Sweet Start to the New Year Cake

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1. One day in advance, make NYE topper. Print NYE template; trace onto parchment paper with pencil.

   Using scissors, cut out letters.

   Using fondant roller, roll 3 oz. fondant to ¼ in. thickness. Place parchment paper letter on fondant; cut out fondant letter with craft knife. Repeat for all letters.

   Helpful Hint: Use wooden dowel rods as a guide for rolling out your fondant to ¼ in. thickness.

   Let letters dry on parchment paper until firm, 8 to 10 hours.

   Using decorating brush and gold cake paint, paint letters. Let dry, about an hour.

   Spray letters with gold glitter spray. Let dry, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

2. Also one day in advance, make cake balls and meringue cookies. Prepare five medium cake balls, using lollipop sticks, following recipe instructions (serve remaining cake balls alongside cake).

   Dip cake balls into melted Bright White candy. Immediately top one with gold sprinkles. Once other four have hardened, paint one with gold edible cake paint and spray one with gold Color Mist spray. Leave remaining two as is.

   Prepare white meringue cookies following recipe instructions. Dip bottom of a few completed meringues into melted candy, then into gold sprinkles. Set aside to dry (serve remaining meringues alongside cake).

   Reserve remaining candy.

3. Bake cake. Prepare cake mix following recipe instructions. Bake and cool cake layers in Easy Layers! pans, according to package directions.

4. Make candy stars. Re-melt Bright White candy. Prepare decorating bag with melted candy.

   Print out star template. Place on cake board and cover with parchment paper. Pipe stars using melted candy, outlining some and filling in some. You’ll need about 6 to 8 stars total.

   Reserve candy in bag.

5. Make candy bark. Pipe 4 oz. melted candy into clean Easy Layers! pan. Immediately top with mix of gold sprinkles. Chill until set, about 10 minutes. Break into large shards.

   Reserve small amount white candy.

6. Decorate remaining candies. Spray two rock candy pops with gold food color spray. Using gold metallic paint and decorating brush, paint chocolate candy bar, twist lollipop sticks, rock candy pops, white gum balls (if you can’t find gold ones) and chocolate snack sticks, as desired, with gold paint. Set all pieces aside to dry.
7. Assemble cake layers. Level, fill and stack cake layers. Crumb coat and chill cake, at least 1 hour.

8. Ice cake. Using Black icing color, tint 1 cup icing black.

   Prepare two decorating bags with tip 45. Fill separately with black and white icing.

   Using ruler, find center of cake. Icing one side at a time, pipe vertical line of white icing along middle of cake. Pipe black line on either side of white line. With angled spatula, carefully smooth each line, one color at a time, wiping the blade after each pass to prevent streaks.

   Continue around each side and on top of cake, smoothing each line individually to prevent streaking.

   Chill cake until icing has completely set, about one hour.

9. Decorate cake. Using remaining melted white candy, attach cookie sticks to back of each fondant letter. Chill until set, about 5 minutes.

   Insert NYE letters into top of cake. Add remaining decorations, as desired.

   Spray top of cake and decorations lightly with glitter spray for extra sparkle!