Welcome to How To Cook That, I'm Ann Reardon and today we are making a dog cake, this one
is inspired by Max from the Secret Life of Pets, but you can customize it to make it
look more like your own dog if you like.
The first thing we need is some yummy strawberry ganache frosting. To make that, hull your
strawberries and wash them really well. I like to make the frosting and the cakes they
day before I am decorating the cake.
Place the strawberries in a blender and puree them, I'll put all the recipe quantities on
the howtocookthat.net website for you and I'll link to that below.
Pour the puree into a fine sieve and push it through using the back of your spoon, now
this will take about 5 minutes so be patient. Keep going until you have just the seeds left
and that lovely juice is in the bowl.
Now we are going to mix HALF of that strawberry juice with some melted white chocolate. I
am making more than you need for this cake so I can use it for another recipe. I'll decrease
the quantity online to just the amount that you'll require. Once that is combined place
it in the fridge to thicken up.
Put the other half of your juice in a pan with some sugar and you want to heat it until
the sugar is dissolved so what we are making here is like a really thin jam that we can
use on the layers of the cake just to give it a bit more of a strawberry flavour.
Bake one and a half times my chocolate cake recipe in two trays. And the recipe video
for how to make this cake and the dog template are all on the website for you.
Now because this cake is tall and skinny it is going to need support or it will just topple
over. I'm using a cake spike down the middle and we'll use two small cake boards about
half way and 3/4 of the way up and some cake pop sticks too.
Now on day two ... trim the top of your cakes to level them out. And then place your template
piece over the top and cut out the circles. Use a spatula to just to ease it off the paper
so that you can lift it off. Now continue to cut out more circles from
your first tray of cake. Then repeat that with your second tray, cutting
out the ones that you have left.
Place your cake on some baking paper. Usually we'd stack it straight on the cake board but
because the spike is not centered in the cake. If we do it over here we can shift the first
layers around until they're just right and then pick it up and put them over on the spike.
Add some of your thin fresh strawberry jam followed by some strawberry ganache. And I've
warmed this a little just to make it easier to get a thin layer between the layers of
cake. Continue to stack up your first 4 layers.
And that takes us to where the first cake board needs to be, you can see on the template
just there.
You can see the cake is not straight and that's how it needs to be, it needs to be a bit further
forward at the front.
And the cake spike is also not central on the cake so line the cake up with the spike
and place it over the top.
Check that the cake is sticking out at the back and going in at the front.
Once you've got that right. Push a cake pop stick down to the base, and take note of where
it comes to. Pull it out again and cut it and another stick to the same height - we
need those to support it at the front because the dog is coming forward at the front because
of his head.
Add the mini cake board on top, and the cake pop sticks are just stopping it going down
too far, cover it in ganache then check where your next layer sits and place it on top.
Add more jam and continue to stack up three more layers. Now again to support his head
we need to add two more cake pop sticks just going down to where the previous cake board
is. Then add the next little board on top.
Cover that in ganache, add the next layer of cake on that. Then if you look at the template
you can see the last layer sits towards the back for the top of his head there, so just
pop that into place.
That looks like a leaning tower of cake, now if we didn't have the supports in here it
would not stand up like this, it would just topple over. Good doggie!
Place your template in front of the cake and cut away the pieces of cake that you can see.
Once you've cut those out, now it looks dog shaped already.
Turn it to the back and put the back template over the top and trim off the sides. Now MAX
is quite a skinny dog, if you have a broader breed of dog then you don't need to trim the
sides like this.
From those two cuts you end up with the right shape but the corners are still a little bit
box like. Just take your knife and trim off a tiny slice so that it becomes rounded.
Now we want to cover the whole thing in ganache, and again I have warmed it up a little to
make it runnier. With a fresh carved cake like this it is quite crumbly which means
it is yummy and moist but it also makes it a little hard to cover. So by warming the
ganache that just makes it easy.
Once it is covered take some acetate or bendy plastic and run it up the sides to smooth
out the ganache. Then put it that in the fridge for about and hour for the ganache to set
firmly.
Now at this point you need to decide if you want to make a dog or a dinosaur. What's your
favourite pet? Do you prefer dogs /cakes or would you like a dinosaur? Let me know in
the comments below.
To make a dog, wrap some white fondant around the front of the cake and then at the back
just squeeze it together to make a join. Cut off the bulk of the excess so that the weight
doesn't drag it down then continue to smooth it and shape it and once you're happy trim
off the rest of the fondant closer to the back. Now we have the join at the back because
he has a spot here that will cover it, so we won't see it anyway.
Trim the excess from around the base using a knife and just tuck it in underneath. Now
take some more fondant and drape it over his head. Squeeze it up and the back to give him
a mohawk, now he does look like a dinosaur. Trim that off roughly, then smooth and shape
the fondant around his face, Now if you don't want to use fondant you could
watch the teddy bear cake video for how to pipe fur on a cake using buttercream and that
would work really well for this dog too.
Trim it off more neatly and then using a knife cut it at neck at level where the other fondant
came to. And we'll cover this with his collar in a little while so don't worry about making
it perfectly neat.
Roll a ball of white to the size of his hind leg, flatten it using the palm of your hand.
Now, using a knife trim it off on an angle so we can join it to the cake. Make a cut
at the lower front and then use your fingers to smooth and shape it so that you make a
little leg and the cute little foot.
Rub a little water on the side of his body to make it stick and add the leg into place.
Now at this point I realize there is a problem ... he should be facing the other way on the
cake board so that there is room behind him for his tail. So when you make your cake make
sure he is facing the other direction.
