One of my very dear friends loves to repeat the insurance commercial with the Camel walking through the office proudly asking what day it is. So on Wednesday we hear “ It’s hump day” whenever she gets the chance to say it. Her birthday landed on a Wednesday this year so I decided to be funny and make her a cake with a camel on it.
I am no artist or cake boss but with the help of Google I found some inspirational pictures to get a general idea of what the cake should look like. I decided that I had to either use fondant to get the look I wanted but I didn’t really like the taste of store bought stuff. I went and made my own with basic ingredients: marshmallow, powdered sugar, water and vegetable shortening. I colored the fondant with food coloring and for added texture I used food coloring and a paint brush to add what looked like fur.
The Camel is formed out of rice crispy treats, covered with the homemade fondant. I made one batch of rice crispy treats and while it was still warm I formed a basic shape of what sort of looked like a long necked dinosaur. I let the base cool in the fridge to harden and once it did I covered it with the fondant. I didn’t crumb coat the rice crispy treats as I wanted the fondant to press directly against the cereal adding additional texture to the figure. The harness and blanket on the camel are dyed fondant too.
For the cake underneath, I made a boxed devils food mix as directed. Once cooled I frosted it with store bought vanilla frosting. To add a “desert” feel I decided to ground up cinnamon sugar graham crackers and used it for edible sand underneath where the camel would sit. Finally to cover the edges I piped the edges with blue food coloring to match the flower I put on “Myrtle” the camel.
My friend thought it was hilarious and said it was too cute to eat. Everyone in our office loved it. They were quite surprised that everything was edible, even the camel.
Now I know how to make a sitting camel. I also noticed if I removed the head it looks like a roasted chicken or turkey so I can make a faux bird for Thanksgiving. Or better yet if I change the fondant color to green and frost some seaweed onto the cake I can make a Loch Ness Monster.
