SC - Castle cake re-post of Huette's directions

[Jo Marie Friedel]

//sorry about the time lapse, my computer was down.  Tygre Marie

Huette von Ahrens wrote:

> I have been making castle cakes for over twenty years,
> but I have never gone the route of making bricks and
> mortaring them together.  I prefer a solid cake
> castle.
>
> I usually use a from-scratch pound cake recipe,
> because pound cake is easier to cut and form, and has
> less crumbs to contend with.  I have used several
> different recipes.  If you want me to post my favorite
> I will, but I don't have it with me, as I am at work.
> Let me know.
>
> What I usually do is this:
>
> If the event that I am bringing it to is on a
> Saturday, I will bake the pound cake on the preceding
> Thursday and frost it on the preceding Friday.  I have
> never have complaints that the cake is stale, because
> pound cake keeps very well and also freezes well.
>
> For the central castle or keep [whatever you are
> planning], I bake three 8 1/2 x 11 cake pans that are
> exactly the same, with straight-up sides.  When I put
> the batter in the pans, I build up the sides as high
> as they will stay and the middle as low as it will
> stay.  This keeps the cake from forming too much of a
> rounded top which would then have to be cut off in
> order to have the layers stack properly.  For any
> turrets on the central building, I bake some cake into
> the flat bottomed ice cream cones. One cone per layer
> of cake per turret.  If I want a pointy roof on the
> turret, I use an upside-down pointed ice cream cones
> on top of the flat bottomed stack of ice cream cones.
> If I want a pointy roof on the castle, I cut the last
> layer of cake to look like a pointy roof.
>
> For the bailly walls, I bake the pound cake in
> jelly-roll pans, so the cake is about 1 inch thick
> when bakes.  For the wall turrets, I use tin cans that
> I have saved.  Be sure that they are food grade cans
> and have no lead solder.  I have found that large
> sized cans that once contained fruit, or pumpkin or
> spaghetti sauce, work really great.  For the central
> gateway [I forget what it is called], I use a square
> 6x6 inch loaf pan and cut the entryway out.  The walls
> are attached to the turrets and gateway with
> toothpicks and frosting.
>
> I have used various kinds of stiff frosting.  I have
> even used the canned kind [but only once in an
> emergency!].
>
> I have used many different kinds of candies to add to
> the "ambiance".  Chocolate necco wafers make great
> shingles.  Sugar wafer cookies make great doors and
> drawbridges.  Any thick, square chocolate candy makes
> great crenellations on the walls and turrets.  I have
> occasionally used squares of Hershey bars for windows.
> Because candies come and go in and out of fashion, I
> usually cruise the candy section of the market and go
> to stores that specialize in selling bulk candy and
> then decide what candies or cookies would be
> appropriate for what feature.
>
> When all is finished, my castle cake usually fills up
> the top of a standard-sized card table, and usually
> feeds 100 hungry people.
>
> The last one I did, I did a replica of the Craq'
> d'Chevallier. [I am not sure if I spelled this
> correctly.]  I had several small toy catapaults and
> lots of malt balls and let the men "beseige" the
> castle.
>
> Huette
>
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