Saturday, April 3, 2010

Hippo in a Spa

It has been a while since I have made a fondant cake. I guess it's purely due to lack of time over the weekends. Any way I told myself that over last weekend I would get down to doing one. This particular fondant design comes directly from Fun & Original Character Cakes by Maisie Parrish . I loved the design and thought it was so totally fun to make this cake.

The cake itself which consisted of a three layer 6" fudgy chocolate cake was baked last Thursday night. Also I made some home-made marshmallow fondant on Friday night and stored it in an airtight container. My other half had to work on Saturday (he usually doesn't have to) so it was good that I had the whole apartment to myself to tackle this project. I decided to set up my work-bench in the living cum dining room, putting out my the tools and other items I would have needed - the reason for this is because my kitchen is really small and does not have enough counter-top space. In situations like this I would usually try not to make too much of a mess when working with fondant and icing sugar otherwise the pesky ants will be swarming over everything in the apartment. The weather last Saturday was kinda humid too and I thus ended up turning on the air-conditioner (hmm .... a little bit of luxury once in a while) whilst working. In total this project took me about 5 hours to complete. And this included trimming and crumb coating the cake with white chocolate buttercream. You can image how excited I was when the whole cake came together. I was thoroughly, thoroughly pleased with the end result.

Anyway it's a long weekend here in Singapore and probably in your own country as well. So I wish you and your family a great weekend, Happy Easter and a good week ahead.





Fudgy Chocolate Cake
Recipe Adapted from "Quick Mix Cakes"

Ingredients:

185g unsalted butter, chopped at room temperature
280g castor sugar (reduced from original recipe)
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
60g cocoa powder
1 Tbsp of instant coffee powder dissolved in 250ml hot water. Leave aside to cool completely

Method:

1) Grease a deep 23cm round cake pan, line base and side with baking paper

2) Combine all ingredients in a mixer bowl. Beat on low speed until ingredients are combined. Then beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and changed in colour (about 3 - 4 minutes).

3) Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake in 180C for about 45 - 50 minutes. Check and if still moist in the center,bake for another 5 - 10 minutes.

4) Stand for 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

5) Frost with your favourite frosting once cake is totally cool.





24 comments:

Akilla said...

This cake is amazing! You have such a talent, and thank you for posting the recipe! :)

Edith said...

Beautiful cake Jo!

Pei-Lin said...

This is real impressive, you know! I can't even accomplish all these!! Kudos to you! This is definitely a masterpiece! ;)

Angie's Recipes said...

I am really impressed! I guess I would never be able to do something like this!

El said...

Absolutely incredible and adorable. Is the hippo to remind us not to eat too much of the fudge cake?

ICook4Fun said...

This is such a cute cake. It brought a huge smile to my face just looking at it :)

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

Absolutely, positively brilliant!! And so very funny too! Gosh, who wouldn't love this cake? It's whacky and cute and pretty all at the same time.

gaga said...

Hippos are my favorite animal. This cake is awesome!!!

Quinn said...

That hippo is beautifully done Jo. You have amazing skills when it comes to cake decorating.

Noob Cook said...

oh my this is so INCREDIBLE!! almost too cute to eat, really amazing :D

Pam said...

You are so talented! That is one cute and clever cake.

tigerfish said...

So cute!

kitchen flavours said...

What a beautiful cake. The hipo is so cute. Nice work, Jo!

MaryMoh said...

Wow...what cute cake!!! Love it...makes me smile :D

Anonymous said...

This cake is cute beyond words!! You cake decorating skills never fail to amaze me!

Lisa said...

WOW!!! What a gorgeous and adorable cake! Usually I'm anti-fondant, but not when it comes to marshmallow fondant..that's some yummy stuff. I would love a bite of your Hippo..with bubbles :)

Selba said...

Wow!!! So cute!!! :)

Cherine said...

Beautiful and cute!

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is so cute, you are so talented making the novelty cakes. I have book marked your blog for future reference s I do these style cakes from time to time when requested but I am impressed you do it even if there isn't a birthday!

petite nyonya said...

What a gorgeous cake! Must have been a lot of hard work put into this. Fondant is pretty challenging to work with in our humid weather so this is really a good job indeed!

The Cooking Photographer said...

This is so so soooooooo cute!!! It makes me happy just looking at it! :)

Jo said...

Hi all, many thanks for dropping by with your comments. Every single one has been inspirational to me.

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Oh my goodness I thought the cake with the jungle animals was too cute but this I think this one beats that. Sooo cute! You did an amazing job!

Happy Friday!
~ingrid

Miss B @ Everybody Eats Well in Flanders said...

Hello

I just came across your blog. This cake is really very pretty, I wish i can create something like this for my son, but i know nuts about making fondant :(

Miss B

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