Key Lime Poke Cake- Altered + Fondant recipe

For a Cinco De Mayo party we were invited to, I decided to bake a Key Lime Poke Cake. The recipe is from Betty.Crocker.com. I did alter the recipe quite a bit.

I wanted to practice making and playing with fondant for Kayla's 2nd birthday so this gave me a good reason to.

Nick came up with the idea to make the cake into a Sombrero. I will share the altered recipe and non-altered recipe here along with pictures of the cake and how we put it together. To make it easy...my altered recipe will be in italics.

But of course, you can take this recipe and just make a plain round or square cake, or cupcakes.
Cake:
1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 eggs

Filling:
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup Key lime juice or regular lime juice
1 teaspoon grated lime peel
4 drops yellow food color
1 drop green food color

My altered filling:
All of the above ingredients mixed with 1 container of whipped vanilla frosting and then flour and powered sugar as needed to make the filling thicker to use it as icing for the fondant to stick to.

Heat oven to 350. Spray and flour 2 small 8x8 EZ foil cake pans, or 13x9 pan.

In large bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. During this step I added in some grated lime zest and green food coloring.

Now here is the directions for the normal cake:
Bake 26 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. With handle of wooden spoon (1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter), poke holes almost to bottom of cake every 1/2 inch, wiping spoon handle occasionally to reduce sticking.

My directions:
Bake 26 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Turn pans upside down so the cakes can fall out and place on wire cookie rack to cool completely. Cut off corners of both square cakes to make into round cakes. Put one square cake on cake base (I used a cookie sheet with foil for easier transport to party) and top with generous layer of cake filling. Top with 2nd cake and then coat top and sides with generous amount of filling.

Top with fondant and shape into Sombrero! And store it in the fridge until ready to serve. We decorated it with jelly beans and sour spaghetti candies.

Fondant recipe:
1 16oz bag of mini marshmallows
3 tablespoons of water
2 lbs. powdered sugar and optional flavoring (I used lemon flavor and yellow color)
Put the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl, add the water, and put it into the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted completely and mixing well after each zap.
Stir marshmallows making sure it’s all melted, then add your flavoring and powdered sugar to your liking. Knead dough on a powdered sugar surface and keep adding powdered sugar to make dough less sticky and more workable.(I used a whole 2 lb bag plus a little extra to use to powder the counter and my hands) There you have it!
Allow your fondant to set up overnight covered. Before you use, microwave for 30 seconds and knead until smooth and pliable.


Kitchen Tips
Key lime pie is not green in color unless food color is added. If you'd prefer a greener filling in this cake, add a couple drops of green food color to the filling before pouring it over the cake.
If Key limes aren't available in your grocery store, look for bottled Key lime juice near the other bottled lime juices.

I used both real limes for the zest in the cake batter and then bottled lime juice for the 1/2 cup filling.