creamy vanilla frosting
1 to 2 teaspoon red food coloring paste
1 to 2 drops green food coloring liquid
3 rectangular buttery crackers
Pretzel sticks (optional)
Green-tinted coconut flakes
Several animal crackers

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13x9x2-inch pan and line bottom with wax paper. Lightly grease wax paper; lightly flour.

In large bowl, combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs; beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.

Bake 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake on wire rack for 5 minutes.

Cover a second wire rack with a cloth towel; turn cake upside down onto covered rack. Peel off waxed paper. Cool 45 minutes or until completely cooled.

For easier handling, freeze 30 minutes or until very firm.

Cut a 15x12-inch piece of sturdy cardboard; cover with heavy-duty foil.

Place cake on cutting board with one of the long sides nearest you. Cut off the upper left corner of the cake to make a sloping roof line; on the opposite corner, cut off a little of the cake to make the rounded top of a silo. (Save all the cake scraps for later use.)

Make another sloping roof line from the silo (about one-third of the way down) up to the top edge of the cake, so the barn has a flat-topped roof with two sloping sides.

Carefully transfer cake to foil-covered cardboard. Tuck strips of wax paper under edges of cake to keep foil surface clean.

Tint 1 can of frosting with red food coloring until desired shade is reached. Frost barn and silo, except for upper rounded section of silo.

Place two of the crackers side-by-side on barn for doors. Place one cracker under the peak of the barn roof for a window; press into frosting.

Spoon about 1/2 cup untinted frosting into a decorating bag fitted with small star tip. Pipe along edge of roof. Fill in the top rounded section of silo. Pipe around door cracker and under window cracker (or use pretzel sticks; you can also cross two pretzel sticks over the barn door).

Tint 1/4 cup frosting with green food coloring.

From cake scraps, cut a 3-inch-tall, 1/2-inch-deep triangle to represent a pine tree. Frost with green frosting. Place on cake between barn and silo.

Sprinkle green-tinted coconut flakes along bottom edge of cake for grass; add animal-cracker farm animals along bottom edge.

Servings: 12
Source: Pillsbury