Check out this quick and easy step by step tutorial from our friends at Cake Decorating TV (CDTV), showing you how to make a penguin cake, using a small half ball pan. All you have to do is bake two cakes using the ball pan and sandwich them together. This penguin Christmas cake is perfect to offer family and friends this festive season and will give you approximately 8-10 portions. This easy penguin cake recipe uses the Sattina golden delight Madeira cake mix which takes minutes to prepare – you simply add water, mix and bake!
Don't forget, you can get more wonderful cake ideas and recipes from any issue of Cake Decoration and Sugarcraft!
Penguin Cake
Ingredients
500g of Sattina golden delight Madeira cake mix
Sattina vanilla frosting
500g Sattina pitch black sugarpaste icing
100g Sattina white sugarpaste icing
Small amounts of Sattina sugarpaste icing in true red, mediterranean blue and bright orange
Cornflour pouch
Edible glue
Sugarcel (CMC) powder
Equipment
PME half ball cake tin (small)
12“ round royal blue cake drum
16" non-stick rolling pin
9" non-stick rolling pin
Icing sugar shaker
Small straight palette knife
Cake pop stick/short dowel
Large heart cutter from PME set
Medium star cutter from set of 6 cookie cutters
PME diamond plunger cutters
PME round plunger cutters
Framar circle cutters
The cake smoothie smoother
Brush
Fmm ribbon cutter
Cake Star small star plunger cutters
Knit embossing sheet from the Home and Garden texture mats set
Cake Star push easy mini upper case alphabet cutters
Nylon Brush No.2 P41
Top Tip! A handy hint when covering a 3D cake is to layer the cake with buttercream then insert a cake pop stick or short dowel through the middle. Make sure the dowel is no higher than the top of the cake then cover in buttercream. For best results chill for approximately 20 minutes to set a little before covering with sugarpaste.
Method
1 Knead 500g of black sugarpaste until soft and pliable and roll out on a work surface sprinkled with icing sugar large enough to cover the cake. Carefully lay the sugarpaste onto the cake, smoothing over with your hands and tuck in gently around the base as much as you can to achieve a neat finish. Now cut any excess off and tidy the base of the ball shaped cake using a small palette knife.
2 Dust your work surface with the cornflour pouch. Roll out enough white sugarpaste to cut out a heart large enough to cover the front of the penguin's body. Attach with a little cooled boiled water or edible glue.
3 Smooth over the cake with a smoothie smoother gently to create a perfect finish, especially taking care when smoothing the edges around the white heart. To make the little feet roll out some orange sugarpaste and cut two shapes out using a star cutter, then attach them to the bottom of the cake either side of the heart with a little edible glue.
4 To create the woolly scarf, roll out some blue sugarpaste and place a knit embossing sheet onto the icing. Roll over firmly with your rolling pin so that the pattern embosses onto the icing then cut the scarf out using a sharp knife or the Fmm ribbon cutter. Attach around the middle of the penguin with edible glue.
5 Finish the scarf off by adding two extra lengths so that it looks tied. For the beak and flippers, knead a small amount of Sugarcel powder into both black and orange icing separately (around a quarter of a teaspoon). This will make the icing firmer so that it will hold its shape better.Cut out two long black triangles for the flippers, soften the edges then attach to the penguin with edible glue. You may have to prop the flippers up with some kitchen roll for a few minutes so that they start drying and hold their shape. Cut out a small square in orange icing then cut in half to create two smaller triangles. Attach centrally above the scarf to create the beak. For the eyes, cut out two small black circles then add two tiny white circles before attaching.
6a Knead a little Sugarcel into some red icing and roll out long and narrow. We used the ribbon cutter again to achieve this shape – it cuts neatly without pulling the icing! Use a diamond cutter to cut a zigzag pattern all the way along creating the crown effect.
6b Attach to the penguin, painting a ring of edible glue on the head before positioning into place and securing.
7 Finish off by adding your Christmas message. We used the mini push easy alphabet cutters as they really are so easy to use! Dust your surface with the cornflour pouch, roll out some icing, cut and plunge out the letters then attach to the board with edible glue.
For more fantastic inspiration, head over to Cake Decorating TV (CDTV), the home of expert tutorials for cake decorators everywhere! CDTV is a fun and informative online cake decorating school aimed
at all levels of ability from beginners to the experienced cake decorator. Learn from their team of award winning, internationally renowned, professional cake decorators through thousands of hours of online classes. Whether you want to learn the basics to decorate your child’s fist birthday cake, create some showstopping sugar dahlias for your daughter’s wedding or wow your guests with your isomalt skills, their expert tutorials are designed to help you reach your goals. Wherever you are in the world, whatever your level of skill, CDTV are with you every step of the way.
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