Giggle and Hoot (Owl) Birthday Cake - Part 4

Did I mention on top of the main cake (which was suppose to serve 50), we're making little egg free vanilla cupcakes for the kids as well?

Although I have never done it before, I know when fondant, when left to dry, they'll become nice and hard.  so the idea was to make little Hoot faces and stick them on those little cup cakes with a little vanilla butter icing.

OMG.  It took me an entire weekend to make the 40 little owl faces...

Here's a little sample I have made.. I wasn't entirely happy with his brow, though i'm quietly quite please with how the little beak was made (with a little nip of the scissors)

Did you know the collective noun for owls is "parliament"?! And when there's a "parliament" of them, you can really, almost hear the murmuring...

And it's all done! being left to dry for a few days.

looking well please on top of cupcakes on the day.  

Giggle and Hoot Birthday Cake - Part 3

Armed with the knowledge of improvement and watch out areas, I had one of the best time of my life at my dear dear friend, master cake decorator's workshop.  Ria taught me to crumb coat, shape, mould and all sort of other wonderful tricks to turn layers of chocolate cakes into "Hoot".  Here're a few shots of the work in progress:

Stacking one layer of cake on the other... yes count them there're like 9 layers!

Shaping:

Crumb Coating:

On goes first layer of fondant and shaping of eyes:

 Still look nothing like Hoot yet... patience!

Tadaa! Once the eyes are on and the beak is done... ha and the eyelashes just brings it to live!

Granted it's not completely done yet, but it's taken us 4hrs to get to this point.  I have learnt all the essential skills and understand there're bits of the decoration that needs to be made a day or two in advance (like his legs and wings) before they're stuck on.

not a bad effort... it's all up to me now.

Giggle and Hoot Birthday Cake - Part 2

So now we know the flat 2D cake is a possibility.  And since we had over a month to the party and I'm determined to win the "Auntie of the year", there's really no good reason to stop there.  

Next challenge: a 3D Hoot cake

so off I went with a lot of research, countless hours of obsessing over YouTube and MonkeySee to teach myself what how to make a 3D cake.  Meanwhile I have booked my cake decorator friend for a private lesson.

Here's my first - not so impressive attempt of a partially made hoot cake:

yup.  Granted.  not very impressive at all.  In fact, ha! my sister seem to think Hoot's eyes look more like a bra!  how rude!

But at least I now know what I need to pay extra attention to during my cake lesson.  Shaping of the cake, crumb coating.. and most importantly, how to play with the fondant to bring it all to live.

so 4 batches of cake wasted (given to my security guards) and more practice to come.

Oh, and I have made Price William's chocolate digestive wedding cake thinking it'll make a good bottom for Hoot.. forget it... it's not a cake for shaping and frankly the amount of butter in that cake was disgusting.

Giggle and Hoot Birthday Cake - Part 1

It was my little niece's first birthday!  And as her favorite (and the only) aunt, who had lived away from Australia during most of her first year, I was determined to be there and to make her her first birthday cake.  

2mths ahead of the big day my sister has decided we'll make her a "Hoot" cake, as Giggle and Hoot has been one of little Janony's favourite TV program.  So off I go for lots of experimentation, and investigation. 

I have never made a cake with decoration with more than icing and sprinkle on top, so decoration with fondant was an absolute challenge.  

Here's a photo of my first, self taught "Hoot cake" exercise:

Pretty neat huh?! The little experiment give me an insight on how fondant behave and the importance of the coloring required.  Somehow, I think mixing the liquid, off the shelf colour from the supermarket, although is OK, is just not quite perfect.

But at least I know we have now a worst case scenario baseline... not too shabby a fall back.  So off we went - Birthday invites sent, blue and orange balloons bought.  "Hoot" theme birthday it is...