I am going to take the very risky move of moving him which means his central support
is no longer going to be connected to the cake board. I'm a little worries, he might
fall over and collapse altogether ... OK so he seems to have survived but I might have
mishappened him a little bit in the move but hopefully we will survive. Add his other leg
and then add some fondant around the base. Speaking of moving our house is currently
for sale so after making this cake I have to completely clean the kitchen and get it
ready for a home open tomorrow which is probably why I'm not thinking clearly. Use your knife
just to trim off the fondant around the board so it looks like the mat that he sits on when
he's sitting at the door waiting for his owner to come home.
We are moving to Melbourne at the end of this year which is very exciting for us. (Just
run your knife along the mat there to give it more of a fabric texture so it looks like
a mat). Now before we leave Sydney I thought it would
be nice to catch up. So Dave & I will be at Berkelouw Books in Cronulla on Saturday Oct
22. And you can get The Deep Enders book there or if you've already got it, bring it along
and we'll sign it for you and I might even make some macarons and bring those too. I'll
put all the details of times and everything below.
Now to make Max's front legs roll a snake of fondant and make it narrower at the ankle.
And then curl around some to make his foot or you could just roll a ball and add it on
top. Trim it off at the right height and place
it on the front of the cake.
Using a knife add indents into the paws for his toes.
Cut patches in the sizes shown on your print out and add them into place on the cake, now
if you dampen the back of the patch it will just stick right on. Don't make it too wet
or you're going to get drips of that different colour going down on your white.
Now the biggest patch on Max is around his back so add that piece on and wrap it around
like a cape.
He has another patch on his shoulder and a big one across one half of his face that makes
him super-cute!
For his eyes roll two balls of white and squash them to make them the shape of the template.
If you rub a tiny bit of cooking oil on your fingers it will stop it from sticking to the
fondant. Now roll two balls of brown and flatten them
in the same way and shape then just right and then add them to the eye. Repeat that
with tiny balls of black. Dogs don't really have eyes that look like this, they have hardly
any white visible - but this style makes it look more human like so we can relate to them
in the movie.
Then add a really tiny ball of white on one side of the pupil to make it look alive.
Add those into place quite close to the line of the patch in the centre of his face.
And then add an eyebrow, now you can cut those out using the guide on the template. The other
eyebrow needs to be a darker brown so that it shows up on his patch. Eyebrows are very
important for expression so choose the expression you want the dog to have and position your
brows accordingly.
Add a little bit of water around the eye and then roll a tiny snake of black, just use
your fingers and roll it and get it even and really skinny. And then carefully wrap that
around his eye. This give us that typical cartoony look and it also helps the white
eye stand out against the dog's fur. You don't need it as much on the other one but we'll
add it to even it up.
Now to cover the join on his neck, wrap a strip of blue around for his collar.
Take a rectangle of black and cut out a littl echunk from each side. Then place that over
the bone template and squash it to make it the right shape. Then indent each side to
make it like the bone. You can add MAX onto this or the name of your dog if you want or
just leave it plain. Brush that with gold luster dust then add
it into place on his chest, just below the collar. Add a snake of black running up from
the bone and over the collar. Use your knife to poke it around the collar and trim it off
to just the right length.
Then using some luster dust mixed with lemon juice or a little bit of alcohol just paint
the black bit so that it becomes gold and it matches his little bone.
Roll another snake and bend it around, sort of squaristh, then trim off one end. Add this
around the collar on one side and then paint that gold too. Now these little details make
the difference between the cake looking okay and it looking really good.
Poke a hole in the centre and add a short bit of fondant. Use your skewer to position
it correctly and then paint it gold.
Cut a thin strip of blue and wrap it around his collar closer so that's the bit that holds
it in place. Trim that off with your knife. Then poke a couple of holes through the collar.
For his tail roll together some brown and some white so that they join together, it
doesn't really matter what that join looks like. Place it over the template and shape
to make the tip of his tail. Trim that to size and then add some indents
running down to make it look like scruffy fur.
Add his tail into place at the back of the cake, position it how you want it.
And now for his ears. Add some tylose powder to some brown fondant. Now the tylose just
makes the fondant set quickly because you want his ears to sit up.
Roll a reasonably thick layer and cut around the template for his ears. Use your finger
to smooth down the edges especially on the bottom side where it joins the head as a spot,
really flatten out those ones.
Now you can see one splotch comes down lower than the other, so make sure you get them
on the right side.
Add a little water to the back of his head and add one ear into place. And allow the
front of the ear to flop over. I am going to use some paper towel rolled up to support
it in position. Add the other ear and position them how you
want them to sit. Now because it has the tylose in it, that will set in about 2 hours and
you will be able to take that paper towel out.
Add a few indents on the edges of his ears and some lines going down so they look like
they've got fur on them.
And then do the same on his tummy just to give it a light fur texture and you can do
that all the way around until you're happy with it.
Now for his nose, take some black fondant that has been left on the counter for about
20 minutes and roll it into an oval, flatten that to the size of his nose.
Then add the two indents for his nostrils.
Now because we left the fondant out to dry out a bit before we rolled it you get this
rough crackled texture on top - a bit like a dog's nose looks like.
Using a little water add that into place, and now he looks cute. Use your template as
a guide for where his mouth should go - and again there are so many expressions of Max
in the Secret Life of Pets so just look at different pictures and change it up depending
on what you want.
Roll a ball of green and put it to one side.
Carefully remove those ear supports and your Max cake is ready for a party.
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This cake was requested by tom, maya, adriano, time to doodle time
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Put all your requests in the comments below make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday!
(wait for it...)