Welcome to How To Cook That I'm Ann Reardon and today we're going look at
how to turn your BFF into a 3D Chibi cake. Now if you look at the human figure
you have your head and then your body is about four heads tall which is way too
skinny to make into a normal-sized cake. So what we're gonna do is take our
normal figure and then just shrink it down so that you notice the head is now
a lot wider and a bit more round like a baby shaped head and one head is the
height of the body rather than having four which is much better for a cake. I'm
gonna use Luna from Final Fantasy to show you how to make the chibi cake.
Final fantasy XV: A New Empire has sponsored this video and there's a link
in the description below where you can download the free mobile game so that
would be great if you could click on that and do that and I'll show you how
to play it after we've made the cake. So the first thing you'll need to do is
print and cut out all of your template pieces. If they're too big to fit on one
sheet they've got a little join here with crosses on there just join that
together and sticky tape it together and cut it out. Now I want you to find this
piece here this one is showing you how the supports need to go. Luna has a big
ponytail at the back of her head and there's no way a cake will be able to
hold that weight. The head is already quite heavy towards the back of the cake
and if we add the weight of the ponytail it's just going to fall off. So what we
need to do is create a strong support, so we use a normal upright that will go
straight down the middle and bolt into the cake board to hold up the head and
then we're going to need 2 cake boards in the middle we'll have one that sits
right here and another one that sits slightly to the side there to hold up
those layers of cake. Then the other thing we need is something here ... so the
way I'm going to do that is use a picture hook that fits quite tightly
over the top of my support rod and then grab a smaller support rod and add it to
the pole to support that ponytail there. Okay put your central support through
the bottom of the board and you'll notice I'm using a reasonably large wood
baseboard you will need that with all gravity-defying cakes like this to
stabilize it so that it doesn't tip. Then screw a hex nut screw down to the board
all the way down to the bottom and tighten that up so that that central
pole is secure and it's not going anywhere.
Use the template to cut out the body pieces out of cake and then all the
layers for the head and you'll find all the recipe details for the cake and the
frosting and everything else on the howtocookthat.net website and there's a
link to that below the video. Once you've cut them all out make up some vanilla
buttercream and add a little bit of that buttercream around the base to hold the
cake in place. Add your first layer of cake and continue to stack up your
body pieces and then check that they're the right height using the body template.
Now if you look at this next bit, you have a cake board support here and this
is the view from the front this is a view from the side ... if we put that there
we have this little bit underneath. If we make that out of cake it's just going to
fall off so what we're going to do is make that piece now on the bottom out of
fondant. Wet the board so the fondant sticks and
then use your hands to flatten it down towards the edges. Now if you look at the
template again you can see it's thinner at the back and a bit more bulky at the
front so make one side a little bit flatter just using the palm of your hand.
Then turn it and look at the front template and you can see it peaks in the
middle so just use the palms of your hands again to flatten it out either
side so that it's coming up in the middle. Then you can check your shape is
correct against the side template first and then against the front one and that
looks about right. Screw the nut down to the position of that board and add the
cake board over the top and then put another bolt on top just to make it
extra firm. I've covered the top of the wood in plastic and now I'm just going
to add a little bit of buttercream to make the cake stick and then make sure
you pay attention to where the layer is sitting it's not central to the support
pole more space to backwards. So place the
cake over the template line up where the central rod is and make a hole there so
you know where the cake sits then add that into place over the top so you've
got the bigger part at the back and the narrower parts are on the sides of the
cake. Repeat that with the next layer and then add another nut and the next
support board. Put another hex nut on top of that and tighten it up and then add
your next layer of cake. Now we want to add in an angled support so we can have
that rod to support the ponytail. Now if the person you're making doesn't have a
ponytail you can leave this part out altogether. Add your angled support in
and then add your next layer of cake just making a straight cut to make it
fit around that angled rod and then keep stacking your cake up to the top. Now
take your side template and line up the bottom line of it with the bottom cake
board and cut around the template, now all of the chibi characters have a very
similar baby face shape so you can use this template for whoever you're making
guy or girl are all very similar. Then turn the cake to the front add the front
template and trim off any little bits that are sticking out on this side. So
now we've cut around this way using the front template and we've cut this way
using the side one so that leaves the corners. They don't need much off them
just a little bit to round out the head. The other bit I need you to carve is
here this is where the eyes sit ... you've got your cheeks and the eyes and you
need to flatten out the area just above the eye only a little bit just take off
a tiny bit on each side and don't take it off in the centre where the nose is.
