This is my son’s first birthday cake. I was inspired by one of his cute bibs (as seen in the photo) and made a template for the cake by enlarging the picture on a photocopier.
I made two square cakes and two muffins and used the template to cut out a head shape (including ears), neck and body shape.
After putting the head, neck and body together I iced it in yellow butter-cream and then added giraffe splodges in orange. The legs are two soft liquorice strips and the feet are the two muffin shaped pieces of cake.
The mouth, nostrils and eyes are all pieces of liquorice and then I used two lollipops as the ‘horns’.
This was my first attempt at cake making and one tip I discovered afterwards is to use cake that is a day old as it won’t crumble as much when being iced. My freshly made cake feet almost disintegrated when I iced them!
That’s really cute and clever. Love the licorice accents. =)
Thanks for the great picture. I decided I am going to try pretzel rods for the legs instead of licorice. I think it should look fun!
Thanks again.
Another way to not have the cake crumble when frosting it is to put it in the fridge for an hour or so or in the freezer for about 1/2 hour…that is what i do when making character cakes…
Another suggestion to avoid crumbling and crumbs in the icing is to apply two layers of icing. First put on a thin layer of icing that “catches” the crumbs. Let it refrigerate and then apply your finished layer later, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble with crumbly cake and crumbs in the icing.
I love this giraffe cake! It is really adorable! My friend and I are giraffe fanatics! I am thinking about making her a giraffe birthday cake and I will consider your idea! Keep Baking! And good luck in the future!
Another tip to save cakes from falling apart when icing them is to make them a week in advance, cut the shapes out that you need and freeze. Only pull it out when you are ready to ice.
That’s awesome, thanks!
I’ve been searching the internet for a giraffe cake and I really liked yours. It is probably the cutest one i’ve found.
I coppied your design and made a template from your pic and made the cake too.