Push-up cakes

A while back I bought some push-up pop containers that I had seen online, and I couldn't wait to get them because I had so many ideas for what I could do with them. Individual trifles, ice cream sundaes, cake and ice cream, cake and frosting, cheesecake, shortcake...you name it. Yet,all these months later they are still sitting in the cabinet untouched.
So I decided to finally use them.
And I decided to keep it simple and just do cake and shortcake.

So, without further ado- here we go!

Step one- make cake.
I just bought boxed cake mixes, followed the instructions on the box (egg, water, oil) then poured the batter into cake pans and cookie sheets, being sure to keep the batter pretty thin- about 1/2".
Then I baked the cakes for about 15-20 minutes until they were spongy and perfect, then I let them cool completely.

While the cakes cooled, I prepped for the shortcakes. Really, I just finely chopped some strawberries, then dusted them with a little sugar to make them a little juicy.

Once the cakes were cool, I cut circles out so that they would fit into the pops.
Now, the easiest way would be to just use the push-pop container to cut the circles, but I have a biscuit cutter that was the right size so I just used that. Either way, cut all the cake into circles, then put them in a dish so they are ready when its time to assemble the cakes.

Now its time to assemble!
I put everything out, and got started.
Oh, and I used my tall cooling rack to hold all the pops as I made them.

And I used a small juice glass as my stand/holder, but you can use whatever you want.

Ok- For the shortcake: layer the cake (I bought the pre-made shortcake cups for these), then the berries, then some whipped cream. Then another layer of cake, then another layer of berries, then a final layer of whipped cream.

Once those were done I put them into the fridge to stay cool, then I assembled the cakes.
For these I simply layered cake, then frosting, then cake, then frosting, and I decorated the tops with some rainbow sprinkles.
Now, I thought I had a pastry bag with frosting tips, but I couldn't find it, so I just used Ziploc bags that I snipped the corner off of.

When they were all done, I put them into the display I made, then wrapped them in plastic and stuck them in the fridge for the night.

Man I can't wait to bring these to work tomorrow!!!!
:)

Oh, and all I used for this display was a 2 blocks of Oasis floral foam that I covered in tissue paper and put inside a small metal decorative tub that I had. And I pre-poked holed in it so that the pops could be dropped right in. Then I just covered it with some shredded grass like you put in Easter baskets.
Simple enough.

:)