curious george birthday cake with handmade fondant topper

My best friend Sue's daughter Leia turned three this past summer, and since Leia love Curious George, she asked me to make a Curious George cake for her party! Leia's only requests were: a) it was green, and b) it was chocolate. (She doesn't like "yellow cake", only "brown cake"!) So we decided on a chocolate cake filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, decorated with piped green grass frosting and a fondant George on top!

A couple of weeks before the party, I started making George out of fondant, since I knew I'd need time for the fondant to harden. So I tinted my fondant with brown gel-based food coloring, and shaped the pieces that I would need.

Next I attached the legs to the torso with a little bit of water, and used ivory tinted fondant to make his little feet (the back of a paring knife worked perfectly to make his little toes).

Next came the arms, complete with little hands.

And finally, the head!

I used an edible food marker to color in his eyeballs and lashline, and added tiny white nonpareils for the white dot in his eyeball.

Then I attached his head to his body (with a toothpick connecting the two), and then he was done! He looks a little sleepy, in my opinion, but still cute nonetheless?

Next was the cake, which I made the night before the party. I baked up two 8-inch round chocolate cakes (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) and let them cool before slicing them in half horizontally with a serrated knife. This way I would end up with four cake layers.

Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries.

Once the cake layers were assembled, I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream (recipe also in my book!) and tinted the majority of it green. Then I used an offset spatula to cover the top and sides of the cake with a quick crumb coat.

After letting the crumb coat chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, I did a smooth final coat, and then used a grass tip in a disposable piping bag to pipe the grass on the top of the cake. (see here and here for more examples of piping the grass!)

Finally I piped her name with gray frosting on the side of the cake, and placed little George on top (with a little bit more frosting on his bottom to hold him in place!).

His arms looked a little wonky, but at least Leia recognized him!

And here are some pictures from her party. So much fun!

Happy Birthday, sweet Leia! Hope you enjoyed your cake! <3 p="">

another golf ball cake! chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse and covered with cream cheese buttercream

Since my coworker's dad loves golf, he asked me to make a golf ball cake for his dad's birthday.  So I made an 8-inch version of this cake that I made last month (based on a golf ball cake at Love & Olive Oil), but this time I made a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse.

I used my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe, which I baked in two 8-inch pans.  Once they were baked and cooled, I started on the chocolate mousse filling (the same recipe from America's Test Kitchen that I use for the middle layer of my triple chocolate mousse cakes).

Next I sliced off the tops of my cakes to ensure a flat surface.  After piping my chocolate mousse filling onto the first cake layer, I placed the second layer on top and then let the whole thing chill in the fridge while I started on the frosting (a cream cheese buttercream).

This time I added less green coloring to the frosting, since last time I thought the cake was too "green" and wanted a lighter effect for this cake.  I did a quick crumb coat of frosting over the entire cake, and then a second smooth coat on the sides.  And then it was time for the fun part - piping the grass!

I started by piping the perimeter of the cake with my grass tip, then filled it in until the entire top was covered.  Then I finished it off with a grass border on the bottom of the cake.

The final touch was a white chocolate golf ball that I made with my golf ball candy mold!

This time, the cake took me about 4 hours to make, from start to finish.  Now I just have to practice making large 12x17 cakes - the last one took me 12 hours to make!

golf ball cake - chocolate cake with cherries jubilee filling

My friend Bonnie recently asked me to make a cake for her husband's 40th birthday dinner, and I was excited because I hadn't seen her in years!  Among the things that she mentioned about her husband included his love for golf, as well as cherries jubilee ice cream.  So I decided to make a chocolate cake filled with cherries jubilee whipped cream filling.

As for the golf theme, I was a little undecided on what I wanted to do with this.  Initially we thought that I could pipe the Pebble Beach logo on top of the cake.  Or, I could decorate it with white chocolate golf balls, which would look similar to the golf ball cake pops that I had made a while back.  And then, I stumbled accross this cake at love & olive oil via foodgawker - it was such a cute and clean design (and not overly cheesy considering it was a golf ball cake)!  I immediately wanted to make it!

Bonnie only needed enough cake for 10 adults, so I made it a 6-inch cake.  For the chocolate cake layer, I used my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe.  While that was baking, I started on my filling. I found this recipe at Epicurious for cherries jubilee, and proceeded the make the cherry sauce.  (The only thing that I changed was to add a little bit of corn starch slurry at the end to thicken the sauce.)

I had never had cherries jubilee before so I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like; it ended up tasting like caramelized cherries, but not with an overwhelming cherry taste.  So I pureed the sauce, and then mixed a portion of it with cream cheese, to give the filling a bit more tartness.  Then I made a batch of whipped cream, which I then folded into the cherry cream cheese mixture.

Once the cake was cooled, I put the first cake layer on an 8-inch cake round, and then piped on a layer of the filling.  Then, to add extra cherries jubilee flavor, I brushed on some of the sauce onto the top of the second cake layer, which I then inverted onto the filling layer.

For the frosting, I made a batch of buttercream, and then added a stick of cream cheese to it at the end (as I find regular buttercream too sweet, and I love the tang of cream cheese in a frosting).  I added just enough green coloring to suggest the color of grass, and then use an offset spatula to apply the first "crumb coat" layer of frosting.

After letting that set in the fridge for a half hour or so, I applied the final "smooth" layer of frosting.  I didn't worry too much about making the top super smooth, as that would end up covered with piped grass.

Then came the fun part.  Using a special tip that has multiple holes, I covered the top of the cake by piping on "grass".  And then I piped on a "grass" border on the bottom of the cake as well.

For the golf ball decoration I used white chocolate and this golf ball candy mold, and I made a few just in case there was any breakage.  The first step was to cover the insides of a few of the golf balls of the mold with melted white chocolate, and then placed it in the fridge for them to harden.  This would be one half of each golf ball.  Once they were set, I popped them out of the mold, and then repeated the step to cover mold in chocolate.

Then, before the chocolate hardened, I topped each one with the other half of the golf ball from step one.  This way, the new chocolate would harden with the other half attached to it, to form a complete golf ball.  I chose the best looking golf ball out of the ones I had made, and placed it on top of the cake.

The final touch was a little birthday banner that I made out of craft paper, thread, and bamboo skewers - similar to the ones I had made for the Superman cake and the Thanksgiving birthday cake.  I tried to stick with "manly golf colors" that would go with the color of the cake, but I guess you can only get so manly when it comes to a festive birthday banner!

It was so great to see Bonnie again after so many years, even if it was only for a few minutes when I went to drop off the cake.  Happy Birthday to her hubby Dave!  Hope everyone enjoyed the cake!

*** Update: Made a second golf ball cake here!  Except this time it was an 8-inch cake and filled with chocolate mousse!