So, this cake goes without saying that, for me, yes, it was a bit challenging. Do I like the way it turned out? Totally! Was it worth my while? Yes!! Do I think you can do it? Of course! Be careful following these instructions and you should definitely have a beautiful cake. I’m trying something new out on my website, things like this, focusing more on a blog type of thing, and centering it around baking more than cooking. The reason behind this is simply because I found that I enjoy baking way more than cooking and that I’m a lot better at it. So again, I’m trying this out, let me know in the comments section how you like it. Also, don’t forget that I’m open to suggestions, requests, answering questions, etc. Don’t forget to share this with others! Let’s start caking this thing, shall we?
Here the list of ingredients you will need:
Ingredients:
– one cake, any flavor, baked in a dome shaped baking pan, along with 5 cupcakes (for the head and feet/legs)
– vanilla frosting that has been tinted green (I’m not sure the exact amount. I didn’t use as much as it looks like I did, but you will need a good amount prepared. I got all of my supplies from my local cake store, it’s called “The Cakewalk”, so check to see if there’s one nearby you, this place is great for literally any of your cake needs).
– a piping bag with a round tip inserted to the end
– OPTIONAL, but some fondant for a bow (can be colored but it doesn’t have to be, I used some pink leftovers from the last time I used it, although if your making this for a boy’s birthday party or something you probably don’t want to add a bow).
– dark green fondant, for the shell
– a knife (I used a bread knife, but you can use a steak knife if you wanted to; to round off the cupcakes)
– the smallest amount of vanilla frosting, tinted black, for the eyes
– a cake leveler is optional, but it’s extremely helpful for one of these steps
Okay, so here goes nothing for instructions!!
1. Bake your cake (should be in a dome shaped pan) and cupcakes and let them cool. Remove the liners from your cupcakes if you baked them using some liners.
2. Using a cake leveler, level off the top of the dome cake where it rose in the oven so it lays flat on your surface or cake board. My cake leveler is from Wilton; actually, pretty much all of my cake tools are from the brand Wilton, and they are amazing. If you don’t have a cake leveler, use a serated knife to level off the top. Adhere the cake to your surface with a dollop of frosting. This way, it doesn’t move around or slip when you’re decorating.
3. For now, place the five cupcakes on any plate and put them in the refrigerator to chill, then, ignore them– you don’t need them yet. Frost your dome cake with your green frosting. Smooth it out as much as possible. I normally would use my cake scraper for the sides, however, this is a dome, so it won’t do you much good.
4. NOW you need the cupcakes. Take them out of the refrigerator, and, one by one, start rounding the edges. Do this by using the knife and slowly cutting off the edges or flat spaces. But don’t cut too much! You still need it to frost, and you don’t want it too small. Do this to all five. Don’t worry too much about this, though, or if you mess up! You can always patch up an area with some frosting, as I had to do, and it worked out fine. I suggest having a few extra cupcakes on hand just in case something really goes wrong.
5. Once you have five rounded cupcakes, frost them, too, with the green frosting. To start forming the body, attach them to the dome by gently pressing them against the dome cake. Two cupcakes should be on the right and left sides of the dome, and one should be in the front for the head. Refer to the image of the cake above to see what I mean.
6. Once this is done, set the entire thing in the refrigerator to chill and slightly harden. While that’s happening, roll out the fondant, the one that I told you needs to be tinted dark green, or at least darker than your frosting. Using a knife, or even a pizza roller, which is what I did, start cutting out shapes that will make the shell. Cut out 6 pieces shaped like a trapezoid, with the exception of one hexagonal shape for the center (a hexagon has six equal-length sides). It should be 1/4 inch thick. This part is probably tricky for you to understand, but it’s also hard for me to explain, so just bare with me, here. Now, you need to place the hexagon shaped fondant piece in the center of the dome. Once you do that, assemble the trapezoids’ around it (there are six trapezoids’ for a six- sided hexagon, get it? Refer to the picture of the completed version to see what I mean if you need more help visually). If you’re doing this right, it should start to look more like a turtle now.
7. At this stage, what I did is tint some of my green frosting even darker and place it in the piping bag fitted with a round piping tip. I carefully piped a small, plain border around the fondant shapes that create the shell. This is totally optional, but I did it for a cleaner look. Even if you don’t do this the the outside of the shell, it’s a good idea to do this to the outside of the feet. I did, as you can see, and it does, again, provide a neater, cleaner look.
8. Time to decorate the head!! Now, you need to add eyes to the head. I just took out the smallest portion of white frosting before I tinted it green, and tinted it black instead. Pipe two eyes with a round piping tip onto the face, or alternately, use a toothpick, dip the end into the black frosting, and then make two little dots on the face to make the eyes. Again, refer to the image of the completed cake at the top of the page to see what I mean if you don’t understand. I actually just used my dark green frosting for the eyes, which you can do, too. At this time, you can create a miniature now to add to the head of you wanted to. If you do, just place it on top of the head. It’s an awesome touch to an already amazing looking cake!
9. To the back of the cake, at where it would be the turtle’s rare-end, I piped a small little tail with the regular green frosting. Though you can’t see it in the picture, this step is pretty straight forward– it’s just adding a tail, because if you notice, most turtles have one.
10. Congratulations!!! You have finished the turtle cake!! I’m congratulating myself as well, because these instructions were actually hard to type. Putting my actions into words aren’t always easy, but hopefully I managed to make it easy for you.
So hopefully you were able to follow along and you enjoyed these step by step instructions. And don’t forget to let me know what you think about this whole “blogging thing”. I’m also actually thinking of creating a photo gallery for you guys to look at, because a lot of the time, I make themed cakes like this one and don’t post about it since this tutorial thing is all new. You’d be able to see what I make and for me, hopefully more people will just enjoy what I make and ask for more.
The measurements aren’t exact or anything, but I didn’t really use exact measurements for this. This is just to teach you how to decorate the cake, which has nothing to do about the ingredients for the actual bread part of the cake itself, so it doesn’t matter as much I guess, but let me know if it will be helpful to have the measurements and next time I will put them too.
After all of this writing, I just have one thing left to say, which is just to enjoy your cake and be proud of what you made!!
acheflife.wordpress.com 