Happy Friday! This week, Inside Out celebrates its 5th Anniversary and we’re celebrating with these multicolored Inside Out cake bites inspired by the five emotions in the movie! These vanilla cake bites are topped with my favorite marshmallow frosting and colored sprinkles.
I saw Inside Out when it first premiered in theaters and I really enjoyed it. The story was interesting and heartfelt and I was able to see elements of myself reflected in the character traits of the emotions and Riley’s experiences. At the time, I was working in an elementary school and it stuck me how nice it was to have a movie with fun, colorful, interesting characters that kept the kids’ attention but also helped them name and explore their own emotions.
In thinking about emotions and memories, I was inspired to make these Inside Out cake bites. Just like the complex memories in the movie, the cake is marbled with the colors of the five primary emotions in the movie–yellow for joy, blue for sadness, green for disgust, purple for fear, and red for anger.
To start, I first made the batter for my favorite vanilla cake. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, egg white, and vanilla. Add the flour, alternating with the milk, in three additions. Beat until combined and then divide the batter between five bowls.
Dye each bowl one color, using gel food coloring. For these, I used a combination of Wilton Gel Food Coloring (for the purple) and Americolor Gel Food Coloring (for the rest). The Americolor food coloring set does have a purple dye , but I wanted one that was a bit more red.
After you’ve dyed the batter, transfer to a 9×9 inch square cake pan that has been greased and lined with parchment paper. To make the multicolored pattern, transfer the batter one spoonful at a time, alternating the colors. In the end, just make sure you have a complete layer of batter in the pan before baking.
Bake the cake at 350 F for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool for five minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once the cake is cool, use cookie cutters to cut the cake into different shapes. You can use any cookie cutters you have, but aim to have a different shape for each emotion. For mine, I used the triangle, strawberry, circle, and rectangle cutters from this American Crafts Sweet Sugarbelle cookie cutter set and spider web shaped cutter from this Wilton Halloween cookie cutter set.
Then, make the frosting. In a medium bowl, beat the butter until its light and fluffy. Add the marshmallow fluff and beat just until combined. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat on low speed until combined but then turn it up to medium and beat until fluffy.
To decorate, use an offset spatula to spread a layer of frosting on each cake bite. Then, decorate the tops with colored sprinkles or sanding sugar. I decided to use one color for each shape of cake and just used a combination of the sprinkles and sugar that I had at home. For the sanding sugars, I used the red and yellow from a primary colored set from Wilton and the purple from a bright colors set from Wilton. I also used green pearl sprinkles and blue jimmies sprinkles, both from Wilton.
Enjoy!
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Inside Out Cake Bites
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup milk
- red gel food coloring
- yellow gel food coloring
- green gel food coloring
- blue gel food coloring
- purple gel food coloring
Marshmallow Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup marshmallow fluff or creme
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Equipment
- 9 x9 inch square cake pan
- cookie cutters in assorted shapes (circle, square, etc)
- offset spatula
Decoration
- red sanding sugar or sprinkles
- yellow sanding sugar or sprinkles
- green sanding sugar or sprinkles
- blue sanding sugar or sprinkles
- purple sanding sugar or sprinkles
Instructions
Vanilla Cake
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Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and line a 9×9 inch cake pan with parchment paper.
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In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, egg white, and vanilla and beat until well-mixed.
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On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture, one third at a time, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with flour.
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Divide batter into five bowls. Stir in a couple drops of one color of gel food coloring to each bowl.
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Add batter to the prepared cake pan, one scoop at a time, alternating colors to create a multicolored cake.
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Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Once the cakes have cooled, cut into shapes using assorted cookie cutters. Use one shape for each emotion.
Marshmallow Frosting
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In a medium bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy.
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Add the marshmallow fluff and beat just until combined, about 30 seconds.
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On low speed, gradually beat in powdered sugar and vanilla.
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Beat on medium speed until fluffy.
Assembly
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Using an offset spatula, frost each cake bite.
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Decorate the tops of the cake bites with colored sprinkles, using one color for each emotion.