Malibu Sunset Cake

Cake

 Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour (or line with parchment paper rounds) the bottoms of three 8-inch round pans.

Combine cake mix, eggs, milk, coconut rum, and butter, and beat with a whisk until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Divide evenly between three bowls to color your cake layers (I found a kitchen scale helpful for this part).

Color one layer with one large drop pink gel food color, the next with a smaller drop of gel food color plus 4 drops yellow liquid or 1 drop yellow gel food color, and the last with 4 drops yellow liquid or 1 drop yellow gel food color (to make a pink, orange, and yellow layer).

Bake cakes in the center of the oven for 29-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

This is a great time to prep your frosting!

Frosting / Drip / Decorations

 Divide your frosting into 1 larger and 3 smaller parts – I used about 2/3 of one container to fill and crumb-coat my cake, and colored the rest of the frosting and used it to cover the cake. To be honest, if I were doing the cake over I’d probably use 3 containers of frosting; apparently I use more frosting than most!

Divide the remainder of your frosting into 3 parts, and color one pink, one orange (pink+yellow) and one yellow. I used pink at the base, orange in the middle, and yellow on top covering the cake with frosting. I find smoothing my frosting with an offset spatula and then a bench scraper to be the easiest way to get the sides smooth! Once your cake is frosted, place in the fridge to set the frosting and to chill the cake so the drip will set.

Place heavy cream and white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on 50% power in 30-second intervals until smooth, stirring in between. 

I used small zip-lock bags to pipe this drip since my drip bottles were full of chocolate ganache from another project. A drip bottle would work well also!

When your ganache has cooled to a moderate temperature – it should feel slightly warm and still be fairly liquid – transfer it to your piping bag or squeeze bottle. Squeeze about ¼ cup of the ganache into the cocktail glass, and then quickly invert the glass over the cake, pressing the glass into the cake at an angle (check out my video above for an extra guide on this step). Slowly drizzle ganache away from the glass, letting it fall down the edge of the cake to create drips.

Add maraschino cherries, pineapple chunks, and orange slices to the top of your cake! I skewered the pineapple and cherries with cocktail sticks, and added orange slice spirals to the back of the cake behind the glass. Pipe a few frosting swirls around the decorations as well, if you have me frosting left!

Annnd you’re done! Step back and admire your cake!!