Cat Birthday Cake

This cake was made for a 40th birthday celebration.

It was the first animal cake I have made and was challenging and really rewarding to do.

I began by making a miniature cake to get the proportions right so that when it came to the real thing I would not have unforseen problems with no time to solve them.

My son was very complimentary about the mini version but he was angling for a piece of cake.

The cake itself was lemon with white chocolate butter cream filling.

My client did not want marzipan as the birthday girl did not like it. Marzipan is not everyone’s taste so it is not essential to have it on a cake.

Having said this if someone wants to leave out the marzipan I would substitute it with a layer of fondant icing before putting the final layer of fondant icing onto the cake.

This is because marzipan provides a nice smooth layer over the sponge on which to put the fondant icing. The top layer of fondant icing will then be neat and smooth and will have a much better finish than if it was applied straight onto the sponge.

Once I had made the body shape of the cat I made the head from a roughly round piece of sponge which I then added fondant to to get the shape I wanted.

Whenever I have to make a particular shape which is not straight forward I begin by making a rough shape and then build it up with fondant. It does mean that in places there may be thicker parts of fondant icing but it is a really good way of getting a good shape.

I made the shape of the face making a little nose and the puffy bits that cats whiskers stick out from - I do not know the anatomically correct name for these although I am sure there is one.

Once the complete cat shape was made I covered the whole cat with black fondant icing and then used one of my tools to create the effect of cat fur.

I then had to add the white bits of fur. My client had sent me a picture of Molly the cat to work from so that I could get the colouring right.

I used the same tool on the white pieces of fondant.

The next thing to add was the eyes. I used a petal cutter for the shape of the eyes which gave a realistic shape.

The last thing to add to Molly was her whiskers. I used fine nylon string for these. I cut different length sections and inserted them into built up parts of the fondant. This way I could avoid inserting them into the cake itself.

Of course I told my client to remove these prior to serving the cake.

The birthday girl recognised the cake as Molly and was really pleased. I have been told that she has not yet cut the cake.

This was a really challenging shape and I am really pleased with how Molly turned out.