Ann Reardon

Gravity Defying Popcorn Cake

gravity defying popcorn cake ann reardon
 

The countdown to Christmas is on, half of the advent lollies have been eaten and school holidays are upon us. Movies are something we do most holidays. Here is a fun gravity defying popcorn cake to turn any movie gathering in to a party. Seriously, when I served this up the guests thought it was a pot exploding with popcorn. They were delighted to eat the chocolate lid, devoured the caramel popcorn and were amazed that it was actually a cake.

The competition to win one of 6 Kitchen Aid Artisan mixers is now closed. The winners were: Amber Williamson, Yasshna Asriani, Anthea Ashleigh, Mia Plumridge, Minna Wong and Ailis Relihan.

To make this gravity defying popcorn cake you will need:

One and a half times my rich chocolate cake recipe baked in three 8″ round cake tins, baked, cooled and leveled.
600mL (20.29 fluid ounces) Cream
Cake Support
800g (28.22 ounces) chocolate
150g (5.29 ounces) Black fondant
4 lollipop sticks
edible silver luster dust
acetate

Salted Caramel

2 cups or 500mL (16.91 fluid ounces) cream
2 tsp vanilla
300mL (10.14 fluid ounces) or 1 1/4 cups water
430g (15.17 ounces) or 2 cups caster sugar (superfine sugar)
1 tsp sea salt
40g (1.41 ounces) or 2 tablespoons glucose syrup
Place the water, sugar and glucose syrup into a pan. Give it a little stir to make sure all the sugar is wet. Wash the sides of the pan down with a wet pastry brush.

Leave it unstirred to boil, after a few minutes until it starts to turn golden. Let is get an even golden colour – then remove it from the heat. Add in your vanilla and the cream. Return to the heat and keep stirring it until the caramel is melted into the cream. Stir in the salt and continue to heat until the desired thickness is achieved (see the video for how to test what thickness you caramel will be).

Caramel Popcorn (make two separate batches of this recipe)

70g (2.47 ounces) popcorn kernels
210g (7.41 ounces) or 1 cup sugar
100mL (3.38 fluid ounces) water
15g (0.53 ounces) or 1 Tablespoon butter

Pop the corn kernels (I used an air popper but you can do it in a pan if you prefer)
Heat the sugar and water until it goes golden then stir in the butter.
Immediately pour that over the popcorn and stir it around.

Cut some acetate to the height you want your pot to be and wrap it around a round cake tin. Mark where it joins so you know where to spread the chocolate to. Remove the acetate. Wrap another piece of acetate around the tin to cover it so you can slide the chocolate off.

Temper the chocolate, if you don’t know how to do that see my chocolate secrets post. This is important or your chocolate won’t set at room temperature.
Spray a little oil on the underside of a pan lid and then gently rub it with some paper towel so that you leave a thin layer of oil. Pour on approximately 200g (7.05 ounces) of tempered chocolate and spread it around the lid. As it starts to thicken spread it out form the middle back to the edges so they are not too thin. Then place it in the fridge to set.

Spread the remaining chocolate onto the acetate to make the sides of the pot, once it is starting to set wrap it around the covered cake tin. Place over a bowl to set (see video for demonstration). Repeat with a smaller piece of acetate just smaller than your pan lid

Once the lid is set run your nail around the edge and then flip it over to remove the chocolate from the lid. Using a fondant extruder make a snake of black fondant. Rub a little water around the edge of the chocolate lid and wrap the fondant around the lid, gently pressing it onto the chocolate.

To make the handle roll a thick snake of black, then use your fingers to roll it thinner and fold the ends down. Check that it is the right width for your lid and leave the fondant to dry out.

Make the handles for the side of the pot in the same manner but adding a little ‘foot’ on each side. Use you cake tin to make sure it is on the right angle. Add a lollipop stick to each side of the handle so you can add it to the cake.

Slowly and gently pull and turn to wiggle the chocolate rings off the cake tins. Add the smaller one to the underside of the lid. Check the larger one for holes and patch any problem areas before removing the outside acetate.

Whip the cream.

Assemble the cake inside the large chocolate ring layering up cake, salted caramel and cream.

Brush the fondant handles, lid and sides of the pot with silver luster dust.

