‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond Shares the Secret of Her Beautiful Birthday Confetti Cake
Ree Drummond has made a few birthday cakes in her life and one of her most special was a confetti cake her son requested. The Pioneer Woman star made it for Todd Drummond on his 12th birthday and she shared an easy cake secret.
Ree Drummond made a special confetti birthday cake for her son
Drummond demonstrated how to make the dessert on an episode of The Pioneer Woman. She made the cake for her son Todd’s joint birthday party with his cousin Caleb. She was bringing the food, including “a towering 3-layer homemade confetti cake that Todd requested.”
She greased and floured three cake pans then got to work on the batter, beginning with the dry ingredients. Drummond whisked together cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
“I swear, I say this same thing every year about this time — I cannot believe my baby Todd is a year older,” she shared. “It seems like literally yesterday that I was carrying him around on my hip. He was the cutest baby, cutest little boy.”
Ree Drummond shared the secret to perfect cake
In a stand mixer, Drummond creamed together butter and sugar, then added egg whites, two at a time. She also shared the easiest “secret” for the perfect cake.
“The secret is to beat the mixture well after each addition so air gets worked in,” Drummond said. She added vanilla extract, then alternated adding the dry and wet mixtures in several batches.
For the final ingredient, she added sprinkles. “This is such a beautiful, basic white cake batter,” Drummond noted. “To turn it into confetti cake batter, I’m going to add rainbow sprinkles.”
She explained, “I like to fold it in manually instead of putting it in the mixer. Sometimes the mixer can break up the sprinkles a little bit and cause a mess. You want it to be a little bit of a mess but a controlled mess.”
She poured the batter into each of the pans and baked them in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes. Drummond allowed the cakes to rest and got to work on the frosting.
‘The Pioneer Woman’ made a delicious frosting
Drummond shared her plan to make a special frosting for the cake. “Typically I’d be tempted to make a super easy buttercream with powdered sugar and butter but since it’s a special occasion, I’m going to make traditional Swiss buttercream,” she explained. “It’s a little bit trickier but oh my goodness, it’s worth every second.”
She placed egg whites in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water and added sugar, then whisked the mixture by hand for a couple of minutes. Drummond poured the mixture into the stand mixer and whisked it for 5 minutes.
The Food Network host increased the speed and whisked for another 7 minutes, then reduced the speed and added butter, a bit at a time, beating well in between each addition. She increased the speed again, added vanilla, and mixed the frosting for 5 minutes.
She frosted each layer of the cake, the top, and sides, then decorated the cake with more colorful sprinkles.
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
