Detroit-Style Pizza Cake

A sculpted cake designed as a freshly baked square pepperoni pizza inside an open cardboard box, with melted cheese bubbles, glossy curled pepperoni slices glistening with rendered fat, white onion pieces peeking through, and a golden-brown crust.
Kim Simons
Intermediate
Turn a sheet cake into a realistic Detroit-style pizza cake with ganache, fondant, and a blowtorch for that crispy-edged look.

Supply List

12" x 12" x 1" Cake, Any Flavor
Chocolate Ganache (Recipe)
Buttercream
White fondant
Red and orange edible color
Petal dust
Sugar Torch
Silicone Mat
Rolling Pin
Wheel Cutter
Cake Tools
Offset Spatulas
Paint Brushes
Parchment Paper
Pizza Box
Water

Instructions

  • Bake your favorite cake: 12” x 12” x 1”.
    A square baked cake on parchment paper.
  • Cover cake with chocolate ganache.
    Spreading chocolate ganache over the square sheet cake.
  • Roll out fondant and make cake toppings (pepperoni, etc.).
    Rolling out red fondant to make pepperoni toppings.
  • Add buttercream icing to cake.
    Spreading buttercream icing onto the cake.
  • Roll out thin sheet of fondant; cover cake. Trim excess.
    Draping a sheet of white fondant over the crumb-coated cake.
  • Cover cake with “chips” of fondant.
    Pressing fondant chips onto the cake for texture.
  • Brown with blowtorch.
    Using a blowtorch to brown the fondant for a baked crust effect.
  • Add fondant toppings. Shape with ball tool; brown with torch.
    Browning the fondant pizza toppings with a blowtorch.
  • Add “sauce” (buttercream icing with edible colors). Brown with torch.
    Applying red buttercream sauce to the pizza cake.
  • Dust edges with edible paints; brown with torch.
    Dusting the pizza cake edges with edible paints.

Notes

• Use a blowtorch to brown fondant for a baked pizza crust effect.
• Work in stages so fondant layers can set before torching.

Products Used

• Smartflex Velvet: Fondant
• Artisan Accents: Edible color
• The Sugar Art: Petal dust