Make a batch of caramel popcorn and tip your popcorn out onto some baking paper then using thick silicone gloves shape the popcorn into a cylinder by just gently pushing it together. Once cooled add to the cake.
Add the lid into place. Then make another batch of popcorn and add it artistically exploding out of the pot.

gravity defying cake tutorial
Copyright © 2017 Reardon Media Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

197 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    Hello I am Chloe wojda I would love a mixer for my creations hope u get this
    From Chloe your biggest fan

    • Hi Chloe, I am sorry but the competition is already finished.

  2. Hi Ann
    just letting you know that in Australia “the Good Guys” sells cake frame kits by Lakeland, called ‘the pouring cake kit’ and ‘tiers and spheres cake frame kit’ which worked very well for the ‘gravity defying popcorn cake’. But I did have to purchase the 2 kits and combine them together. Not all “Good Guys” stores stock the Lakeland brand tho.

    • Great tip Suellen. Thank you.

  3. Rating: 5

    everytime i saw the thumbnails of your youtube cakes videos i always wonder how did you cook thaaaat??
    and after i watched the video i feel amazing! Ann you are so awesome!

    • thank you so much, that’s lovely 🙂

  4. Rating: 5

    Amazing! Love your videos!!! And I love your ‘can-do’ approach to dessert designs. Thank you very much!

    • Thanks for commenting Margie!

  5. Rating: 5

    Hi! I love your videos , that’s really all iv got to say thank you

    • Well thank you Masher for letting us know!

  6. Rating: 5

    Hi ann readon! I dont know what to say i just love your videos,whenever im bored i always watch this and this is one of my stress realiever and whenever im sad i just watch your videos.I dont please you to pick me thank you! You are a inspiration!

  7. Hi ann! I really love baking but i cant afford a mixer and if i had a chance to win it’ll be a early birthday gift for me and ive been watchinh your videos since 2012 thanks!

  8. Hi Ann Reardon, I love your channel! I watch it almost every single day. If I could get a shout-out in one of your videos, that would be amazing and it would also make my day.

    • Thanks for commenting Josie!

      • Rating: 5

        I’ve checked this every day and I was so happy when I saw that you replied!!! Thank you so much Ann Reardon!!!

  9. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann. Plz choose me bcuz I really want a mixer for so long they really make things very easy..I love your channel

  10. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann. Play choose me bcuz I really want a mixer for so long they really make things very easy..I love your channel

  11. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann. I love your channel it’s amazing your doing a great job. I am your biggest fan ever I really want to meet you I live in Pakistan. Plz choose me for your giveaway..I love you ❤️❤️❤️

  12. I watched your video and where did you get the cake stand

    • Hi Henry, If you are looking for the cake support, click on the link in the recipe below and it will take you to an online supplier.

  13. Rating: 5

    You are the best youtuber that i watch almost everyday I love your videos!!!

    • Thanks Lisa and have a great day!

  14. Hi Ann, any chance you can post the numbers you chose for the mixers?
    I’d like to see how close I was…:)
    Love you stuff!!

  15. am i still able to enter the contest?

    • Sorry love, it was only open for a week, you’ve just missed out.

    • Sorry the competition is now over.

  16. Congratulations to the winners of the “caramel comp”.
    ☺ happy cooking everyone…

  17. Rating: 5

    HI ANN! I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS! AND I AM IN LOVE WITH THE #TENNYWEENYCHALLENGE YOU STARTED RECENTLY! YOUR RECIPES, THET SO CREATIVE AND FUN! I REALLY THINK THAT YOU ARE THE MOST INNOVATIVE PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I WAS SO HAPPY WHEN, YOU POSTED THE SUGAR BOWLS 2 ON YOUTUBE AND I WAS THE FIRST LIKER AND YOU REPLIED TO MY COMMENT!!! I LOVE YOU ANN

  18. Have the emails been sent out?

  19. When will the emails be sent out to the winners???

  20. Rating: 5

    OMG OMG OMG I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE RHE RESULTS OF THE MIXER!!!! WATHING THE COUNT DOWN RIGHT NOW

Leave a Reply to Henry Vanni Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*

ADD JPEG TO YOUR COMMENT