2 Tiered Jungle Cake with Fondant animals and Swiss Meringue Butter cream: All Homemade for the Sonny Boy

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Last weekend we celebrated Sonny boy’s 3^rd Birthday. And when we asked what he wanted for his special day he asked for a big cake, which he will take to school and cut with all his friends around. I was too happy to oblige as seldom I get a chance to do an elaborate celebration cake. So I decided on a jungle themed cake and with the guest list in mind it had to be a 2 tiered one. Now if you reside in India you would understand how difficult it is to do something good with cake decorations here. I mind sound like cribbing a lot about this but that’s what it is here. We don’t get any standard product here and when all things are to be homemade, half the fun is gone. Still I wanted to woo the kid who even refused the doodle pro saying he only wants a big cake (though the grand parents got it for him anyway). The cake needed lot of effort and time which I gladly  put in. 

The end result was satisfying and the birthday boy kept on smiling and telling everyone “ei caketa amar jonyo mumum banieche. Amar mumum sab theke bhalo ranna kare”(Mom made this cake for me. She is a very good cook). Guess who was the happiest and proudest of them all????

It was difficult to make the fondant at home as half of the products were unavailable. Dint get glycerine or good shortening. Gel food colours are unheard of so had to make do with liquid colours which is an absolute no-no for fondant making. But still the homemade fondant tastes way better than what they use on the store bought cakes. The icing was super yummy and firm enough to hold all the cake tiers and the fondant animals.

Jungle theme cake

You will need

1. Vanilla cake: 2 classic yellow 5” round cakes (recipe given below)

2. Chocolate fudge cake: two 9” round cakes (use THIS recipe)

3. Swiss meringue butter cream: 4 cups; Recipe given below
4. Fondant: makes 3 cups or more; recipe given below


METHOD:

Fondant:

Ingredients:

White marshmallows: 300 gms

Icing sugar: 700 gms

Water: 1 tbsp

Shortening or vegetable oil: (1/3 cup you might need more. I used saffola gold)

Vanilla extract: ½ tsp

Food colours (please use gel colour if you get. Liquid colours definitely affect the texture of the fondant)

Method:

In a big microwave safe bowl take all the marshmallows, salt, vanilla extract and water. Micro for 60 seconds on high. Stir with a toothpick. If not melted fully Micro for another 10 seconds and stir with a well greased wooden spoon. Once you see the silky smooth liquid start adding icing sugar.

First add half of the sugar and stir. Keep on adding till you cannot stir.

Grease your hands generously with oil and take out the mixture on a cleaned and icing sugar dusted work surface. Start kneading. If it sticks add more icing sugar. Once the mixture is dry enough start kneading. To make it soft and pliable you need to knead it for 10 minutes. And grease your hands and the work surface every time you think it sticks. At the end of this process the dough would be soft but dry.

Generously grease the fondant, Tightly wrap in cling film twice and store in fridge till used. If frozen it lasts for 6 months.

Since I don’t have access to gel colours I used regular liquid food colors. To thicken the consistency I mixed icing sugar to the colour first and then added the colour to the fondant. The consistency of the colours was very light so ended up adding a whole lot of liquid, which definitely affected the texture. But it was somehow manageable.

Colouring fondant is very easy. Start by adding a pinch of colour and knead till the fondant is uniformly coloured. Tightly wrap in cling film till used.

Make the fondant 1 day prior to use.

To make the animals watch some youtube videos. Those are really helpful.

Make the animals and flowers and let them dry on a butter paper over night.

Classic yellow cake:

(Bake 2 piece 9” round cake with the recipe given HERE.)

Ingredients: (makes 1 cake)

Flour: ¾ cup

Sugar: 1/2 cup (measure and powder or use castor sugar)

Butter:  4 tbsp at room temparature

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Baking soda: 1/3 tsp

Salt: 1/8 tsp

Vanilla extract: ½ tbsp

Egg: 1

Buttermilk: ¾ cup (I used ½ cup beaten homemade yogurt and ¼ cup water)

Method:

Grease one 5” round cake tin. If your oven is big enough to hold two tins then just double the recipe, make the batter, divide in 2 tins and bake. I had only 1 tin so had to bake twice.

