I made this homemade Spikey the Dinosaur cake for my Fiancé (his 22nd birthday as he’s a big kid and long time dinosaur enthusiast) and as he is a big chocolate fan I decided to make it a bit different. Instead of using a normal sponge I used a recipe for a chocolate Stout cake (mine came from the Green & Blacks cook book). This was a really moist and rich heavy cake and the recipe I used is wonderful.
To start with, I baked two large circular cakes and left them to cool. I then sketched out how I would cut the cakes on a piece of baking paper. I went for a dinosaur that was lying down with his tail curved around his body and stubby little legs as this could be easily done from a circle shaped starting point. I then used this template to cut the cakes to shape.
The next step was to assemble the dinosaur and cover the cake in butter icing. A word of warning here: I found the head very hard to shape and make stable. My first attempt fell apart just as I was finishing the icing and so I had to completely re-do it. I would advise that you make sure the head is stable rather than go for a shape that is less stable and looks better. Try using toothpicks to help keep the head securely in place.
It is also important that you have a moist cake, if you use a dryer cake recipe it may start to crumble and become difficult to shape or hold in place.
When the homemade Spikey the Dinosaur cake was assembled I then piped on the top layer of icing and added little chocolate spikes. The icing was very time consuming so I advise making this cake a day in advance of the occasion. There is lots of room for you to slightly modify the shape of the dinosaur and you could cover the cake in fondant or royal icing instead of piping, or if you’re feeling really adventurous you could use gum paste and a petal cutter to make real scales! Have fun!
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