Someone had a birthday party this weekend.Master Three wanted a shark cake, and I, swept up in a moment of ambitious enthusiasm, agreed to make one in secret.
I've never made a character cake before. Or *sob* had my own. But back in my day, the cakes we hovered around when it was time to blow out the candles were Victoria sponges, sandwiched with cream and decorated around the edge with rainbow sprinkles.
When duty calls however, who can resist the urge to create a cake spectacular from a kilo of tinted buttercream icing?
Inspiration came from this wonderful shake cake from
Chirky which I found via google. Okay perhaps not inspiration but a total copy job, except her's is still better :)
I baked two
butter cakes on Friday night, one a large rectangle for the ocean, the other a loaf tin to create the shark. Chirky had made her shark using red velvet cake. My loaf ended up pink with reddish swirls - it was only later that I realised red velvet cake needs a whole bottle of red food colouring. But in hindsight perhaps a little less red dye for a dozen three-year-olds can only be a good thing anyway :)
The cakes were allowed to cool overnight and on Saturday evening, Divedude was delegated with the carving, a thorough and complex process that involved sketches and the use of markers to act as cutting guidelines. Best of all was the resulting box of
cake shavings that were duly nibbled on all night.
The fins, gums and teeth were made from white icing (thank you aisle 5 of Woolworths). The fin was chilled in the fridge to firm up, then secured with a toothpick (just as Chirky suggested); a licorice strap was used to form the eyes and gills.
The
gums were the hardest thing to roll out and apply, and in hindsight this probably should have been applied last, after the teeth. It didn't help that I kept dirtying teeth and gum with bits of red icing, but I try to convince myself this just added to the deadly bloody-toothed shark image. I also thought about adding a bloody torn limb, or baking a finger into the shark itself, but no, apparently three-year-olds have nightmares and tend to find that a little too freaky. Darn.
The
icing was vanilla buttercream. Butter and icing sugar are so very very tasty. Heeding advice that coloured gels are much more intense than the water-based variety from the supermarket, I picked up bottles of red, blue and black from
Iced Affair, a wonderful cake decorating shop in Camperdown [their website is currently down but details are provided below].
Staff there were supremely friendly and suggested I pipe the icing onto the shark, as crumbing was likely to occur with the cut surface. This was a brilliant trick (and so too, was my idea to use the empty icing mixture packet as a disposable piping bag). They also suggested I make up three different shades of blue icing to give the ocean a 3D effect. The colour difference didn't seem that great but overnight the shades did darken and intensify brilliantly (cake decoraters often recommend you make up icing shades the night before because of this).
The waves were peaked and finished with shimmering blue sprinkles.
The kids clamoured around like vultures during the big reveal. Every kid wanted a piece of the shark. No fingers were found.
And the birthday boy? His smile was bigger than the shark's. He ate two pieces, his fingers and lips happily smothered in streaks of blue.
Thanks again to Chirky for the idea and design template :)Iced Affair53 Church St, Camperdown, SydneyTel: +61 (02) 9519 3679Open Monday to Friday 9.00am-5.00pmSaturdays 10.00am-4.00pmRelated GrabYourFork posts:
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