Its been a while since I did a step by step post. So here it is!
I’m still not comfortable saying ‘tutorial’ I don’t feel I’m qualified to call it that.
But if it helps you then that’s my goal! So I guess its sort of the same thing.
This post was getting a little long so I’ve decided to do it in 2 parts.
This 1 is the carving and covering etc. of the cake itself.
Part 2 will be the face,decorating and finishing touches.
Its my daughters birthday tomorrow,and she loves Minnie Mouse.
17th birthday I might add!
So the obvious theme was Minnie.
Now I’ve only made 1 carved cake before so I wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence.
I’m up for a challenge though and any chance to hone my skills!
The first thing I did was to make a template.
Actually I baked a 10 inch square,2 layer chocolate cake first!
Ill assume you already know how to do that part.
There are quite a few photos in this post so didn’t want to bore you with lots more
about something you already know how to do 🙂
I found the perfect picture on Google images and I’ve included the same 1 that I used here for if you decide to give it a go too.
My plan was for Minnie to be approx 9 inches square,my printer only prints up to A4…as most do.
So i printed her in 2 halves and taped them together to make 1 whole face.
Like this…
I then drew around the template on a piece of cardboard and checked again that it was a good fit before making 1 more cardboard cut-out approx 1/2 inch bigger which we’ll set aside until later.
Now for the fun part,or scary part depending on how you feel!
To hold the template in place,I pierced it with skewers.
I scored around the template with my craft knife first,Leaving myself just a little wiggle room around the edge. You can just about see it here.
Then I started to cut the cake away,slowly working my way down and around the cake.
Take your time with this part,you want as straight sides as you can manage.
Don’t be too ‘ocd’ though,when you ganache/buttercream your cake that will give you your smooth sides.
Just focus on the actual ‘face’ shape.
It helps hugely if you put the cake in the fridge first for a little while to firm up.
After the cake is carved and you’re happy with it,grab that other cardboard that was set aside earlier.
Set the cake onto it like you would with any other cake board.
Unless you’re very very lucky,or have 1 especially made then you aren’t going to find a board in this shape.
The next step is to ganache or buttercream the cake…in your usual way.
I nearly always use ganache,It sets much firmer and gives a much smoother and sharper finish.
Ill definitely write a step by step on ganching in a future post,its on my to do list I promise.
Ill be honest,this was a tricky step.
Getting into those corners and around those curves wasn’t fun.
But I did 3 fine coats of the ganache and went over it with a hot palette knife after each set and eventually I got there.
Or rather I got to where it was good enough anyway!
While the cake was set aside to firm up,it was here that I covered my cake board in red fondant.
I forgot to take a photo,sorry but you’ll see it soon.
It was a 13 inch round cake board that I used.
I wanted enough room to decorate it and using rather large boards is a habit of mine!
Not the greatest photo but it was as smooth as I was getting it…you cant see it but the sides were more important (you’ll see why later) and they were good enough.
Now to cover the cake in black fondant.
I wasn’t sure how to go about this and I settled on doing it in 2 pieces.
The plan was to first cover the top and then wrap the sides.
I was convinced I couldn’t do it in 1 piece.
But that’s exactly what I did.
Oh ye have little faith!
Id rolled the fondant way bigger than I thought,and it fit right over the cake.
I just started smoothing and pushing it around those nooks and crannies and voilà.
Much much easier than Id expected.
