Snowman Cake

This Snowman Cake is perfect for Christmas! A simple, cute and fun cake to put on your table. 

Practice your carving skills with this cheery 3D snowman cake by Laura Loukaides.

Snowman Cake

You will need: For the cake:

• two x 15cm (6in) cakes, 7.5cm (3in) deep
• 10cm (4in) cake, 7.5cm (3in) deep

To decorate:

• buttercream or ganache
• white sugarpaste
• light blue sugarpaste
• pale blue sugarpaste
• black sugarpaste
• orange sugarpaste
• pink edible dusting colour
• edible pearl lustre dust

Equipment:

• bubble tea straw or food safe dowel
• 20cm (8in) or 25cm (10in) cake drum
• 10cm (4in) cake card
• ball tool
• dresden tool
• various paintbrushes
• sharp knife (for carving)
• palette knife
• piece of unused non-slip map
• sugarpaste smoother
• clean pair of scissors

Method:

1. Begin by baking your three cakes.
2. Level both of the 15cm (6in) cakes and fill with your chosen filling. Next, place a 10cm (4in) round cake card on top of the cakes – this will be your carving guide. Begin shaping the body by carving from the edge of the cake card outwards at a slight angle to achieve a rounded shape.
3. Remember to keep the base of the body quite wide to ensure the cake is stable. If the cake is too narrow at the bottom, the cake could easily tip over.
4. Crumb coat the cake and set aside.
5. Take the 10cm (4in) cake and carve away the top and bottom edges creating a slightly rounded shape.
6. Crumb coat as shown.
7. To form the top of the snowman’s head, take a small portion of white sugarpaste (or modelling chocolate) and shape into a dome.Apply to the top of the 10cm (4in) cake with buttercream or ganache, then crumb coat again. Set aside.
8. Roll out some white sugarpaste and cover the body of the snowman, then carefully transfer to a sugarpaste covered cake drum.
9. Next, cover the snowman’s head with a slightly thicker layer of white sugarpaste and set aside.
10. Push a bubble tea straw or food safe dowel into the top of the cake, directly in the centre. You want the dowel to sit about three-quarters of the way through the snowman’s head so be sure to cut away any excess so it will not poke through. The dowel helps keep the snowman’s head in place and should be removed before serving.
11. Carefully pick up the snowman’s head and place on the body over the dowel. Double check to ensure everything is sitting central from all angles.
12. While the sugarpaste is still soft, mark two eye sockets and an indent for the nose using a small ball tool and create a smile using a dresden tool.
13. Mark three indents on the body for the coals using a small ball tool.
14. Take some light blue sugarpaste and roll into a long rectangle. Next, take a clean unused piece of non-slip mat and press into the sugarpaste using a sugarpaste smoother. You can also use an alternative texture mat or a mould for this step if you prefer.
15. Apply the textured band of sugarpaste around the snowman’s neck with a little water, then make three more smaller bands, texturing as before and apply to the scarf as shown.
16. Roll a circle of light blue sugarpaste, texture and apply to the top of the head with water or edible glue, then form a long uneven rope of pale blue sugarpaste and apply around the edge as shown.
17. Create a fluffy texture by twisting a No.233 nozzle into the sugarpaste as shown.
18. To make the pom-pom, take a small ball of pale blue sugarpaste and snip repeatedly with the tips of a clean pair of scissors. Once you’re happy with the texture, apply to the top of the hat with a little water or edible glue.
19. Using black sugarpaste, form two small balls for the eyes, 3 small balls for the coals and 4 tiny thin ropes for the eye lashes. Apply with a little water. Next, form an oval nose from orange sugarpaste and apply as shown.
20. Add rosy cheeks using a tiny amount of edible pink dusting colour with a dry soft paintbrush, then lightly brush over the entire cake with edible pearl lustre dust.