Welcome to How To Cook That I am Ann Reardon And today we are making the craziest cakes
you've ever seen.
When they spin they appear like things on it are actually animated and moving.
I've done one space invaders themed cake - this was the first computer game I ever played.
And one brightly coloured disco cake covered in moving candy.
To make you're very own you'll need
two cakes.
I'll put all the recipe info on the howtocookthat.net website and there's is a link in the description
below.
I am using my fluffy sponge cake recipe baked in two 22cm tins and white chocolate ganache
frosting.
Once the cakes are cooled cut each one into two layers.
Grab a cake board and make a hole in the centre you'll need this later so make sure you do
that.
Add a small amount of white chocolate ganache this stops the cakes from slipping.
And add your first layer of cake.
Pipe a circle of ganache around the edge of the cake and this is making a border so it
keeps everything else in the middle of the cake cake.
Zigzag some whipped cream across the middle, just like you're colouring it in.
Then add a generous amount of fresh berries all over the top.
Place the next layer of cake on top of that and then repeat that with the remaining layers.
Place the rest of your ganache into a piping bag fitted with a large flat nozzle and pipe
it around the cake to cover the whole thing.
Then use your spatula to smooth off the excess and then place the cake into the fridge.
While that is chilling we'll make the topper.
Spread out some tempered chocolate or you could use compound chocolate here.
Make it so it's a little bigger than your circle.
Then shake the edge of the baking paper up and down to smooth off the top and get rid
of any air bubbles.
Once it is starting to set add in two cake pop sticks, pushing them down, but don't push
them all the way to the bottom because we don't want to see them.
Then spread more chocolate over the top to hide them.
Slide the whole thing onto a cutting board and gently tap it on the bench to smooth out
the tops again.
Once it is nearly firm place a small bowl on top and trace around it using a knife.
Then remove all the excess chocolate from around the edge.
For our alien invader, place some compound white chocolate into a bag and pipe around
the design onto some baking paper.
Try and make the edges as straight as you can so they look like pixels.
But don't worry if it is not perfect, once it is setting you can use a knife just to
neaten them up and cut across them if you've gone a little over.
Once it is set add some more chocolate to the back and stick it to the circle making
sure it is straight.
If you have any little air bubbles like I do just add some more chocolate and immediately
smooth off with a knife to make it all look neat.
Flip it over and add the other one making sure you position those top pixels at the
same height.
So as it spins it will look like he is changing positions with his little arms going up and
down.
Once the cake has been chilled check that your sides are straight.
And because this cake will be spinning it needs to be right or you are going to see
it if it is not straight.
If it is not quite right just add more ganache fix it up and put it back in the fridge to
firm up.
Place some black fondant over the top of the cake.
Then use scissors to cut off the overhang so it is not getting weighed down, it's not
pulling it down.
Then you want to cut off right up to the edge of the cake so you are left with a neat circle
like a disc sitting on top of the cake.
Now take your edible icing sheet, this is really thin icing that has been printed with
food colouring, And slide it along the edge of the counter to loosen it from the backing
and then very gently start to peel it off.
Use scissors to trim the excess white, then carefully peel off the rest of the plastic.
Now I'll put this printout design on the howtocookthat.net website, most cake decorating stores can print
your designs for you if not there are places online that will print it on edible icing.
Lining it up with the top of the cake and add it to the side and gently press it on.
Line up the next icing sheet and overlap it slightly.
Now if you very slightly dampen it, it will stick to itself.
But you don't want to make it too wet.
Then add a strip of black fondant all the way round the base of the cake.
Carefully lift the cake and place it onto the record player, now this is why you needed
the hole in the middle of the cake board so that it can sit over the centre there.
To make your core cannon or the little ship that shoots down the bottom roll out some
green fondant and cut around it.
Take out the little corners and use your knife the straighten up the edges.
Now cut a rectangle of black fondant and add it to the base This is just going to lift
it a bit higher.
Then place that just in front of the cake.
Find the centre of the top of the cake You should definitely use a ruler to get this
right spot.
Then push the alien lollipop down into the top.
Now you have a geeky looking space invaders cake and everyone will wonder why it's on
a record player.
Turn it on and you'll see the top alien animate but the other aliens are just a blur.
This is where the magic happens.
Look at the cake with a camera and turn the shutter speed up to 1/500th of a second or
faster.
And all of a sudden the blur turns into animated little aliens going across your cake.
So cool.
This works a bit like a zoetrope but we are using the speed of the record player, the
exact spacing of the aliens and the shutter speed on the camera to get this effect.
This is a cake a true geek they will love.
If you like the effect but want something other than space invaders cover the cake in
some bright fondant and add decorations.
As I was saying before the spacing is really important.
Now I've made up some templates or spacing guides for you just print them out wrap them
around the cake and use that to space your decorations in the right places.
Then take the paper off.
Turn the record player on and the decorations will dance around the cake.
Different spacing will make it appear like they are going forwards or backwards around
the cake.
But as long as you keep them evenly spaced you can play around with turning them as they
go around the cake, pushing them into the cake like these yellow ones - just make sure
they complete their movement in one turn of the cake.
These cake are so much fun and then of course they taste amazing too with fresh berries,
cream and white chocolate ganache.
Subscribe to How To Cook That for more crazy sweet creations
Click here for the recipe and the printouts,
here to see all my other cake videos,
here for last weeks raspberry inside dessert
and here for my youtube channel.
Have a great week and I'll see you all on Friday.