Preheat the oven at 180 C.

Mix all the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Keep aside.

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes with a hand mixer). Add the egg and beat for another 2 minutes till light.

Beating on low speed add half of the dry mixture and incorporate. Pour in the buttermilk mixture, again beat to get a smooth batter. Finally mix in the remaining dry mixture and give it a good mix to get a silky smooth batter.

Pour in the cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes ar till a toothpick pricked in the center comes out clean.

Take out. Cool for 5 minutes and then invert on a wired rack. this will help in leveling the cake top.

Bake another cake in the same manner.

Chocolate Fudge Cake:

Make 2 cakes with the recipe given here.

Swiss Meringue butter cream with fresh cream

(Here I followed a recipe as shown in Masterchef Australia. They only used butter and egg whites. I dint want the kids to have so much of butter so whipped fresh cream till firm peaks and incorporated it in the swiss meringue butter cream)

Ingredients:

Egg whites: 3

Sugar: 1 cup

Butter:3/4 cup

Fresh Cream: 1 cup (I used Tropolite non dairy fresh cream)

Method:

Take a clean and dry bowl and hand mixer. Make sure not a bit of moisture is there. Take the egg whites and granulated sugar in the bowl.

Place it on double bath. ie.Take another bowl on the mouth of which the bowl with egg whites fits. Pour water in the bottom bowl so that when placed the bowl with egg whites does not touch the water.

Place the bowl with water on medium heat and let it come to boil. Place the bowl with egg whites on this and start beating with a handheld mixer. The sugar will melt and the mixture will heat up. Keep on checking the temperature. Once it reached 70 C. take off from heat but keep on beating.

(Ask someone to hold the bowl for you).

Keep on beating on high speed till it becomes shiny and stiff peaks form (approx. 10 minutes.). Now start adding 1 tbsp room temperature butter to it. Beat every time till it mixes uniformly. When the

Butter is used up stop beating and keep aside.

In a chilled metal bowl start whisking the fresh cream till it thickens and holds soft peaks. With a spatula mix this in to the butter cream 2 tbsp at a time. Once mixed through add any colour of your choice and use up within 3 days.

The name cookies:

Make THIS or any shortbread cookie dough. Cut stars and flowers and bake as per the recipe.

Roll out the fondant and cut the same shapes. Spread little buttercream on the flat surface of the cookies and Cover with fondant cut outs.

To write the name roll coloured fondant and make letters. Stick with little water.

Assembling the cake:

Place 4 strips of butter paper or foil around the edge of your serving plate. During decorations it will catch all the dripping icing and when done remove the strips to get the cakes standing on a clean surface.

Chop off any dome from the cakes to level it. Place one big fudge cake on the serving plate. Spread some icing and level it with a offset spatula. Place another fudge cake (bottom up) on it. Make sure the edges match.

Take one white cake and place it at the back of the 9” circle (not outside). Spread icing on it and place the other layer (bottom up) on top of it.

At this stage I inserted to bamboo skewer through all the four layers to make it more stable. Cover the whole structure with generous amount of frosting. Put in the fridge to set.

Before your guests arrive place all the decorations and the name cookies and serve.

A Homemaker's note:

This cake calls for a lot of work so plan accordingly. Make the cakes a day or two before and store wrapped in cling film.

Make the fondant animals prior to the day you want to present the cake and air-dry them at least for 24 hours. I was too excited to see the cake in its real avatar and placed all the animals on it in the morning itself. The party was in the evening and the cake had to sit in the fridge for 6-7 hours before cutting. The water in the air made it shiny and glossy. Do not put the final figurines in fridge as water will make it shiny.

Make the name cookies beforehand or you might forget all the

Make the butter cream on the day of party itself. It tastes best when prepared fresh.

All the recipes that I have used here are really very flexible. You can scale up or down but be sure to maintain the proportion.

The yellow cake is very very delicate that’s why I dint slice and made more layers. If you get cake dowels then you can slice all the cakes horizontally to make an even taller and exquisite looking cake.

Events:
Sending this labour of love to the following event


Cake of the week at Casa Costello. 

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