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This Coffee and Donut Cake is a Krispy Kreme Cake with a twist. It’s a novelty birthday cake idea that’s popping up everywhere from kids parties to weddings. Usually the cakes are little more than stacked donuts with a ribbon tied around them. That’s cute and all, but if you really want to stand out from the crowd (and I know you do) then I think we can do better. Everything on this cake is edible and I promise it’s only slightly harder than stacking those Krispy Kreme’s yet far more memorable!

The Coffee & Donut Cake idea is so versatile. With a newspaper cake board, it’s perfect for a Policeman’s birthday cake, like this one. But there are tons of other ways to use the same basic idea. Imagine this in a girly teacup style cup with cupcakes in place of the donuts for a great tea party centerpiece. Or a Starbucks take-out coffee cup with breakfast pastries for an office birthday cake surprise! The meringue ‘coffee foam’ dusted with cocoa is super easy and so realistic it’ll really surprise you.

It’s such a fun cake to make and it really is a conversation starter at any party. So go on, make one - you know you want to!

And don't forget to pick up some great, .

If you have any questions about this Donut Cake or anything else you've seen here, I'm always happy to help. Just ask!

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ingredients for a perfect coffee and Donut Cake

Meringue 'foam' for the top of your coffee cup – make this the night before

To Make The Meringue 'Foam':

3 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup granulated sugar
Piping bag or gallon size Ziploc bag

preheat oven to 200° F
in the bowl of your mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.
add the cream of tartar and beat until the whites hold soft peaks when the whisk is lifted.
add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until the mixture holds stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.
take a piece of parchment paper that’s large enough to line a cookie sheet and draw or trace a circle that’s about 5” in diameter on to the paper.
flip the paper and place it on a cookie sheet.

using a piping bag without a tip or a gallon size Ziploc with a 1” hole snipped in the corner, pipe a large meringue swirl to fill the circle, as shown.
bake for 1 ½ hours or until the meringue is dried out and crisp to the touch.
open the oven door a tiny bit and leave to finish drying out overnight.

Cooks Note: You will have a lot of extra meringue – just pipe yourself some cookies and bake them at the same time as the 'foam'. Yum!

to complete your donut cake You'll Also Need

Four six inch cakes - Classic Moist Chocolate Cake is a great choice
Filling - Whipped Chocolate Ganache is outrageously good
1 recipe of buttercream

Decorator’s Note: I’m listing exactly the colors and techniques I used for the cake as pictured, to demonstrate a technique rather than an exact blueprint. You can adapt this design to suit any occasion so adjust the colors accordingly.

sky blue, orange and black gel food color
White candy melts
black candy color
blue candy color
small Ziploc freezer bags
Cake board with lots of room around the cake to display the newspaper background.
Newspaper
Clear contact paper
Wax or parchment paper
Sweetened cocoa powder
Four regular sized donuts

first steps to a perfect Donut Cake

bake the cakes and cool completely.
level the cakes and split each into two layers horizontally. This will give you a total of eight layers.
place the first layer on a cake circle (cut to fit exactly) and secure with a dollop of buttercream to stop it from sliding around, then continue filling and stacking to seven layers high.
add a crumb coat - this is a very thin coat of un-tinted frosting you apply to 'set' the crumbs.
refrigerate the cake(s) for an hour or so to let the crumb coat set.

making The Police Shield Decoration For Your Donut Cake

Decorator’s Note: This is a great technique that has endless possibilities. It’s perfect for sporting team logos, corporate logos or family crests as well as intricate patterns. It’s a much easier way to add detail that trying to pipe directly on to the cake and it adds more dimension that traditional piping techniques! Please don’t feel intimidated – if you want to keep this design super easy just pipe some freeform swirls on the side of your cup with your frosting and skip the chocolate background. You’ll still have a fantastic finished cake.

divide the buttercream into five bowls, with about 1/3 of the total in one bowl and the rest split evenly.
tint the larger amount medium-dark blue and the others orange, light blue and black. Leave one white.
photocopy or print an image of the finished design (in this cake, a Police shield) in the size you need on some plain paper.
put a sheet of wax paper over this.
melt the white candy melts in a small microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until smooth and liquid, then tint black with candy color.
using a medium artists brush fill in the shield shape to about 1/8” thick.
put aside for about 20 minutes to allow the chocolate to set, while you tint your frosting colors.
put each color of tinted frosting into a small Ziploc freezer bag with a tiny hole snipped in one corner.
peel the paper from the chocolate shape and pipe the details of your particular design on to the smooth side of the chocolate shield.

making The Chocolate Cup Handle

melt about ½ cup of white candy melts and tint blue to match the body of the coffee cup.
on a piece of plain paper draw a handle you like for you coffee cup and cover the drawing with a piece of wax or parchment paper.
using the handle of a spoon, dollop the chocolate on to the wax paper and spread quite thickly to fill the outline of the handle shape.
put aside for about 30 minutes to allow the chocolate to set, while you assemble your cake.

Assemble Your Coffee and Donut Cake

cover your cake board with newspaper and tape to the bottom of the board to secure.
cover the newspaper with clear contact paper to prevent the newspaper disintegrating – eating soggy newspaper is not good!
frost the cake all over with the blue buttercream.
place your donut cake on the cake board towards one corner and secure with double-sided tape.
use a small serrated knife to cut 1” wide slits where the ends of the handle will meet the body of the coffee cup and gently push the handle in to the slits.
using a teaspoon, scoop the frosting off the top of the cake leaving about a ¾” ring around the top edge – this is where the meringue ‘foam’ will sit.

sprinkle sweetened cocoa on top of the meringue coffee foam, as shown, before you place it on the coffee cup.
gently position the coffee foam on top of the cup.
put a dab of frosting on the back of the chocolate shield and position where you like on the cup.

tear one donut in half then stack the donuts next to the coffee cup and secure with some dabs of frosting, as shown.

Your Donut Cake is done! Now go get a well deserved cup of coffee and sit back for a few minutes to admire your handiwork. Remember to take a picture while your masterpiece still looks perfect.

let's celebrate donuts

Now that we've whet your appatite with a unique Donut Cake, here are more ways to enjoy this popular treat:

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