Rocket Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Line bottom with parchment or waxed paper; butter lining. Dust with flour; tap out excess. Set aside.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside. Stir together milk and vanilla in a small bowl; set aside. Put butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar in a slow, steady stream; mix until pale and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, about 3 minutes.
• Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the milk mixture and beginning and ending with the flour (do not overmix). Set aside.
• Beat egg whites in the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of whites into batter. Fold in remaining whites in 2 batches.
• Pour batter into prepared pan, and smooth with an offset spatula. Bake until cake is springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Run a knife around sides of cake to loosen; invert onto wire rack. Reinvert cake; let cool completely, right-side up, before decorating. (Cooled cake can be frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap, up to 2 days.)
• With a serrated knife, trim top of cake to make it flat. Halve cake horizontally to make 2 layers. Spread 1 cup buttercream over bottom layer; place second layer back on top. Cut cake into components using template. Arrange on a platter or foil-covered board to form rocket shape. If desired, cut board slightly larger than assembled cake shape before wrapping in foil.
• Spread 1 1/4 cups buttercream in a thin layer over entire cake; refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare buttercream for decorating. Assemble 5 pastry bags with couplers. Tint 3/4 cup buttercream each red and blue, and 1/2 cup gray; transfer each to a pastry bag. Fill another bag with 1/4 cup each red, orange, and yellow buttercream; fit with an Ateco #233 multi-hole tip. Fill last bag with 1/2 cup plain buttercream.
• Frost cake with a smooth layer of buttercream. Fit gray bag with an Ateco #4 plain tip; outline rocket. Add designs: a filled-in nose, a round window, or the outline of a flag. Sprinkle rocket nose, bottom, and window with sanding sugar.
• Fit red, white, and blue bags with Ateco #18 star tips; pipe stripes. Use an Ateco #16 star tip for flag. Pipe a white star border around bottom edge of cake. For letters, use an Ateco #8 plain tip. Pipe "flames" out of bottom of rocket using bag of multicolored buttercream. If desired, attach figurine with licorice. Chill until ready to serve, up to 4 hours.

Steps:

• Place ice cream roll vertically on a 10-in. plate. Frost top and sides. From blue construction paper, cut out four fins about 2-1/4-in. high and 1-1/2-in. deep. Insert fins along bottom edge of cake., For the nose cone, draw an 8-in. circle on red construction paper. With a pencil, mark eight equal sections. Cut out a three-eighths section and discard; tape cut sides together to form a cone. Place on top of cake. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease or spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan. Make and bake cake as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan. Cool 10 minutes; remove cake from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Refrigerate or freeze cake about 1 hour or until firm.
• Using serrated knife, cut rounded dome from top of cake to make flat surface; place cake cut side down. Cut cake as shown in diagram.
• Place cake piece 1 on tray. Arrange pieces 2, 3 and 4 as shown in diagram, trimming to fit, standing up piece 3 for top fin. Trim point of piece 2 for nose of ship. Attach each piece with a small amount of frosting.
• Spread thin layer of frosting on cake to seal in crumbs. Freeze 30 to 45 minutes to set frosting. Frost cake with remaining frosting. Let frosting set a few minutes. Carefully cover with paper towel and gently pat to give a fabric-like appearance; remove towel. Use fruit snack for strips as shown in photograph. Outline as desired with decorating gel. Store loosely covered.