This cake is adapted from one of Molly Yeh’s recipes and her ingenious idea to use marzipan for cake “stickers”,  which lets you transform a regular cake into a Ninjago party cake! I found that the rainbow sprinkles from Whole Foods worked perfectly, without the colors bleeding.

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks Earth Balance butter (1 cup)
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 Ener-G eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup plain almond milk
• 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
• 1 (7-ounce) tube marzipan
• Food coloring
• Powdered sugar

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium speed for about 3 minutes, until fluffy.
3. Add the Ener-G eggs, followed by the canola oil, vanilla, and almond extract, beating for an additional 2 minutes or so.
4. Alternate adding the flour mixture and almond milk, beating at low speed after each addition. Gently fold in the sprinkles.
5. Divide the batter evenly among 2 (9-inch) cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Once cool, frost with the vanilla frosting of choice, whether homemade or store-bought.
7. To prepare the “sticker”, separate out a portion of marzipan and tint with food coloring for the Ninjago mask of choice. We used blue! Knead until the color is incorporated. Dust a work surface with a little powdered sugar and roll out the marzipan. Cut out the shape of an upside-down kidney bean as the mask and place on the cake.
8. Tint an additional portion of marzipan yellow. Cut out thin slits for eyebrows and two small circles for eyes and place over the mask.