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Teepee Cake

This vanilla cake is ready for a camp out!

It can’t be a surprise to any of you that camping is not my thing. I can’t deal with the bugs, the gross hot sun, and of course, the total lack of cake. This teepee CAKE is as close as I plan to get to outdoor camping! I’d much rather camp out in the kitchen, baking away...possibly with a few thousand YoYos?

This cake started as TWENTY POUNDS of my Ultimate Vanilla Cake, stacked with Italian Meringue Buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache for some structural support. Decorated with all kinds of colorful fondant details, I bust out my overstitch wheel to cake this one up a notch, and make it fit for all of my happy little cakers!

Camp out with me on my YouTube channel here!

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Baking The Cakes:

20lbs Yo’s Ultimate Vanilla Cake
Yellow gel food coloring
Green gel food coloring
Orange gel food coloring

Icing The Cake:

Yo’s Italian Meringue Buttercream
2lbs Yo’s Dark Chocolate Ganache
2x Simple Syrup
Yellow gel food coloring

Decorating The Cake:

6oz black fondant
4 ½ lbs yellow fondant
8oz green fondant
8oz orange fondant
8oz brown fondant
Clear piping gel

Item Name:	Availability:
2 x 4" Square Cake Pans
2 x 6" Square Cake Pans
2 x 8" Square Cake Pans
2 x 10" Square Cake Pans
2 x 12" Square Cake Pans
Simple Syrup Bottle	Add to Cart -
Overstitch Wheel
Fondant Smoother
Ruler
Strip Cutter No. 2
Paring Knife
Dowels
Clay Extruder	Add to Cart -

Bake Your Cakes

Begin by dyin 12lbs of your batter yellow, 4lbs orange, and 4lbs green. Divide into your pans and bake at 350 degrees as follows:

2 x 4” square pans: 0.5lbs yellow batter, 35 min
2 x 8” square pans: 1.5lbs yellow batter, 45 min
2 x 12” square pans: 4lbs yellow batter, 55 min
1 x 6” square pan: 1lb orange batter, 40 min
1 x 6” square pan: 1lb green batter, 40 min
1 x 10” square pan: 3lbs orange batter, 50 min
1 x 10” square pan: 3lbs green batter, 50 min

Level & Decaramelize

Once completely cooled, remove your cakes from their pans and level, removing caramelization from the sides and bottom. Ensure each layer is the same height.

Simple Syrup

Shower all of your cake layers with simple syrup

Buttercream vs Ganache

Dye your Italian Meringue Buttercream yellow to match your yellow cake layers. Begin stacking in 2’s with buttercream between the yellow layers, and ganache between the orange and green. Chill for 20 min.

The Climb

Stack your cakes as follows:

12” yellow cake → yellow buttercream

12” yellow cake → ganache

10” green cake → ganache

10” orange cake → ganache

8” yellow cake → yellow buttercream

8” yellow cake → ganache

6” green cake → ganache

6” orange cake → ganache

4” yellow cake → yellow buttercream

4” yellow cake

Chill your cake for 20 minutes or until firm

Carve It Up

Use a ruler to mark an a-line on all 4 sides of your cake, and carve with a serrated knife.

Note: for tips on carving this cake, watch my video here

Crumb Coat & Chill, Ice & Chill

Crumb coat your cake with yellow buttercream and chill for 20 mins, before icing with more yellow buttercream and chilling for another 20 mins.

Opening Doors

Thinly roll out a rectangle of black fondant, and smooth onto the front of your cake. Use 2 rulers to trim away excess, and batch buttercream as necessary

Cover Up

Roll 2 triangular panels of yellow fondant to be placed on the sides of your cake. Smooth in place with a fondant smoother and roughly trim away excess before chilling. Once cake is chilled trim fondant flush to cake, and repeat process on back

Best Face Forward

Roll another triangular panel of yellow fondant and cut vertically in half. Brush piping gel over the edges of the black fondant door, and use a set square to help you lay on your two pieces in place. Chill your cake before trimming excess flush.

Four Corners

Trim 4 pieces of dowel to be slightly taller than your cake. Thinly roll more yellow fondant and trim 4 rectangular pieces. Brush both sides of each corner of your cake with piping gel, and attach your dowels with a piece of fondant. Smooth into place using a soft paint brush to assist you before trimming away excess, including about an inch of fondant from the bottom of each dowel to expose.

Note: to see how I accomplished this, watch my video here

Get Creative

Thinly roll out brown, orange, and green fondant and cut into strips. I wanted to make a chevron pattern on my cake so I used a stencil to guide me in cutting my pieces. Brush each piece with piping gel, and being laying on your cake.

Note: to see my pattern making skills watch here

Secure Entrance

Roll more yellow fondant to the same thickness as the panels used to cover your cake, and roll over a dowel before placing in the fridge to set. Remove from dowel and trim 2 pieces to frame the doorway of your teepee.

All In The Details

Use an overstitch wheel to add stitch details on either side of your dowel posts, and on each side of the seam that runs up the center of the front of your cake

Tie It Together

Extrude a cord of fondant using the rope faceplate and wrap it around the dowels at the top of your cake