Bake up some magic!

This magical fairy cottage made with strawberry poundcake and fluffy marshmallow buttercream is . . .

CAKE

Baking spray with flour

2 pkgs. (16 oz. each) poundcake mix, preferably Betty Crocker

3 eggs 6 Tbs. butter, melted 2 Tbs. strawberry extract 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

FROSTING

2 cups butter (1 lb.), at room temperature

1 cont. (16 oz.) Marshmallow Fluff

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, from 2 (16 oz.) pkgs.

1/3 cup sour cream 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Leaf green and pink concentrated food colorings

ASSEMBLY AND DECORATION

14"x13" cardboard rectangle and 8" cardboard circle

Pink flat-bottomed ice-cream cake cup

About 15 Annas Swedish Thins cookies

Mini rainbow nonpareil chocolate candies

Butter wafer cookies, such as Jules Destrooper Butter Crisps

64 Necco wafers Mini daisy icing flowers Black edible color food marker Assorted colors Sixlets candies

2-3 marshmallows, halved crosswise

Pink decorating sugar 1 large pink gumdrop 1/4 cup cotton candy

● Cake: Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat 9"-wide (3 qt.) ovenproof bowl with baking spray. On low speed, beat cake mixes together with 1 cup water, eggs and butter until blended. On medium, beat until thickened, about 2 minutes; stir in extract and sprinkles. Transfer to prepared bowl. Bake 1 hour, 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool completely in bowl on rack.

● Frosting: On medium, beat butter until fluffy, 2 minutes. On low, beat in Fluff until combined, 1 minute. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar, then sour cream and vanilla until combined. On medium, beat until just smooth, 1-2 minutes. Reserve and cover 1/2 cup frosting. Tint 1 1/2 cups frosting green with food coloring. Transfer 1/2 cup green frosting to pastry bag fitted with coupler and 1/4" plain tip (such as Wilton #10); reserve and cover remaining. Tint 1/2 cup white frosting pink with food coloring; transfer to pastry bag fitted with small star tip.

BUILD A DREAM HOUSE OF CAKE!

● Spread tiny amount of reserved white frosting near corner of cardboard rectangle; top with cardboard circle. Place cake flat side down on circle. Spread remaining white frosting over cake, as shown.

● For chimney, trim and discard top portion from ice cream cone; slice 1/16" from bottom of cone. Place wide side down on cake top, as shown. For roof, arrange cookies on cake top around chimney, securing, if necessary, with piped frosting. Attach nonpareil candies to cookies with reserved white frosting.

● For door, trim 3/4" from one short side of wafer cookie, as shown on left. For windows, cut wafer cookies to 2"x1 1/2", as shown on right. Press onto cake.

● Attach windows to cake with piped pink frosting. For shutters, pipe pink frosting on sides of windows and attach Necco wafers. Pipe frosting around and on windows; attach mini daisies to bottoms. For walkway, break 15-20 Necco wafers into small pieces. Using edible marker, draw 3"-wide walkway from door to edge of cardboard, tapering to 2 1/2" wide at end. Arrange broken pieces of Necco wafers within lines of walkway.

● For grass, spread reserved 1 cup green frosting over cardboard up to edge of cake. Attach Necco wafers onto bottom of cake. Attach Sixlets around door. Pipe pink frosting border along walkway. Place marshmallow halves on grass, as shown. Cover marshmallows with piped green frosting. Decorate with mini daisies. On surface sprinkled with pink sugar, roll out gumdrop to 1/8" thickness; with knife or heartshaped cookie cutter, cut out heart. Attach heart to door with reserved white frosting. Attach cotton candy to top of chimney with reserved frosting. Make 24 servings.