The Fresh Loaf

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Kitten Cake

dstroy's picture
dstroy

Kitten Cake

Not a bread post - but I'm going to post my girl's birthday cake here anyway, cause you know...I do it every year.

This year my daughter requested "kittens playing with yarn" on her cake. She's fond of marzipan so I decided to do some sculpting with the sweet almond paste as a cake topper.

The cake was chocolate, with the cream cheese and whipped cream frosting that I discovered when making that delicious Guiness cake I last posted about here, with a little dye to make it pink and turn it into "string"

 

Comments

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Sonia's cake is so cute, Dorota! (As is Sonia.) 

Did the kids want to eat the kittens? (Little boys would, but I dunno about 4 year old girls.)

David

dstroy's picture
dstroy

Oh, they all wanted some kitty :) We ended up slicing one to share small pieces of it for all the girls, because really - that's a lot of sugar!

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Your kittens are darling, that tiny mouse especially so.  Gads, you must have very nimble fingers.

Both cake and Sonia are adorable.  Pretty cool crowns, too.

Did you get her a new kitten?

dstroy's picture
dstroy

haha - we have an old grumpy cat and a stray who adopted us already (you know that song "the cat came back"? Well, I think it was about our cat!) so no room for a kitten, though I know Floyd wants one soon.

The girls had a very girly dress-up tea party with real "fancy" teacups (purchased at a local thrift shop so it would be no big deal if one broke, though they all were very careful and part of the fun was picking out which cup to use) and they decorated their own crowns (our son was the "mad hatter" ).

raidar's picture
raidar

I think sometimes it would be fantastic for everyone to dress up and eat cake. Young or old, I think we forget about fun it can be. Love the cake.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Come to Austria!   

The kittens also look like they want to pounce onto the candles!  Good Theme!  Your daughter is a good motivator.

Mini

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

What a precious cake!  And sweet picture of Sonia blowing out her candles!  Thank you for sharing!

Sylvia

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Nothing more fun than a little girls party. You are a creative gal dstroy.

Eric

Marni's picture
Marni

The girls look like they had a great time! That cake is darling-

Marni

ques2008's picture
ques2008

What a unique cake!  A lot of effort went into it.  How long did it take you to dress it up?  And the kiddies I'm sure were excited about donning their gear.  Lovely gathering!

dstroy's picture
dstroy

Honestly, it was much like playing with playdough once I got the marzipan softened. I think it took a couple hours to do all the sculpting and the piping, made the kittens and accessories the night before and then put together the cake layers and icing in the morning, but I only do this kind of stuff for the kids birthdays and dont do it by any means professionally.

If anyone wants to do marzipan stuff, I recommend getting some of the "potato" marzipan balls and mashing them up instead of getting the giant brick of clear marzipan - the potatos are a teeny bit softer, and they taste better. They come out a bit darker than the straight up brick/tube stuff too.

Kroha's picture
Kroha

And I was also wondering if you would mind sharing the icing recipe.  It looks like it got piped very nicely.  I will be making a birthday cake this week and have a few icing recipes, but would absolutely love to have one that is tried and true.  Thank you! 

Kroha

Floydm's picture
Floydm

The icing is the same as that she mentioned in the Guinness Cholocate Cake post linked to above:

Take 8 oz cream cheese and 1 cup confectioners' powdered sugar in a mixing bowl, and whip with an electric beater until smooth.
Then add about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and beat again until you have a spreadable consistency.

I can't vouch for how easy it is to handle, but I can say that it is delicious!

dstroy's picture
dstroy

It's a bit "fluffy" so my string ended up looking a teeny bit blobby compared to a more stiff  buttercream, but the taste difference made it worth it to have something creamy like that.

diverpro94's picture
diverpro94

Haha. That's sweet! Have you ever seen kitty litter cake?

dstroy's picture
dstroy

yes, but that would hardly fit the tea party theme :P maybe a Halloween thing..ick!

althetrainer's picture
althetrainer

That's one cute cake!  Good job on the marzipan kittens.  The girls seemed so happy.  This gives me an idea on what to make for our son's 8th birthday next month!  Thanks!  Al

dstroy's picture
dstroy

Oh? What are you planning? Our son turns 8 at the end of February too :)

Last year, he was way into the Spy vs. Spy books and wanted that for his cake. This was what I did for him then:

 

Based on this image.  Note that the wick of the bomb was a candle. :D

althetrainer's picture
althetrainer

I love the spy vs. spy cake.  I didn't make my son's birthday cake last year because we had his birthday party at a facility where they provided the cake and other junk food.  We want to just rent a room in our community center for his next birthday so will be making his birthday cake at home.

He's been a dinosaur buff since the age of 3.  I have always wanted to make a dinsoaur cake for him.  The cake I was going to make requires cutting the cake into small pieces and put them back together to shape it like a dinosaur before frosting it.  The picture didn't even look very good. 

After seeing your kittens I believe I can use marzipan to make small dinosaurs (so I hope) and frost the cake into a prehistoric jungle.  Not sure how well it will turn out but I am sure he will appreciate my efforts!  LOL

Al

dstroy's picture
dstroy

oh oh! If you do that, I have to recommend that you find a local cake decorating shop and look for the edible cake rocks/pebbles! We went to a party a few months ago and the cake had these chocolate rocks and our boy has not yet decided what theme he's going to want this year, but he knows he wants some of those on there! :D

althetrainer's picture
althetrainer

Those rocks look beautiful and realistic! But rocks in the dinosaur time were very different than what we have today. They were more like lava rocks - from volcanoes - black and clumpy. I want to use something called Clodhoppers: http://www.dylanscandybar.com/resources/dylans/images/products/processed/301-Clodhoppers-Dark-Ch.a.zoom.jpg these should work perfectly for the pre-historic scene. Here's a recipe to make edible rocks just in case the Clodhoppers are not big enough:

http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/documents/1379_01.pdf

I am more concerned if I can make realistic vegetation. Ferns are very difficult to make so I may try making tall trees instead of shrubs. In that case, marzapin will come very handy. Al