Every year I make cakes customized to my little ones' likes and requests. This year, for Alex's 5th birthday, I made a black Angry Bird cake. And while I was chatting with him about how we could make this cake for him, he reminded me that angry birds MUST have pigs to go with them.
Well, I put on my thinking cap and came up with and idea on how he could have both the bird and the pigs without
1. Breaking the bank
2. Becoming too great of a project for me
The green pigs would be cookies...and not even cookies I had to bake. Thank heavens too...the pigs were more tedious than I imagined they would be...but they were worth the effort.
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
- White fondant
- green, black, and yellow food coloring gels
- Use these to make A LOT of black, a little green, and even less yellow fondant
- Vanilla or Butter Cream Frosting
- A rolling pin {to roll out fondant}
- Powered sugar {for rolling out fondant}
- Oreo cookies
- Cake mix {I made 2, 8 inch cakes}
- Circle cutter {for the cookies and eyes}
Green Pig Cookies:
I started with a pack of Oreo cookies, some vanilla frosting {you can also use butter cream} and white fondant that I tinted green with food coloring. The white fondant can be bought by the box in stores like Michael's and Party City. {$6-$8 a box and also available in other colors from Wilton}.
I grabbed my clump of fondant, which I had colored green, and rolled it out. I used a fondant rolling pin and powdered the pin and rolling surface with powdered sugar.
I lucked out when I found that a Play-Doh cutter would make circles that perfectly covered the face of the Oreo cookie, leaving just the edge visible.
The trick in getting the fondant to stick to the cookie is in using frosting as "glue". I spread a small layer on the fondant and then centered it on the cookie.
After the cookies had their fondant circles, it was time to add in some detail. I used only my fingers to pinch a bit of fondant from the clump and make ears and a nose. Then, using the tip of a steak knife {if you'd like to be safer than me, you can use a skewer or anything less...um...stabby}, I gently carved into the fondant to make the details in the ears and nose. THIS was the tedious part because I tend to be a perfectionist and had to make them look "just so".
Oh! I should add...keep a small dish of water nearby for adding fondant details. By wetting the back of the detail pieces, you'll be able to stick it into place and it won't budge once the water dries. You only need a little bit.
I grabbed white for the eyes and looked at a picture of one of the Angry Bird pigs to find out where I should place them.
Finally, I used a bit of the black I made {adding black coloring to white fondant} to finish the eyes.
That's it! The pigs were ready to meet their match!
For the black Angry Bird, I made a double-layer cake. Sometimes people ask how I make the layers flat for stacking so I thought I'd share that with you. ...I think it's pretty simple.
After the cakes are completely cooled in their pans, I grab a bread knife and lay it on the edge of the pan. I use the pan as my guide as I slowly cut off the top of the cake.
Then I take the layer off...and eat it like a giant cookie. LOL.
No, really...
K...the top layer is off and then I just take the cake out of the pan, face down, frosting the "bottom" of the cake. There are far less crumbs and mess this way and the cake isn't rounded or tilting to one side, more importantly.
Bakers call frosting the cake "dirty icing" but I'm going to go ahead and say...
Frost the cake.
Earlier I mentioned tinting white fondant with black coloring to make it black. Just be fore-warned...you're hands will turn black too.
See?
K...now that the fondant was black, I rolled it out so that it would completely cover the cake with fondant to spare. It's far better to have more than enough than not enough.
After covering the cake and trimming the excess, I used my circle cutter to cut out 2 white circles and hand-cut a rectangle in black fondant for the feather on the bird's head. Then, I rolled a small bit of black fondant in my hands and flattened it out to make a pupil for each eye.
I used one of my kid's toys to prop up the feather as I wanted it to curl upward when it dried.
Finally, it was time to grab my yellow fondant and make this bird Angry! I rolled it out, cut a square for the top of the feather, 2 large, long ovals for eyebrows, and cut out a beak shape, free-hand. I wet the backs of the shapes and put them on the cake.
I was finished! And Alex LOVED his cake and cookies!!
P.S. The Oreo cookies taste like they just have an extra layer of filling with the fondant on top. Yum-to-the-O.
