Jamba Juice Cup Cake

Jamba Juice Inspired Cake

Looking around on Pinterest the other day I stumbled across a "Jamba Juice Recipe" post (as we've all seen) and I found my inspiration for my creation! I'm a total amateur when it comes to cake making/decorating, but I absolutely love it! The Inspiration =>

Ingredients:

Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake Mix (plus mixing ingredients on back of box: eggs, water, oil)

1Can of Chocolate Frosting

1Can of Vanilla OR Strawberry Frosting

1-2 Cans of Marshmallow Creme 

A LOT OF POWDERED SUGAR- seriously though. I don't even know how much I used. Get a lot.

Melting Chocolate (Optional)

A Jamba Juice Cup + Straw

Food Coloring (Gel Preferably- I got my 4-color set at WinCo for 4$ and it worked beautifully)

You May Also Need:

A Rolling Pin

Cling Rap 

Kitchen Aid Mixer (Not necessary, but trust me-IT HELPS)

The first thing I did was mix up and bake a 13x9 pan of chocolate cake. Once it was out of the oven- I ran to WinCo to gather supplies (allowing my cake to cool)

Once I got back, the cake was cool so I popped open my chocolate icing, whipped it up with my beater and mixed my cake and my icing (as if we were making cake pops) 

Next, I took the cup that the Jamba Juice employees gave me (FOR FREEEEEE) and I cut out the very bottom of the cup-DON'T JUST SHEAR OF THE BOTTOM HALF OF THE CUP! If you turn the cup upside down, you will see that there is a lip around the cup and what you want to cut out is the bottom FACE of the cup. (Oh dear me- I hope that made sense). Then, I lined the inside with cling wrap. Basically, all I did was tear off a huge chunk of it, wrap it around my left arm, stick my arm through the cup and fold the excess over the ends, taping them down if necessary. You may go about that in any way you find convenient, but I urge you to use cling wrap as it will make your life a lot easier. 

Place your wrapped cup on a plate (Or in a bowl as I did) and start putting your cake/icing mixture in the cup and make sure it is compact so you do not end up with holes in your cake. Put your cake in the freezer- standing up.

(I don't have a picture of mine in the freezer)

While that freezes, we will move on to our fondant! (If you don't have a Kitchen Aid I would suggest working by hand seeing as I have never used a regular beater and I'm unsure of how well it would work) Lay down a  thick layer of powdered sugar in your bowl to prevent it to sticking to the bowl and dump in your 1-2 cans of Marshmallow Creme (depending on whether or not you use the chocolate drizzle method, you may only need one can of marshmallow creme. 2 cans makes a lot and the only reason I used it was because I had to put on 2 layers of fondant to smooth out my chocolate disaster) with more powdered sugar on top. Start the mixing, but make sure to check in on it. While it mixes you may need to add more PS (powdered sugar) and you may have to go in with your spoon to get your fondant off the sides of your bowl.

The next step that I took is completely OPTIONAL and I would recommend skipping it because this is the step that really screwed me over. What I did was take the frozen cake out of the freezer and pour melted chocolate over it. Yeah...Frozen Cake + Melted Chocolate = Streaks of frozen chocolate down your cake as seen below (sorry it's so blurry) Yes, if I made this cake again, I would NOT include this step- it adds nothing to the taste, structure or appearance.

Assuming that you took my advice and skipped this step we shall move straight to the fondant. Hopefully you know when your fondant is done, and it has reached that step. With your cake in the fridge (without chocolate snot dripping down it) it is time to roll out your fondant. (Put down a layer of powdered sugar wherever you put it down because IT WILL STICK.

Okay, so because I made a mess of the chocolate I put on two layers of fondant to smooth it all over. The first layer I did was all white and in the second layer I rolled out a chunk, made my design, laid that on my cake, then I added a second layer of white everywhere else-smoothing over the lines where my fondant met. 

Take out small chunks of fondant and begin coloring to fit the design. My colors weren't anywhere close to the colors on the cup (as you can see) but I tried to get them as close as I could. In the picture below you can see the seam where my two fondant chunks meet. Roll out a small piece, put your design on it and put that piece on your cake first. Then, cover the rest of the cake in white.

To finish it off I took Strawberry icing (vanilla dyed pink would also work) and whipped it up with my beater (adding some red and blue to create a purplish color) and swirled it on top to look like the drink. Finally, stick the straw in the top and you've got your cake!