Red is the traditional color of barns in the U.S.
A barn cake complete with haystacks and barnyard critters will surprise your guests at a country-themed birthday party. Even though barns are commonly red, you can give your barn cake personality depending on the cake recipient. If you are making this cake for a child, add a small toy tractor as a cake topper. Insert a small photo of the cake recipient in the loft space of the cake for a personalized touch, if you have access to an edible photo printer.
Instructions
Shape the Barn
1. Chill a baked 9 by 13-inch sheet cake in your freezer for 30 minutes. Remove the cake, and place it on a 13 by 19-inch cake board; you can substitute a piece of sturdy cardboard for the cake board, if necessary.
2. Mark the roof line. Measure 5 inches from the bottom of the cake on the right and left sides with a ruler, and mark each side with a small cut using a serrated knife.
3. Measure 2 inches above the 5-inch marks, and then measure inward 3 inches toward the center of the cake on each side. Stick the point of your knife blade into the 3-inch marks to mark the measurements.
4. Measure 6.5 inches across the top of the cake from either side of the cake to find the middle of the cake. Mark your measurement with a small cut at the top of the cake.
5. Find the cut at the 5-inch mark on the left side of the cake and the mark you made 3 inches from the left side. Use the marks as a guide as you cut the cake from one mark to the other. Repeat this cut on the right side of the cake.
6. Cut across the top left corner of the cake starting at the center point of the cake and extending to the cut 3 inches from the left side. Repeat the cut on the top right corner of the cake.
7. Remove the pieces of cake that you cut; you can toss these in the trash or snack on the pieces while you decorate your barn cake.
Decorate the Barn
8. Spread 3 cups of red frosting over the top and sides of the cake with a spatula. Drag a toothpick lightly across the frosted surface of the cake in vertical lines that are 1 inch apart.
9. Slice a Nerds rope into four 3-inch pieces. Form a square with the pieces in the center of the top half of the cake to create a loft. Press a rectangular sugar wafer on either side of the square to form the open doors of the loft.
10. Find the center of the cake on the bottom. Turn 4 sugar wafers into a barn door by rotating each of the wafers lengthwise and stacking them flat, one above the other, to form a 4 by 3-inch rectangle. Press the rectangle onto the bottom of the cake on the left side of the center. Fashion a second door, and place it on the right side of the first door.
11. Sprinkle 2 tbsp. of crunchy chow mein noodles along the Nerds rope, forming the floor of the square loft.
12. Press 1 cup of the noodles in small piles along the bottom of the cake. Stagger the piles so the noodles stick out around the cake and resemble strewn hay bales.
13. Pick out 10 animal crackers shaped like typical farm animals, such as cats, dogs, horses and cows. Place the crackers near the bottom end of the cake, as if the animals were standing in front of the barn. Push the crackers gently into the red frosting to hold them in place.
14. Press creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies into the sides of cake that you cut to form the roof line.
15. Stick the appropriate number of birthday candles into the cake, according to the age of the person for whom you are making the barn cake.
Tags: , bottom cake, left side, inches from, Measure inches