My four year old daughter wanted an owl cake like her favorite character, the good snow owl, on Legend of the Guardians, mask and all. My twelve year old daughter and I designed and made this cake. This is our first prototype. It is my first attempt at “cake boss” type of cake! We made marshmallow fondant, modeling chocolate (white and brown), rice crispy treats, butter cream frosting, and devil’s food cake.
The base is a sheet cake. Two layers would have been better, but one took two cake mixes! I should have frozen it before the crumb layer of butter cream, because the icing was on pretty thick! It helped to soften the frosting (made with real butter not shortening) in the microwave before spreading the crumb layer. Then I froze it before adding the final layer. The log he is standing on is made from rice crispy treats covered in fondant that had been colored brown and kneaded with cocoa powder. Marshmallow fondant tastes pretty good and is easy to work with, but does require refrigeration overnight.
The owl is made from rice crispy treats on two dowel rods. We added a third after placed on the cake (oops!). The rods had to be cut shorter so they wouldn’t stick out his head! You MUST work with it quickly before it hardens and it will flatten out if you lay it down for a few hours. You just need the basic shape and can trim with knife later. We propped it up in a cup, but also should have put it in the freezer or fridge to store.
It was covered in fondant (here you can shape it more if needed) and iced for the feathers (leaf tip). The icing melted in the bag and needed to be put in freezer periodically. Tedious, but the effect is good (direction of feathers go out from eye disc and follow wings back). The “helmet”, eyes, beak, and feet were made from modeling chocolate. Helmet dusted with gold edible powder. Yes, it needs a tail, and the wings are hard to differentiate.
It took two days to make this cake, including all the homemade frosting and fondant. Much can be done ahead. It tasted as good as it looked! Take that, Buddy!
What dedication to fulfill a birthday wish! Did you eat the rice krispie treat part too? Will you make another?
It all tasted great, especially the rice treat! My four year old wanted to eat the head first! Yes, we will do it again for her actual birthday in about three weeks, new and improved from lessons learned! I enjoyed making it :)
What a superb job!! Very impressive!