This was a really adorable cake to do. I did the baking one night, then did everything else the next night.
I actually couldn’t find my red dye. At all. I was running low anyhow, but I knew I still had some, and had seen the bottle when I was baking the cake. But now… it disappeared! Elves took it. Darn elves. I had a half-full can of spray dye, and with that and some orange and brown, managed to get the color fox-like enough. I really wanted a more vibrant, almost cartoony fox, but this earthy look works.
The problem with cute animal cakes is that, at some point, you have to cut then open to eat the deliciousness inside. And this one is carrot cake, really rich and full of carroty goodness. I tried shredding carrots myself, and two battle wounds later, I gave up and my husband went out and bought me the pre-shredded variety. :) Layering this carrot cake is a nice creamy chai buttercream.
I always learn a lot with each cake I do, and this was no exception. It was by far much more successful in terms of carving - It was a clean carve, stayed together, was very pleasant. I made mistakes in the fondant itself, by rolling it a bit too thin so it was prone to tear in tricky spots. I also wish I had left the white area alone, but kept fussing with it and adding texture/color. Oh well! Bake and learn.
Jen | 23-Apr-09 at 2:50 pm | Permalink
This is adorable!
Diago Fox | 28-Apr-09 at 6:29 am | Permalink
I really love what you did here and would absolutely love to get some directions on how to do this myself. If your willing to share your secrets, contact me at the above email.
Lori | 28-Apr-09 at 9:29 am | Permalink
(I sent this to Diago, but felt it may be of use to others.)
There’s really not much secret to it… I drew a sketch of what I wanted, based on various pictures I found of sleeping foxes using Google Image Search. I did several sketches from different angles until I felt comfortable that I knew what it was supposed to look like.
Then I made the cake, which needs to be a firmer cake, like either pound cake or a doctored cake mix (recipes for either can be found using a web search or going to cakecentral.com). In this case I used a carrot cake recipe with a bit of extra flour. I think I used 8 inch rounds, as this was just a little guy. If you don’t want it as round, or want to be able to stretch out the tail more or anything, you can go with rectangle cake pans.
I trimmed and layered those and did a thin crumb coat, and CakeCentral.com has some instructions on doing that nicely. Here’s where it gets messy and harder to really give instructions. You have before you a mound of cake - and like a sculpter with his block of marble, you just have to use your sketches and knowledge of what a fox should look like and slowly carve it out. Cake is a bit forgiving in that, if you cut a bit too much, you can add some scraps of cake using frosting for glue.
If you are going to use fondant to cover it, then any indentations must be a bit deeper than they really should be, because the fondant will ’soften’ all that. It may be easier if you’ve never used fondant to use frosting only, which could make it look ‘furry’. The ears I made with fondant with toothpicks to hold them up, though gumpaste would be stiffer (make it ahead and the gumpaste will harden). If you don’t care if it’s ‘edible’ then you can make them with fimo/sculptey.
Either fondant or gumpaste can be found at craft stores and home cake decorating shops, but if you use Wilton fondant, most people don’t like the taste. Knead in extra vanilla extract, maybe almond or marshmallow flavor if you can find it, to improve this.
Working with fondant is kind of a practice makes perfect sort of thing. There are many tutorials online, even on YouTube, for rolling and laying on fondant. As a beginner, don’t roll it too thin, or it will tear and it’s hard to mend that nicely. I made the fondant the reddish color and used some white and dark brown/black fondant on top (thin bit of frosting for glue), and painted details with food dyes.
If there are any specific questions, let me know!