Cake-decorating filter: Help me make a queso fundido cake!

January 26, 2012 7:34 PM

Cake-decorating filter: Help me make a queso fundido & chips cake!

I'm going to be celebrating two friends' birthdays at a party in a Mexican restaurant tomorrow night. I'd like to attempt to bake a cake in the form of their favorite dish - a queso fundito cake! I need some ideas to help bring it about. I will also be making a couple taco cakes, as inspired by this blog post.

My current strategy is to bake a moist chocolate layer cake, then place it into a larger baking dish/pie plate to serve. I plan to chop up some colored licorice to mimic chopped peppers, cilantro, chorizo, etc. All of this would then be iced, somehow...My question is how best to replicate the the gooey, wondrous melted mess that tops the queso? I could do a mix of colored icings, but I'm afraid it would end up looking marbleized. I could pipe yellow or white icing with a straight tip to look like shredded cheese, but I'm afraid that would look too uniform. I could grate white chocolate or toss coconut flake on top, but I'm not the biggest fan of either of those ingredients. Any ideas?

Please note: I'm not interested in using fondant or gum paste.

The cake will be served with some kind of candied tortilla chip - either chocolate, toffee, or cinnamon & sugar covered. Please share any suggestions you may have for those as well.

Thanks!

posted by stachemaster to food & drink (6 answers total)

Maybe get some yellow and orange gel food coloring and unevenly swirl it through white frosting, then pipe through a tip that creates multiple threads?

Also for the tortillas I would probably get wonton wrappers and cut them into triangles, fry til golden then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar while they're hot so it sticks. Maybe dip some in chocolate too? Though I don't think it would look like anything authentic, it would certainly be tasty!
posted by brilliantine at 7:39 PM on January 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Melt some marshmallows in a bowl with a couple drops of water until they double in size.

Take out and mix in a few drops of food coloring (yellow? orange?).

Stir back and forth with fork to get the colors distributed and make it all sticky and tendrilly.

Mix in some powdered sugar, a little bit at a time, until it starts to stiffen.

Lift out of bowl and stretch onto cake.



I think this ought to make something very melted cheese-like. I've never actually done it (i.e. made cake cheese), but I've gotten to this stage many times with melted marshmallows (for marshmallow fondant), and it ought to achieve the right look.
posted by phunniemee at 7:46 PM on January 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

drizzle it with melted white chocolate that has just a bit of yellow food colouring?
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:42 PM on January 26, 2012

What about making yellow frosting, letting it set in the bowl, and then grating it through a cheese grater onto the cake?
posted by lollusc at 10:04 PM on January 26, 2012

I was going to suggest exactly the same thing as phunniemee -- I just did this, also in an attempt to make marshmallow fondant, which ended up not stiff enough but made exactly the gooey mess that you describe. I used a 10 ounce bag of mini marshmallows, about 4 tablespoons of water, and about 6-8 ounces of confectioner's sugar. (The less confectioner's sugar, the more gooey.)
posted by chickenmagazine at 8:28 AM on January 27, 2012

For the tortilla chips I was thinking about matzo crack, but without the melted chocolate. You could subsitite Saltines if you can't get matzo. Soooooo goooood.
posted by biscuits at 10:10 AM on January 27, 2012