Great Cake Contest

Space Shuttle Cake was made for my son's friend on his 6th birthday. It looked just like the piñata his mom had bought and was the hit of the party!

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:

• Three of the following: white cake mix with 1/2 cup of softened butter, 1 cup room temp whole milk, 2 tsp pure vanilla extract and 3 eggs. Baked at 325 deg F for approximately 45 minutes.
• Buttercream icing made with 1 cup crisco, 1 cup butter mixed. 2 lbs confectioners sugar (10x) added with 3 tablesppons of meringue powder. Approximately 6-12 tablespoons milk added to obtain correct consistency for spreading. 1 teaspoon pure almond extract, 2 teaspoons of clear vanilla extract.

1. One 11x14 sheet pan used for two mixes--cut lengthwise and stacked. Vanilla-almond buttercream between layers. One recipe baked in book pan--curved for the rounded top of shuttle. Nose of shuttle carved with a knife. Whole shuttle iced smooth with buttercream. Lines drawn for cargo bay after icing had crusted a bit.

2. Gumpaste wings and tail cut freehand from rolled-out fondant one week in advance and set on paper towel layers to dry and harden. Rear engines made from tootsie rolls--rolled out and cut into rectangles. The rectangles were wrapped around thin tubes made of paper and allowed to dry in the cylinder shape. Two large engines were tootsie-roll cut with round cookie cutter.

3. Wings slid under cake and tail stuck into top and held there with buttercream and straws for support.
   
   Tootsie rolls--rolled out and cut with knife for windows. Flags cut with knife/pieced together from colored fondant. Letters cut from rolled-out fondant/gumpaste mixture.
   
   Cake placed on cardboard that was covered with star wrapping paper and then covered with clear contact paper for serving.