I know it's tempting to try and keep up with what the other mum's are doing out there with their kids birthdays, and you don't want your kids to feel like they're different or not special, but I do think that spending ridiculous amounts of money on a 3 years olds birthday cake is not necessary.
One of the things that I remember mostly fondly as a child are the cute cakes my mum used to make for me and my sisters birthdays. Not expensive but creative and made with bucket loads (or mouthfuls) of love.
Today I will explain how to make this Dinosaur cake. However, my pictures of the preparation process have been deleted, so I will have to add diagrams and borrowed pictures.
SUPPLIES
~A small loaf tin
~3 pkt cake mixes (these could all be different flavours if you like)
~large pkt icing mixture
~food colouring, including black.
~Very skinny paint brush.
~covered cake board (I make mine out of old boxes)
~decorative paper and clear contact to cover board.
~Pkt disposable piping bags (more info later)
~pkt fondant
WHAT TO DO:
Start making your cakes 2 days prior to day needed. Example, if you need for Saturday, start on Thursday. You can also prepare cakes further ahead than this if you wish and freeze them until needed.
DAY ONE:
1. Bake 3 cakes in your loaf tin. Your loaf tin should do one cake mix each. Do one cake at a time (if you only have one tin) allowing to cool sufficiently before tipping them out of the tin.
*TIP: I find the best way to ensure your cake doesn't stick is to spray inside of tin with canola cooking spray, cut a piece of baking paper to cover just the bottom of the tin, then respray before putting your cake batter in. They will never stick if you do this. Also, make sure you clean your tin out in between each cake.
2. Once all your cakes have cooled, wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge overnight. This makes them cold and easier to carve.
3. Prepare your cake board. I use recycled cardboard from boxes as this is a cheap alternative to buying special cake boards from supply shops. Choose some paper to cover your board that is fitting for a dinosaur cake. I happened to have scrapbooking paper that looked like pebbles, but you could use just green like grass or anything else that you think would look good. Then cover it in clear contact.
DAY TWO:
4. The first thing you need to do is level 2 of your cakes. This means where your cake has risen in the middle, you need to make flat. I use a serrated edge bread knife to do this. Cut your 3rd cake directly in half vertically (do NOT level).
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| This picture shows how to level a round cake. You would do the same, only to your loaf cakes to take off he part that has risen in the middle. |
5. Make up icing with about 2 cups of icing as per instruction or recipe.
6. Take your cake board and upturn one of the levelled cakes in the middle. Apply a little icing on the underside to help keep it from sliding on your board. Cut a sliver of cake off each end of this cake to make the ends straight. Then take the 2 halves and place them one on each end of this, cut side touching, and put icing between to stick them together. You should now have one long mismatched looking cake with two tapered ends. Take the other levelled cake and also upturn and "stick" it with icing above the first levelled cake, cutting the ends straight like the other one. This forms the body of your dinosaur with the hump in the middle.
7. Now here's where a bit of skill is involved. You now need to take a small serrated edge knife (like a steak knife) and slowly start to carve your cake into a dinosaur shape. Start by curving the sides to create a humpy spine. Then taper down one end for a tail, and the other end for a head. On the tail end start by cutting off the corners. Save one as this will add to your lumpy head. Leave the head quite broad and humpy, just smooth off corners. Then add the cut off you saved and stick that on with icing. Keep shaving off cake over the whole thing until you are satisfied you have a dinosaur shape. I used one of my sons dinosaur figurines for inspiration at this point. Also make sure that all joins are well blended with your carving so there are no bumps.
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| The basic shape of your cake after carving should look something like this. |
8. Next you need to smear a thin layer of icing over the entire cake. This will help bind everything and keep your carved cake from crumbing everywhere. It will also help your piped icing to stick well to your cake. After you're done, clean up your cake board of any icing smears or crumbs. Set aside.
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| This is a picture of a car cake I borrowed from the web, but shows how your dinosaur should also look after carving and thin smear of icing all over. |
9. Take your fondant (Orchard brand is readily available form the supermarket) and colour a small portion of it the colour that you'd like for the spikes on the back. Add food colouring a little at a time, kneading well between each addition until you have the desired colour. Mould little pieces into spikes, plates or however you want it to look and set them aside as you are going. Now take a larger blob of fondant and mould into for cylindrical like pieces. These are the legs. Just press them up to your cake where they belong. Now also take 2 pinches of fondant and make 2 tiny discs for the eyes and stick in place. Also 2 for the nostrils. Make a long skinny sausage for the mouth and press that in place. You will also make a tail out of fondant to connect to the tapered end of your cake and curl it to one side. Take your paint brush and black food colouring and paint black dots for the eyes, nostrils and paint the mouth black too.
10. Make up another huge batch of icing (as per instructions on pack) and set aside a small amount (a couple of heaped tablespoons) to use later for tufts of grass. Colour your batch of icing in the main colour of your dinosaur. Be careful that your icing does not become too runny. Add more icing mixture if this happens. Your icing should be quite stiff (but not dry) for piping onto your cake.
11. Stick your spikes all along the back. And horns if you made them. They should stick to the icing cover you put all over your cake earlier.
12. Now you are ready to pipe your icing. Get your "Multix" brand disposable piping bags (available from the supermarket). These are excellent. There are 5 bags in each box and they come with a coupler and 4 different piping tips. Assemble as per directions on pack with one of the star tips.
Take a tall glass and put your tip and bag inside the glass and turn the plastic over the outside edge. Place as much icing into the bag as will fit. Take out and twist the top off (you could also use a bag clip) expelling any air.
Have a little practice at making little stars with your piping tips. Squeeze a small amount out and pull straight up will form little pointy stars.
*TIP: It might even be worth taking time to view a short tutorial on YouTube, but is not hard to do.
You will cover your whole cake this way, going around the eyes, nostrils, spikes etc. and covering your legs and tail.
13. Colour the icing you set aside green. This will be your tufts of grass. Remembering to keep the icing stiff for piping. Either empty out your piping bag by squeezing out its contents, or setting up another bag. I used blue and then put the green through the same bag as the colours were very close. If you are using completely different colours, you may want to use a new bag so as not to contaminate your colours. You will also switch your tip to a writing tip, which looks like a little hole. To make the grass, use the same technique as before in bunches, some longer and shorter to resemble grass tufts.
14. I also added rocks and a leaf out of fondant, but this is not necessary. Use your own imagination!
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