Fox Cake Recipe — The Decorated Layer Cake I Made for the Church Harvest Party

Cody is on day two hundred and seventy of his sentence. The chapbook is being sold at the Tulsa Library’s small press table on Saturdays for three dollars a copy, and the proceeds are split among the eight workshop writers. Cody got his first royalty check on Wednesday in the mail through the unit. $34. The first money he has ever earned from his writing.

He told me at the visit on Saturday morning. He showed me the check stub. He said he was going to ask the unit to put the check into his commissary account, where he would use it to buy the kind of paper he prefers for drafting (the unit-issue paper is rough and his pencil drags). The first writer’s purchase of the rest of his life is going to be better paper.

And the cake. Mrs. Tilford asked me a month ago if I would make the centerpiece cake for the First Baptist children’s ministry harvest party on Sunday October eighth. She had seen a photo on Pinterest of a decorated layer cake shaped like a fox, with vanilla buttercream tinted orange, chocolate ears, candy eyes, and she had asked if I thought I could make it. I said I would try.

The technique was eight hours of work over a Saturday. Two layers of vanilla cake baked in 9-inch round pans, leveled and stacked with vanilla buttercream between. The whole cake carved into a rough fox shape with a serrated knife. Buttercream tinted orange (a few drops of red and yellow gel food coloring) frosted across the body. Two pointed ear shapes carved from cake scraps and stuck into the top with toothpicks, frosted in dark chocolate buttercream. Candy eyes (from the Walmart baking aisle, $2.99 for a tub) pressed in. White buttercream piped along the chest and tail tip.

The math: ingredients were $14 from my pocket, plus the $20 in candy eyes and gel food coloring I bought specifically. Mrs. Tilford reimbursed me $35 and tipped another $20 on top because, she said when she saw the cake, baby, this was more work than I had asked for. The reimbursement plus tip put $55 in the savings envelope.

The cake at the harvest party Sunday afternoon was the centerpiece of the dessert table. The children gathered around it. Twenty-eight kids and their families came through the church basement. Six of the parents asked Mrs. Tilford for my information, which Mrs. Tilford gave with my permission, and three of them have already called Mama about birthday cakes for their kids in November and December.

The small catering business has, I am writing in pen now, started.

The recipe is below. Decorated cakes are not for every Saturday but they are for the Saturdays when somebody asks. Make this for a child who deserves it.

Yellow Celebration Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 32 min | Total Time: 1 hr (plus cooling) | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• For the cake:
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
• For the chocolate frosting:
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (plus more as needed)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• For writing (optional):
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1–2 teaspoons milk
• 1 drop vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Prep your pans. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment rounds, grease the parchment, and dust lightly with flour. Tap out the excess.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium-high for 3–4 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides.
4. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing fully after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
5. Alternate dry and wet. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions (start and end with flour). Mix only until just combined after each addition — do not overmix.
6. Bake. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake 28–32 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the edges just start to pull from the pan. Cool in the pans 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
7. Make the chocolate frosting. Beat the softened butter on medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and mix until combined. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, alternating with splashes of heavy cream, beating on low then increasing to medium-high. Add vanilla and salt. Beat 2–3 minutes until fluffy. If the frosting is too thick, add cream a teaspoon at a time; if too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.
8. Frost the cake. Place one cooled cake layer on a plate or stand. Spread a generous layer of frosting on top. Set the second layer on top and frost the top and sides. Smooth with a spatula or leave it rustic — both are right.
9. Write on it. Mix the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla into a thick paste and transfer to a small zip-lock bag. Snip a tiny corner off the bag. Write whatever you need to write on top. The letters will be a little crooked. That’s okay. So is everything worth having.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 580 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 28g | Carbs: 79g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 210mg