Welcome to how to cook that I'm Ann Reardon and today we're making Surly the
Squirrel thanks to Nut Job 2 Nutty by Nature for sponsoring this video we were
in the middle of school holidays here and I just had a few weeks off myself I
didn't have filming or anything for a few weeks which is the first time in six
and a half years which is a bit crazy! we've done lots of fun stuff including
taking Jedd to the zoo and I took him to see Nut Job 2 which was lots of fun.
Cute little guy. Boop! Don't call me cute! Got it.
To make Surly the squirrel, first we need to make some peanut butter cake and for that you need margarine sugar sour cream eggs baking
powder flour vanilla milk brown sugar peanut butter and oil. Add the baking
powder in with the flour and whisk those together until they're well combined
there are no lumps and the flour is aerated then add the sour cream to the
milk and whisk those together too. Now if you're new around here all the recipe
quantities for this are on the howtocookthat.net website and it's there
for you in grams and ounces and cups and there's a link to that below in the
description. Add the white sugar and the brown sugar into the bowl with the
butter and then whisk them together until the mixture changes from looking a
bit like wet sand to looking pale and fluffy like this. Add in the peanut
butter the oil vanilla and the eggs and mix that on high speed until it's smooth
that's looking yummy already. Now all we need to do is add in the flour and the
milk and you can add that in in batches a third at a time but don't be too slow
about it because you don't want to over mix it once you've added the flour. Split
that mixture evenly between two lined baking trays and spread it out all the
way to the edges then bake those in the oven for around 25 minutes. Then we also
need to bake two trays of my rich chocolate cake and the recipe and the
video explaining how to make that is on the website too. Once your cakes are baked
and cooled we need to make some frosting ... I'm gonna use some peanut butter
frosting and some vanilla buttercream. Making the frosting is easy just put
all the ingredients in the bowl and mix it for a few minutes together until it's
light and fluffy. Print and cut out your template so that you know the size of
everything and how big your layers of cake need to be and this template is on
the how to cook that website too for you. Cut around each of the cake layer
templates just using a serrated knife and once you've cut those all out it's
time to stack the cake. Put a little frosting onto the cake board to stop it
slipping and then put layer one into place on the board. Brush that cake with
some simple syrup this just keeps the cake moist and how to make it as just
equal parts of sugar and water just heat it up in the microwave until the sugar
is dissolved. Spread on the first layer of frosting and if you like you can even
sprinkle on some nuts to make it even more nutty. Add layer two I'm using
peanut butter cake for the second layer and then add some simple syrup and then
some peanut butter frosting and of course some nuts. And after you've done
that with layer three look at where your cake board will sit and mark out one, two,
three, four spots for supports. Poke one cake pop stick into the cake and then
mark where the cake comes up to and pull it out again. Cut the stick at that level
and then cut three more so that you have four sticks exactly the same length. Poke
each of those into the cake in the spot that you marked and then add the cake
board on top and now see when I push down the weight of the layers on top of
this won't be able to squash the cake at the bottom so it will keep its shape. Now
stack up layers four through to eight on top of that. Look at that beautiful stack
of cake. Put this side template in front of it and make sure that this tallest
bit for his nose is in line with the top layer of cake. So layer cake needs to be
over one side slightly so that it's in the
place. Now using a serrated knife cut along the edge of the template to get
the right shape and remember to cut out the mouth section too. Now turn your cake
90 degrees so you're looking at the top of the head and cut around the top shape
template. Say hi to Jeddy there, he's just checking in on the cake progress 💕.
Alright so now we have the mouth here the nose here and now we need to carve this top
shape out of the cake. So put this template over the top and carve off just
tiny bits to form the shape of his face. Now you need to carve the top of his
nose a little bit skinnier just like you can see in the picture and make his
mouth come up a little bit on the edges too to make him smile. Cover the whole
outside of your cake in buttercream and then roll out a nice big piece of purple
fondant and then carefully lift it up on your arms and place it over the top of
the head. Now the chin is going to be white so I'm more focusing on the top
and the sides of the head and not worrying about the bit that's right in
front of me. Lift and lower that fondant to get rid of any ruffles and then use
the palms of your hands just to press it into the shape of the cake. Now I know
this cake looks really tall and that's because the squirrel's ears sit so far
back on their head ... you kind of need it to be tall to get everything in the
right place. Use your thumbs to gently mark where that mouth is and then take
some scissors and cut off the extra fondant that's under the chin because
we're going to cover that area in white in a minute.
