Recently I asked my friend and blogging buddy, Amber Seree, to write a guest post for Shane’s Killer Cupcakes. She came up with a great tutorial for making a Pac-man Cake! If you’d like to be a guest poster for SKC read the Guest Post Guidelines and contact me to pitch me your idea. Enjoy!

Hey there, guest blogger Amber here. I thought I’d share this with you all, because this cake is an easy, fun way to create something for your child’s birthday, or for a gaming enthusiast. My step son and I baked and decorated this together for his birthday. It turned out delicious and it was fun too!

You will need:

• 1 Box Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake Mix ( or other chocolate cake mix. Use ingredients on the box accordingly)
• 1 1/3 Cups Water (from Duncan Hines mix box)
• 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil (from Duncan Hines mix box)
• 3 Large Eggs (from Duncan Hines mix box)
• 1 Bag Dark Chocolate Chips (substitute with semi-sweet or milk chocolate, or mix if you’d like)
• 1 Can White Frosting
• 1 Can of Chocolate Frosting (the large can is not needed, the regular size will do)
• Yellow Food Coloring
• Butter (to grease the pans)
• 2 8” x 1 1/2” Round Baking Pans
• Flour (for cake pans)
• Large Mixing Bowl
• Whipped Cream (optional)

Other:

• A spatula would be nice
• An electric mixer or whisk (though you can use a fork!)
• Something to spread the frosting evenly, you can use a butter knife, but there are specialty tools

Directions

Baking:

1. PREHEAT oven to 350° F for metal or glass pans, or 325° F for dark coated pans. Butter the insides of the pans lightly. You can flour the inside of the pan as well, though we skipped that step and it came out fine.
2. Blend the cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until completely mixed. With an electric mixer this will be around 2 minutes, if you are mixing with hand, this will take longer.
3. Pour the batter into cake pans. Add chocolate chips as desired. My stepson chose to sprinkle them liberally on one layer, and concentrate them in the middle on the other. However you want to do it should work fine. If you will use chocolate chips for the eyes, be sure to save at least 10 to accomplish this.
4. Bake for 33-36 minutes for metal or glass pans. Add a few extra minutes for dark coated pans. Trick: carefully stick a toothpick into the center of your cake, if it comes out clean, it’s ready. Just be aware of your chocolate chips!

Frosting:

1. Put white frosting into bowl. Add up to 10 drops of yellow food coloring at first, and mix it well. You may need to mix in more to get the vibrant yellow you are looking for. I added 24 yellow drops and one green drop, but the green addition almost became a disaster. If you are going to try to add 1 green drop for a richer, deeper yellow, I’d recommend having an extra can of white frosting on hand just in case. I also highly recommend starting with only 10 yellow drops and working your way up. The type of food coloring and frosting you use may make results vary. Once you have the yellow color you are looking for, set it aside.
2. Once cake layers COOL COMPLETELY, flip the first one out onto a plate. Be careful of breaking it. The best way I have found is to set plate or platter on top of the cake pan and flip them both upside down together. I’d recommend flipping it back over so that the flat edge is on the bottom. To do this, simply repeat the steps above but without the cake pan. Make sure you use the final serving plate or platter the second time.
3. Frost the top of the first cake layer thickly with chocolate frosting.
4. CAREFULLY flip the second cake layer on top of the first. For this top layer, you want to be sure you get the bottom (flat edge) on top, and the rounded (top) facing down. This way you get a smooth surface for your pac man.
5. Once your top layer is in place, carefully frost the entire cake in the yellow frosting. Be sure to leave an empty triangle for the mouth! Pay extra care to the sides, especially when you get close to the chocolate frosting in between the two layers. Leave the triangle empty all the way down the side of the cake.
6. Fill in our mouth area with left over chocolate frosting. You may want speciality tools for this, but I used a butter knife and a steady hand and it came out fine.

7. Lastly, make an eye with chocolate chips. Though you could probably use a chocolate candy melt, a reeses peanut butter cup or other various chocolate candy.
8. To add extra flair (& possibly cover up the bottom edge of the frosting, as in my case) add whipped cream flourishes around the base of the cake, and voila! You’ve got yourself a Pac Man cake.

{About the Author: Amber Seree}