Finely crumble the cake scraps, store in freezer in a plastic zipper bag, and use next time you need to decorate a frosted cake. The cake crumbs stick to the frosting. Also good for cupcakes - especially if you've got chocolate cake crumbles - you can make Dirt Cupcakes and stick gummy worms on top. Kids love it. Just dip the frosted top of the cupcakes into the "dirt."
P.S. to the food52editors: I saw this pickle yesterday, but wasn't able to respond. It took me forever to search for it today, sticking "cake scraps", "cake pops" , "cake", "scraps" and other search terms into the search box. I had to go over to the Whole Foods site to find it, because I know over there, the food pickle questions are in consecutive order. Is there an easier way to locate questions you'd like to respond to??
I like to freeze cake crumbs and use them in tortes. A lot of European cake recipes will call for cake crumbs. You can also use them as garnish for the finished (iced) cake. For instance, using red velvet cake scraps as garnish for a cream cheese frosted red velvet cake is stunning. And, yes, the venerable trifle is a great use for them, although you might not want trifle after all that cake! If nothing strikes you, freeze them. You'll think of something later.
Depending on the type of cake, you can toast cake 'croutons' and use them with ice cream, whipped cream, mousse, a fruit coulis, whole berries...my mother used to do that with the leftover ends of a poundcake.
My first preference would be individualized trifles as noted above. You can also use it to top ice cream. Alternatively, you can make cake balls by crumbling the scraps combining them with frosting, rolling into balls, and then dipping them in melted white or dark chocolate.
Make cake pops! So easy and so cute :-) Simply crumble up your cake scraps, mix in some frosting (or the rum idea might work) until you can roll them into balls. Stick a lollypop stick into the center of each one and freeze for at least 15 min (or until ready to use, you can put these in plastic bags and save for a later date). Dip the chilled "pops" into hardening candy chocolate and set somewhere to dry! OR use my sisters home-made hardening chocolate which is simply melted chocolate chips mixed with a little bit of coconut oil (supper yummy). To dry we have found that an old egg carton works great to hold the sticks...
Grind them up and mix them into your crumb mixture when you're making a fruit crisp or crumble. You can also mix them into biscotti dough for a really good crumb Biscotti.
I blogged about that recipe on my blog: http://www.relocationtheblog.blogspot.com
Eat them! Or you could make a "rustic" trifle, or a couple of individual ones, depending on how much you have. I'd layer them in a glass container (jar? Glass? Trifle or punch bowl? Depends on how much you have) whipped cream or pastry cream and fruit or jam. Martha Stewart has a few recipes that involve layering things in glass jars -- I made one that involved putting a cupcake in a small mason jar and topping it with cream cheese frosting and raspberry jam. Might work with cake scraps too. Or you could toast them lightly and make cake crumbs -- good over ice cream, and the sides or frosted cakes, etc.
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P.S. to the food52editors: I saw this pickle yesterday, but wasn't able to respond. It took me forever to search for it today, sticking "cake scraps", "cake pops" , "cake", "scraps" and other search terms into the search box. I had to go over to the Whole Foods site to find it, because I know over there, the food pickle questions are in consecutive order. Is there an easier way to locate questions you'd like to respond to??
I blogged about that recipe on my blog: http://www.relocationtheblog.blogspot.com