Magic Cake w/Rabbit

When I received hugs from the smiling 8 year old twins this cake was for it was the best "reward" I could have received. I enjoy the focus and concentration of working on a cake and seeing the finished product, but the smiles when the recipient sees the cake for the first time really makes the time and effort of creating the cake worth it.

I must give credit where credit is due. I searched http://www.cakecentral.com/ for ideas and combined a few designs to create this cake.

So how did I create this cake? First I had to think about what needed to be made ahead of time so it would be able to dry. I cut four rectangles and several stars out of rolled gumpaste. Once dried I used edible markers to draw the aces on the cards (although once the gumpaste dries it is certainly not edible). The stars were dusted with silver glitter. Next I formed the ball for the rabbit’s head from rice cereal treats and allowed it to “dry” for one day. I covered the ball with royal icing to smooth out the rough surface. The royal icing dries into a hard sugar coating, before it was completely dry I dusted my hands with powdered sugar and smoothed the royal icing. Now that I had the size of the head I was able to cut out paper templates for the rabbit ears. The ears were then cut out of rolled gumpaste. I folded over the base of the ears and curled the tops; these were then allowed to dry. Next I “glued” the stars to thin metal wire using royal icing. All of this was done a few days before the cake was due so they could dry and harden.

Time to assemble the cake. The main part of the hat is made of three 9-inch round marble cakes, filled and frosted with chocolate buttercream. The cake was then covered with black fondant. The topper of the cake was pretty much made separately and could simply be removed from the cake before serving. The rim of the hat was two 12-inch cake boards covered with black fondant to form the base for the topper. I covered the rabbit head with white fondant and made the face features and paws with pink, white and black fondant. The ears were “glued” to the rabbit head with royal icing and secured with toothpicks. The completed rabbit was then “glued” to the black base. The wires were wrapped around a dowel rod to curl them and the ends were poked through the black cardboard base. Under the base the wires were bent and covered with tape to secure. Three colored handkerchiefs were cut from rolled fondant and placed around the head. The topper was placed on top of the cake; a few more stars, some chocolate coins and the cards were placed around the base, and the cake was complete!

I love the way this cake turned out and I hope the twins enjoyed their birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Borna & Kia!