It looks a bit like a purple dinosaur (Barney) at the moment. Trim off all around the base
leaving a little more than you think you need and then you can just tuck that
under so that it looks nice and neat. Now cut a slit where the mouth is and push
that fondant down flat. While the fondant is still soft take a skewer or a
toothpick and make lines in the direction that his fur goes ... down his
nose and around his cheeks ... just little limes there
to give it a bit of texture. Fold a piece of black fondant in half and add it into
the slot for his mouth and then open it up again. Now I sprayed my black fondant
with vegetable cooking oil before folding it and that's what stopped it
from sticking together if you don't spray it you're not gonna be able to
open it up again. Cut along the top edge of where the mouth is so that you have
black just inside the mouth. Now cut some fondant in the shape of your
teeth I'm making them a bit longer so that I can poke them into the gum and
I'll add the exact shape that I made them to the template for you. And you
want to leave those teeth to one side to dry out a bit. Using the template cut out
the white section of his face but instead of cutting around the base of it
let it go down so you've got a strip for his neck. Mark where the top of his nose
sits and dampen that area with a little bit of water and then add the piece of
white fondant over the top and down the front of the cake. Now straight away
while that white fondant is still soft use your skewer to drag down the edge of
the fondant so that it isn't a flat sort of hard line going from white to purple
but instead it looks a bit more like a different colored fur blending in. And do
some more lines all the way under the chin and in the direction of the fur on
all the white areas. Put some water along the lower lip there and then add a strip
of deep pink along that lip line just for his bottom lip. Add your teeth into
place making sure you put the bottom teeth in before the top ones because the
top ones will sit in front of them. Cut the nose out of black fondant then
dampen the top of the nose area and add it into place. Once it's there just use
your fingers to push it to make sure it isn't stretched out of shape just make
it symmetrical and make sure it's sitting straight in the middle there. Cut
out the lighter eye area and gently press that on the side there just like
we did with the white piece you want to use a skewer again to give a fur texture
all the way around the eye and sort of make that
blend in a bit there. Add the white of the eye and then because he is a cartoon
character roll a thin snake of black and wrap it around the eye. Brush on a tiny
bit of water and then put a thin snake of pink ... I'm not sure why but that just
sits around the top of his eye ... I can see that in the pictures so that's what
we're doing. Roll out some light brown and cut out
two circles for the colored part of the eye and then make a mini ball of black
and squash it right in the center of the eye for the pupil. Then using some dark
brown food coloring paint some on one side going from the center of the eye to
the edge. Then use some water on your brush to water it down and keep going
around the eye until you've covered about three-quarters of it. I was
teaching Matthew how to draw eyes this week and one of the things that if you
don't get it right the eye won't look good is that you have to have exact
circles ... so if you haven't got that black pupil exactly right if it's not right in
the center or if it's not a circle it's not going to look right ... so just do it
again before you start painting it and get the
shape right first. Once you get to the last quarter of the eye just do the edge
and not the center so you've got a bit of a lighter highlight in the eye there.
And now add an even tinier ball of white for the reflection in his eye
because if you look at someone's eyeball if there's a light on in the room you'll
see that reflecting. Cut a little bit off the bottom edge and then add that into place.
Just a loveable little dolly ... okay that's a little creepy!
Roll over some pointy snakes and attach a few of them onto the cheeks just so
that you've got a few hairs that are sort of sticking out and then that gives
your eye just sort of the perception that the whole thing is that sort of
texture. Mix some black fondant with a little bit of water to make a paste and
then use that to add some black eyebrows. If you also roll some little pointy
snakes of black and purple and just curve some of them, leave some of them
straight and leave them to dry at this point we can add them in later to make
it look a bit more 3d but having this black underneath will make it look a bit
fuller. Use some purple food-grade dusting powder to shade the top part of
the eye area and you can also use some grey to define the chin and neck area a
little bit too if you want to. And use a little bit of grey on the nose just to
highlight it on one side careful that you don't make him sneeze and add a line
of white food colouring to his lip for the highlight and then just put some
clean water on your brush and brush it across the white line just to soften it
and do it in the direction that the lines on your lips go. Poke a hole into
the top of the head and add some of the dried pointy snakes of fondant ... they dry
out really quickly because they're so little. Okay on to the ears ... this is a bit
I've been dreading! "Don't tell me you're scared?!"
Cut them out of purple fondant and then
you want to cut a smaller version of the same shape out of pink and add it on top.
Use your knife to roughen the edges so it looks like fur and then add the ears
using a little bit of water and then to keep them in the shape you want them put
some baking paper underneath and some foil scrunched up to hold them where you
want them. Poke some more holes around the eyebrows and add your black pointy
snakes ... now see how that black underneath makes it look more full and the ones
we're adding now make it look more 3D. A few hours later you can remove the
supports from under the ears and Surly the squirrel is ready! YAY
And now ... it's time to cut the cake!
Lots of people ask me how to cut cakes that have
support boards in them. All you need to do is cut down until you feel the board
and then stop and then cut down again and then just put your knife in just
above the board and take your piece of yummy chocolate peanut butter cake out.
So you'd cut all of that top layer down to the board then remove the board and
your cake pop supports and slice the bottom half of your cake. Thanks again to
Nut Job 2 Nutty by Nature for sponsoring this video ... click here for the
trailer, here for more 3D cakes, here for my chocolate creations and here to go to
my channel. Make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday 💕