I’m getting a little behind on blog posts, but the timeliness of today’s dessert bumps this post to the top. Yesterday, Andy and I headed up north to Vista to enjoy a Memorial Day barbecue at Kristen and Allan’s place. I was tasked with dessert, as according to Kristin I “make the best desserts.” Before anyone decides to do that thing where they remind me that Memorial Day isn’t just about cookouts and liquor, let me remind you that my family a military family. My friends here are military or dependents. More than most people in this country, we realize how important this day is. But we also like to enjoy our long weekend because, fuck it, we’ve earned it.

Anyway, Kristen’s comment on my desserts put the pressure on to come up with something fun and unique. Only once have I served the same dessert twice and that’s because it was a last minute thing the second time. (It’s a source of shame we’ll not mention again.)

This fun cake was made using just a box of white cake mix, some white frosting, food coloring and sprinkles. I made the cake just like the box told me to, then set aside 1/2 cup of the batter (split into two bowls) and put the rest in a cake pan.

The two bowls of batter were then colored with food coloring, one red and one blue. (Any colors will work, of course, and this would be a great cake to make if you are looking to make it match a school or sport team’s colors.)

The colored batter was this spooned into the pan and swirled slightly with a knife to create that marbled look.

Once cool, I frosted the cake with a thin layer of white frosting. This is called a crumb coat and is used to prevent any crumbs from marring the surface of the cake. I then popped the cake in the freezer for about 20 minutes before putting on a thicker layer of white frosting. I chose to decorate with sprinkles immediately after so they would stick in the moist frosting, but there is also the option of popping it back in the freezer and then adding the sprinkles. Putting the sprinkles onto moist frosting allowed them to stick better, but putting them onto cool frosting may have made the design a little cleaner. It’s really a matter of preference.

And there you have it. According to everyone at the barbecue it was quite yummy. I will add that I tried to get photos of the cake after it was cut to show the marbled colors. Alas, it was eaten way too fast for me to get a decent photo. I guess you could use your imagination. Or make it and see/taste the awesomeness for yourself.

Enjoy!