Octopus cake

[sabotabby]

I made myself a birthday cake for tonight.














But does it taste good, you ask? I'll let you know! I suspect the octopus part does not, unless you are an 8-year-old child who enjoys sugar. But the insides should taste good.

Comments

[nostalgia]

it looks amazing!

[sabotabby]

I am proud of it.

[nostalgia]

you should be!

[minoanmiss]

... that's a sculptural cake that actually looks GOOD. WOW. please tell me all the deets!

[sabotabby]

Okay, so! The cake is basically this: Vegan Vanilla Birthday Cake with just the vanilla buttercream part. I mixed almond extract into both the cake batter and the buttercream because I thought it was a little bland last time I made it. I just dirty-iced the outside with buttercream.

Then I recently found out that fondant is vegan, to the extent that anything with processed sugar is vegan (i.e., it might be filtered through bone char but there's no way to know so we're not caring), so, the outside is rolled fondant. I covered the whole thing with a thin layer, then sculpted the octopus. I gave him a little gold eye with some gold sprinkles I had.

For the colour, I mixed powder food dye with vodka and used a paintbrush to paint it. The vodka should hopefully evaporate and just leave the colour. Or it will be a very alcoholic cake, haha.

Lots of steps but I went with an octopus because a) they are cool, and b) they are easy to sculpt.

[minoanmiss]

I think this is abetter use of fondant than anything I saw on Cake Boss.

Edible cephalopodic art! \o/

[sabotabby]

I don’t know why people don’t make things like this more often. But I guess it requires a lot of fondant, and no one wants to eat all that.

I learned from watching Nailed It.

[smilingslightly]

Happy Birthday!

That's an entirely impressive probably-not-reallly-a-space-alien cake. I like the just out of the ocean slickness of the tentacles arms!

[sabotabby]

It's less slick now because I was excited and took pictures of it before the colour dried. But it still looks rad.

[radiantfracture]

Fantastic!

Also, I am that eight-year-old. Five and a half of those eight-year-olds.

[joymoose]

Me tooooooo

Challenge accepted I will eat alll my fondant

[sabotabby]

You can have my fondant because I ate some to see if it tasted of the vodka I used to paint it, and I was like, nope, still don't like it. Even with vodka.

[sabotabby]

OMG. Okay, see recipe above if you want to try to make this nightmare.

[kore]

THAT IS A FUCKING AWESOME CAKE. It looks like a porcelain sculpture!

[sabotabby]

It looked less so when it dried, but yeah. Fondant tastes gross but dear Lord is it fun to work with.

[conuly]

One of my favorite fanfic writers has a thing about tentacles. Also, she's sick right now. Do you mind if I link this to her?

[sabotabby]

Go for it! I hope she’s feeling better soon.

[conuly]

Thanks :)

(And yeah, me too.)

[ironed_orchid]

I LOVE IT!

Your cake decorating skills are going from really fucking good to incredibly amazing.

[sabotabby]

Weirdly, I’ve been learning from watching Nailed It.

[ironed_orchid]

I wondered about that ;-)

It's national volunteer week so I just made a lemon cake and am about to make butter cream

[sabotabby]

It's a very funny show but also, like. In general, I don't learn well from watching videos; most of my baking leaps and bounds have come from people showing me how to do things or reading or trial and error. But for whatever reason, this show has made a massive difference in how I bake. Most important lessons:

1. If you bake three flatter cakes rather than one big one, it will bake faster and be more structurally sound.

2. How to buttercream properly.

3. How to fondant correctly.

4. The role of a freezer in structural integrity.

5. Vodka can be used with food colouring.

[conuly]

1. If you bake three flatter cakes rather than one big one, it will bake faster and be more structurally sound.

Plus, you can improve your frosting/cake ratio.

[sabotabby]

Yes! It's an all-round win.

[umadoshi]

WOW. That looks fantastic!

[sabotabby]

It’s my best one yet!

[smhwpf]

That is magnificent.

[sabotabby]

Revel in its cephalopod glory!

[firecat]

This is the greatest thing ever.

[sabotabby]

I’m so pleased with it.

[rydra_wong]

That is GLORIOUS.

[sabotabby]

Thank you! It was.

[rdi]

It were tasty and I was honoured to aid and abet in its consumption

[sabotabby]

I'm so glad you were able to!

[mistersmearcase]

Oh my god that is an intense octopus cake. I am eight years old and would probably enjoy the octopus part. I like those super sugary flavorless sheet cakes they serve at sad parties.

[sabotabby]

I like to think it is better than the flavourless sheet cakes on account of involving almond extract and coconut oil, but it's the same basic concept. Appeals to my inner child but I'm glad that everyone else liked it, since a thin slice was all I could handle.

That's one helluva cake

[ed_rex]

Seriously. There's no denying that a fuckton of skill went in alongside the icing sugar(?) to create that masterpiece.

Re: That's one helluva cake

[sabotabby]

Fondant. Which, yeah, is basically icing sugar.