Owl cake

[purplepidjin]

DNephew's birthday in a couple of weeks. He has just spent the week with us and hsi favourite bit seems to have been here so I'd like to make him an owl cake.

I thought I would make a cake (madeira? Vicky sponge? Light fruit cake which he loved last year?) in a big pyrex bowl. Then slice it in half, marzipan each half and pour over melted chocolate. Then reconstruct, add eyes, beak etc

Will it work? Cake making is something I do twice a year - DNephew and DNiece's birthdays, and that's because MIL can't be faffed any more and shop cakes suck

Sounds like it might work. If you want to see a simpler one, I did an owl cake for DD last year. I'll try and find a pic and put it on my profile.

Flaked almonds for the chest feathers?

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=4.bp.blogspot.com/_SwlK1Sy0K8o/S-iIfqqbvYI/AAAAAAAAByY/p1t6DqS-yxI/s1600/owl_cake.jpg&imgrefurl=museumofhappiness.blogspot.com/2010/05/owl-cake.html&h=379&w=500&sz=35&tbnid=ISRLbbgS3eUOvM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=131&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dowl%2Bcake%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=owl+cake&docid=_RVB4RZzRrjtPM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xYtJTta5G8K7hAeUmrGUCA&sqi=2&ved=0CD8Q9QEwBg&dur=35" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">This one looks easyish - becuase you can make a square one and cut a segment out of the top to make the body rounder.

Challenge you to make <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=owl+cake&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=685&tbm=isch&tbnid=NrbRHdXPk6WgwM:&imgrefurl=www.imaginativeicing.co.uk/wordpress/cakes/owl-shaped-birthday-cake&docid=hEd2Y1BSmMg7vM&w=330&h=395&ei=B4xJTuL_M8rX8gOxl9CaBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=623&vpy=267&dur=259&hovh=246&hovw=205&tx=113&ty=145&page=5&tbnh=187&tbnw=134&start=98&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:98" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this one though!

Last year, DNephew had a blue VW T3 camper just like mine and DP's

DNiece had a treasure island with her own personal treasure in the middle (she has ASD, only likes the crunchy icing bits. I covered the cake board in blue for the sea, apparently her poo was that colour for a week )

Will try and post pics, I'm quite proud of my amateur attempts!

Back in a mo once I've done that and checked out the links. Thank you!

The first one looks possible, although there's a lot of icing for the kids! The second one I would cry when it was cut and dumped in party bags

Pics now up of last years efforts... You can compare the bus cake to the reality

Pic of DD's pink owl cake on profile now.

bird watcher cake (owl variant)

or

this is fun!

less icing laden and sounds much like what you are describing?

rushofblood's first one is excellent. Little bit of sponge-shaping and then it's all in the icing and clever little decorations.

I did a teddy bear cake like that once and it was so simple and effective that even a rubbish cake decorator like me did an excellent job.

I would have a tantrum if I made the first one and someone dared to cut it! I'm looking for something that will look good to lovely SIL's uber-competitive school-gate "chums", taste nice for the kids and possibly be a teenyweeny bit healthy (last year's were both light fruit cakes, chock full of dried stuff from H&B)

I'm asking too much from a humble cake, aren't I

Make rush's first one with a carrot cake sponge, baked as a rectangle and cut to shape. See the little tiny carrot beak? How ideal. Use nuts and dried fruit to decorate.

Bloody ell though. An owl cake which must also be healthy. You don't ask for much.

which first one? mine? It was quite easy actually (it's one of mine)

how about this? - it's really cute and could be done with cream cheese icing or similar?

or cakepops (uber trendy to freak out the competitive mothers)?

sooo cute (and could be simplified by drawing the branch etc on to the board and covering it with cellophane)

Stealth, that's beautiful - but not sure it'd appeal to a 4yo boy.

Cakepops, otoh, are a genius idea, thank you! Small round cake for candles and family, cake pops for party bags

I'm over-estimating my own abilities, having managed it last year. Obviously not a triumph I can repeat and i'm probably dousing last year in nostalgia

You don't mean actually baking it in a pyrex bowl do you? That won't work as pyrex will crack in the oven. Sorry to state the obvious. You need to bake it in a cake tin/silicone one.

Icing would work better than melted choc. The choc would be thin and not spread too well, mostly roll off, whereas a choc fudge or butter icing is much thicker and would stay on. Most baking books would have basic recipes for these, or the Good Food website is usually good.

um - no - the point of pyrex is that it is ovenproof!! All my domed cakes (birdwatcher, pumpkin, and many more) have been baked in pyrex bowls.

also - OP was proposing marzipan + melted choc, which I think would not slide off to the extent of chocolate straight onto cake (although it does limit your audience to marzipan-lovers).

let me know how cake pops go, OP - I feel a need to experiment coming on...

I was talking about this one. It would be totally easy. Butter icing much more forgiving to work with than royal.

And nice for a little boy.

stealth, your cakes a re amazing

pointdog I agree that one looks easy and effective - I think one of the ones I linked to was a ripoff of that similar

Thanks, BTW - I do enjoy doing them.

Stealth's right, marzipan and only-just-melted chocolate. Last time I did it it worked although that was a very rude one involving a swiss roll and two muffins

Pointy, that one would be eaiser but I like overestimating my skills going for the dramatic and ignoring recipes and good advice and fucking it up for myself being creative