Do the same thing to shape your body just put the template into place and cut
around it, then you want to cover the whole cake in a layer of buttercream.
Once it's all covered use a strip of acetate to smooth the buttercream all
the way around the head. Take a hemisphere mold and fill it
with chocolate and then once those are set just push down on one side to get
that out then using some more chocolate that's starting to set join those two
hemispheres around the support rod and this is going to be that rounded bit of
the ponytail that's sticking out at the top. Next we need to make her Trident so
that has time to dry out. Put some non-stick baking paper over the top of
the template and add a thick snake of yellow fondant then cut it at the top to
match the shape on the template and squash the base slightly and cut that too.
Add two more snakes for the prongs of the trident on the sides and then cut a
ball the fondant in half and round it out again it tends to get a bit squashed
when you cut it and then add those on top. Now you'll notice this doesn't look
skinny like Luna's trident does in the game ... I've tried to make everything
chubby and cartoon like to match the figure. Add a diamond type shape to the
top too and then use some edible pink dust to shade one side and then you can
just leave that so the fondant can dry out and go hard. Now it's time to make
the little cute nose now you can see the shape of the cake that we cut out and we
need to make this nose shape out of fondant. Roll some fondant into a snake
and flatten one end where it's going to join onto the head and then you can just
cut that nose to the right length. Turn it over and using your fingers make it
into a ridge in the centre so that it comes up so if you're looking at it from
one end it should look like a triangle. Then add that into place on the cake.
Roll out a rectangle of fondant and spray it lightly with cooking oil I like
to do this because I find it just gives you a bit more time to smooth the
fondant onto the cake before it starts to dry out. Pick it up and carefully wrap
it around the front of the cake and use the palms of your hands to smooth it
around the face. Squeeze the excess together at the back and on top of the
head and keep smoothing it on to the face and around under the chin. Use
scissors or a knife to trim off any excess fondant. Cut around the ear
template and then use your knife to round it out so you don't have any sharp
cuts that you've done ... now some chibi characters have a bit
more of pointed ear shape it's up to you if you want it really pointy or if you
want it more round you can just adjust that how you like. Now it's time for the
big eyes ... cut out the white of the eye and then add a snake of black across the
top and trim it to the right length. If your character is a girl you're going to
want to add three spikes to the top for hair beautiful lashes. Roll the ball of
pale blue and squash it down until it matches the shape on the template. Using
some food coloring shade the top section of the eye then roll some really thin
snakes of black or you could use a fondant extruder if you've got one and
take one of those and wrap it around the eye so it's got like a black outline.
Take an oval of deeper blue and squash it down in the centre, now I want
mine to be a bit darker blue than that so just using gel food colour I'm going
to paint over that to deepen that color I'm also going to darken the shade at
the top of the eye too. Then lift that up and place it carefully onto the white of
the eye and then it's time to add that little black dot to the eye which is a
little reflection of light that makes it look alive.
You can add just one dot to each eye or you can add a second smaller dot too. Add
the eyes into place just next to the nose being careful not to bump the blue
that you just painted. Now some things are quite hard to do when you're filming
for me because I am filming it I have the camera between me and the cake I
can't quite look at the cake at the angle I want to look at it on and I
wrapping my hands around the camera so it's a bit tricky but I think we can do
it ... there that'll do, there you go. Onto the brows. Roll out a snake of yellow and
trim it to the size shown on the template and then flatten that down a
bit. This other black little bit here is the eye crease and you make that exactly
how we made the eyebrows. Add the eyebrows into place and the eye crease
just using a small amount of water to make them stick. At this stage it should
look like a giant baby doll like this :) Now put the mouth template where it
should go and then using something rounded like the back of a paintbrush
rub on the template and what that's going to do is it's going to make an
indent into the fondant in the shape of the mouth. Remove the paper template and
use it to cut out some deep pink fondant and add a strip of white across the top
and then place that back into the indent that you just made for the mouth ... awesome!
