Zacher recently celebrated his fifth birthday and I had the honor of making his cake. Lacy makes amazing cakes. In fact last year she made an adorable Curious George; but this year I was so happy that she asked me! He wanted something involving Scooby Doo and the vision I immediately came up with was Scooby looking at a traditional birthday cake. For the round cake I used this strawberry cake recipe with cream cheese icing and fondant decorations. After reading rave reviews of the recipe on several blogs, I hate to admit that I wasn't terribly impressed and wouldn't make it again. I found the texture a bit dry and the flavor unremarkable.For the Scooby cake the first thing I did was model the basic shape of his head and neck out of Rice Krispie treats. I saw this technique on Cake Boss and figured if the pros are doing it that it might work for me. It took 2 batches of the standard Rice Krispie treat recipe. I used a tablespoon less butter than the recipe called for and added several additional cups of cereal to make a firm modeling material. I crushed up the cereal a bit as I added it to the melted marshmallows and butter and continue to crush the mixture as I mixed and modeled it in hopes of making the head as smooth as possible. Once I had the basic shape I wanted, I covered it in chocolate candy coating hoping that his would make the head more sturdy and stable. (I could invision the big nose starting to separate from the head.) I also shoved a dowel through the nose and one through the top of the head.
Rice Krispie head covered in chocolate:
For Scooby's body I baked my favorite chocolate cake (recipe at end of post) 3 times to make a total of 4 rectangular cakes and a couple of small square cakes. I stacked the 4 rectangles with a basic powdered sugar buttercream layered between and sculpted Scooby's body.
I frosted the body and head with chocolate butter cream before applying fondant. I used chocolate icing so that in case I had any tears in the fondant, they wouldn't be as noticeable with brown icing underneath.
At this point in the process my father-in-law came into the kitchen and I asked him to guess what shape of cake I was making to which he replied "hmmm...a turkey?". Kind of does look like one, don't ya think?
After all of this it was time for the real fun: covering him with fondant. I did his head separately and covered the seam between his head and neck with his collar. After I applied all of the fondant details and painted the eyes, nose, eyebrows and spots with diluted black gel food coloring, I thought I had achieved Scooby perfection...or at least as close as I was gonna get. When I woke the next morning (the day of the party), I was disappointed to see that Scooby's head had started to lean forward caused some cracking and sagging of the fondant underneath. He made the 2 hour drive to the party with a cup propped under his chin to support the weight of his head. Fortunately Zach didn't seem to notice or mind!
Birthday boy Zach with Mabry and Quin:
My Current Chocolate Cake
I have been using Rebecca Rather's Tuxedo Cake recipe for most chocolate cakes that I make because it is so easy, so good, and makes so much cake. The only modification I make is to add a bit more salt.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups sugar
1 cup [high quality] unsweetened cocoa powder (I just use Hershey's)
4 cups flour
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt (I use 1 tsp.)
1 tbsp. vanilla
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of three 9-inch or two 10-inch cake pans with parchment paper, grease with butter and dust with flour (or spray with Baker's Joy).
2. Combine butter, water, and canola oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together sugar, cocoa, and flour. When butter has melted, pour the butter mixture over the sugar mixture; whisk until smooth. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, then whisk in buttermilk. Whisk in baking soda, salt, and vanilla all at once. Transfer batter to prepared pans.
3. Stagger cake pans in the oven so that no layer is directly over another.
Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Layers may be done at different times; monitor carefully.
4. Remove cakes from oven, cool about 15 minutes before inverting on to baking racks. Cool the cakes completely, at least 2 hours, before frosting.
