Pull-Apart Cactus Cake

how_make

1. To make the cupcakes; heat oven to 180 C/160 C fan and line 2 x 12-hole muffin tins with paper cases.
2. Cream the Stork and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well between each addition, then add the vanilla extract and beat again.
3. Fold in the flour, adding the milk until the mixture drops off your spoon easily. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the mixture between the paper cases.
4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes. Then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
5. When completely cool, using a small sharp knife, cut a hole into the center of the cupcake to create a little pocket about 1 inch deep. The piece you removed should be the shape of a cone. Set it aside and place about 1 teaspoon of sprinkles inside the hole. Slice off the pointy end of the cone piece of cupcake you removed so that it can fit on top of the sprinkle filling. Repeat with all cupcakes
6. For the buttercream icing, beat the Stork until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat for about 3 minutes. Add the remaining icing sugar along with the condensed milk, and continue to beat until the mixture is smooth, pale and creamy.
7. Colour the majority of your buttercream a cactus green color. Tint about 150 grams light pink and about 100 grams yellow for the spikes and cactus flowers.
8. Place some of the the green buttercream in a piping bag, cut off the tip and outline the cactus shape in icing, then fill in the outline with more green buttercream. Using an offset spatula, smooth out the buttercream into an even layer.
9. Place the remaining green buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle. Pipe parallel vertical lines from the top of the cake to the bottom. For the arms of the cactus, do the same but follow the curve of the arms youâ™ve created.
10. Place the pink buttercream into a piping bag and cut off the end at a slight angle, then cut across this at the opposite angle so that you have a triangle shape. Pipe pink buttercream leaves to form flowers onto parchment paper. Place into freezer for about 10 minutes, or until firm enough to peel off the parchment paper and then place the flowers onto the cactus.
11. Use the yellow buttercream to pipe dots into the middle of the flowers and finally randomly pipe yellow dots all over the cactus to make the spikes.