Now it's time for her clothes ... obviously what you do here depends on what the
person you're making usually wears. Luna's often depicted wearing a white
dress so that's what I'm putting on her today. Before I do the bottom of her
dress though I want to cover the cake board and for that I'm just gonna swirl
together some white and blue fondant don't mix it all the way together just
swirl some together roll it out so it's paper thin and then put it over the
board. The reason I made it super super thin is so we use as little as possible
because nobody is going to eat the fondant that's on the cake board. Now
roll a rectangle of white and drape it around the body letting it hang down
onto the board like it's an extra-long dress, then use the back of your
paintbrush again to add creases into the dress fabric so it looks like it's
swirling around. It's a really useful tool the back of a paintbrush, start
selling them just as 'Back of Paint Brushes'. Now to make marshmallow for
their hair I'm going to use glue syrup butter lemon juice sugar citric
acid water gelatin sheets and some more water.
Take the gelatin sheets and place them in one at a time into that water so that
they can soften and you just want to leave them to soak. To the glucose syrup
add the citric acid the water and the sugar and bring that to boil over a high
heat until it reaches 113 degrees centigrade. Now while you're waiting for
that to get up to temperature add the butter to the lemon juice and heat that
in the microwave until the butter is melted. With your mixers running on low
speed pour the hot sugar syrup in and then add the soaked gelatin sheets and
any water that was left in that bowl. Now those sheets should dissolve pretty
quickly into that hot liquid. Then turn your mixer on to high speed and once it
starts to increase in volume add some food coloring to make the hair the color
that you want. Then mix in the lemon juice and butter then continue to beat
that on high speed until the bowl no longer feels hot it should be very very
slightly warm not much at all and it should be really whipped right up. Place
that into a piping bag and pipe thick pieces for hair onto some non-stick
baking paper. Keep piping lots of strands make sure you pipe more than you think
you'll need ... you can always get someone to eat the leftovers but it's easier to
do it now than it is to make another batch. Luna has a braid in her hair so
I'm going to pipe 3 long pieces of marshmallow for that and then you can
take any leftover marshmallow mixture and spread that out onto the baking
paper in a flat sheet. Once that's set you can just use it to wrap it around
the head like a scarf so it gives the sort of base color for our hair so you
can't see any skin color under our strands of hair. Add another piece to
cover the chocolate so we can't see that either and then add the strands of
marshmallow hair that you made. To get the marshmallow to stick to itself I
melted the underside of the marshmallow
slightly on a hot pan and then put it where I wanted it and then while it was
setting you need to take any weight off it just by resting the hair up on top.
Once it set you can put that back down. The advantage of using marshmallow
instead of fondant for the hair apart from the fact that it tastes great is
you can make the hair really thick without using copious amounts of fondant.
You can also easily remelt some of the marshmallow and use that to pipe on
details and pattern onto the hair which is quite nice. To make the braid spray
the marshmallow first with cooking oil so it doesn't stick to itself and then
just braid away like you would with normal hair. Once you've got that long
enough add it over the top of Luna's head and her hairstyle is complete. To make
her arms roll a cylinder of fondant and flatten it at one end for her hand. Trim
it off to the right length for your fingers and split it deep for the thumb
and then shorter for the fingers ... now you can make her have five fingers if you
want or if you want it to be a bit more cartoony four fingers is the way to go.
Round out each of the fingers and then add that into place and brush some pink
petal dust onto her cheeks. I really like the way the marshmallow actually has
movement to it just like real hair would in the wind or in a breeze, it makes it
look really different to any other cake that I've seen before. I think it turned
out really well 💕 With thanks to Final Fantasy XV: A New
Empire for sponsoring this video. Click on the link in the description below to
download the free game on your mobile, there is so much you can do in this game
I'm just going to show you a few things to get you started. You can build up your
own empire and upgrade to buildings that's all pretty self-explanatory but
if you tap on the world map down in the bottom corner then when you're there you
can find caches that you can get resources from. You can also attack other
people's empires or you can attack monsters.
Just tap on a monster and choose attack once and your troops will march over
there do a little bit of damage and then they'll return. If you attack the same
monster repeatedly it gives you an attack bonus and if you keep attacking
it then hopefully you'll defeat it and then once the monster dies you can get
the stuff from the monster's lair that appears there and there's different
things you can get from there. You can also attack monsters in the proving
grounds to get resources and unlock treasures, you'll need to attack multiple
times just like we did on the world map and when you win you get to choose a
reward. To see what else there is to do click on more on the bottom corner ... for
example if you select your hero and then accessories you can embed gems to power
up your gear. This one increases the HP of all troops. Click on the link below to
download the game and start building your empire. Subscribe to How To Cook
That for more crazy sweet creations. Click here for more amazing cakes, here
for the latest video. Make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday 😊