Lighted DJ Turntable Cake

This was a fun cake to make. Next time I think I’d like to try to make the turntable really turns 🙂 Made this for my husband’s colleague’s son, Sam Stanway. I was so happy with this request 😀

Sam’s Actual Turntable

Having a picture of the real turntable is obv. is a big plus. Google has many pictures of turntables out there.

The mother of the birthday guy sent me this pic, which is what the son really has at his studio (the son is a DJ in the city where I reside). So my turntable cake was a Denon one.

Lighted Parts (Batteries and whatnot)

They can be found online or at local stores.

The lights and batteries later have to be wrapped with cling wrap so they wont touch the actual cake

You do not need them obviously, but the cake look nicer with lighted buttons 😛

Cake, Buttercream, and Fondant

This turntable cake was using carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream (not cream cheese frosting as it wont hold up nicely under fondant)

Carrot Cake

4 eggs

1 1/4 c vegetable oil

2 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 c flour

2 tsp each baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 c grated carrots

1 c chopped walnut/pecan

Preheat oven 350 F

Grease and flour a 9.5 inch square pan (depending on how big you’d like to make your cake, the recipe can be doubled, if not prepare batter and bake cake twice)

Beat eggs, oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in walnuts.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely before proceeding.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

I am using SMBC for this one, adding 1/2 block of cream cheese to the buttercream.

5 egg whites

1 1/4 c sugar

500 g butter, room temperature, but still a little firm, cubed

Heat sugar and egg whites on double boiler, medium heat, until sugar dissolve, stirring occasionally

Beat on low speed until cool to room temperature then beat high to create meringue

You can add vanilla essence or lemon essence, if you like

Once meringue stage is reached, beat in a cube of butter at a time

Keep beating until smooth, set aside

In a clean bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth then stir into buttercream mixture until well combined (you can also use mixer to combine both)

Fondant

454 g mini marshmallow

2 tbsp water

700 g – 1 kg icing sugar

Melt marshmallow with water using microwave on 30 seconds intervals

Add in icing sugar and knead until no longer sticky

Wrap overnight before using

Decorating The Cake

Once your cake is cooled completely, slice cake horizontally into two layers, place a layer on cake board and spread buttercream on it for filling then stack the other layer on top. Crumb coat the whole cake, chill for 20 mins, then cover the whole cake with cream cheese buttercream.

Unwrap your fondant and dust your working board with icing sugar, roll flat, big enough to cover the cake. I let the fondant white and then brush it with black food coloring.

Using the picture as your guidance, make/cut buttons as per picture. Let dry cut outs for an hour or two (air dry), so you would be able to write on them using edible food marker

Where you would give the lights, push in prepared lighted and wrapped lights (you can make a little hole for easier) then cover the lights with the buttons you made.

I was planning to color my cake board with food color, bad idea 😛 It didnt make black cake board but instead purplish, in the end I covered the board with fondant. The recipe I gave was enough to cover the cake and make accessories, so to cover the board you would have to prepare more fondant.

For the turntable part (I forgot to take pics, sorry), here is I am showing with a styrofoam ball. What you need to do is bake a half sphere cake using ball shaped pan of Wilton. Then once the cake is done, slice the top and only use the middle part where I wrote down “use this”. Again, bake a half sphere only, not the whole round ball shape.

For the little monitor above the turntable, I use Rice Krispies treats that I attached 2 of them and carve to shape as the monitor on the original picture.