The Final Peppa Pig Cake

This weekend fast approached and I needed to make a cake for my niece's 2nd birthday, all the preparation and practice was coming down to this final product.

I had a few problems with my Peppa shape sinking slightly so I read about this and discovered that if I make her early and leave her to dry a little then this might solve the problem, therefore, I made Peppa and George on Wednesday before everything else and left them in an airtight container in the fridge.

To make Peppa and George, I started off by colouring the icing to a pale pink using my paste colours. I then made 2 balls, different sizes and carefully shaped these into Peppa and George's faces, having done this before it wasn't too difficult. I then coloured 2 further balls of icing blue and red for the bodies. I decided I wasn't going to try and make feet as I didn't know how to make them strong enough so we'll pretend that the feet are in the puddles. I also added some pink arms and a tail to the body and used edible glue to stick these on, great idea as it held so much more firmly.

Peppa and George ready for detailing.. 

Ruined Peppa

Finished Peppa

Then came the difficult part, the details on the face, I started with colouring a deeper pink circle for their cheeks and stuck these on with glue. Then I did made small white balls for the eyes and stuck these on. Using a toothpick I dotted a small black eye on both. And then came the painting, I diluted down some paste with water but the first time my mix was too runny and I ended up ruining my Peppa, therefore I quickly made another one and reduced the amount of painting I would do. I used one of my new tools to make nostrels for her and painted in those and just dotted some on for George. Finally I painted on a small mouth on both.

As you can see from the pictures I also made a 2 out of some icing which I coloured yellow, this was just an easy sausage folded onto itself and carefully proportioned in order to create an image.

Next step was to make the cakes, due to my current sickness issues I needed help at this stage from my wonderful husband. I instructed him to make a normal sponge by adding 600g of flora, sugar and flour together, mixing and then adding 6 eggs. Once the mixture was lovely and light he split it with 1/4 in one bowl and 3/4 in the other. We added cocoa to the 1/4 and pink colouring to the remaining 3/4.  These were then layered into 2 different cake tins, a larger and smaller one. Normally I would have liked to have cooked 4 layers here but we don't have the tins so we had to make 2 larger cakes to be sliced later. We used a toothpick to create a marbling effect and hoped it would be better than last time due to the ratio of dark to light. The cakes were cooked until pulling away from the sides of the tins and a knife was coming out clean, and then left to cool overnight.

Next day my husband cut the cakes into 2 for me down the centre and levelled them out ready for the final decorating stage. 

Cakes are halved

And level.

Together we made some raspberry buttercream and then formed the cake. Buttercream went between each layer and around the outside of the cake. We coloured a block of icing green  and this was to cover the whole cake. Unfortunately this fell apart and so the surface of the cake wasn't very smooth and became patchworky but we didn't have time or energy to try again so left it. I cut out some muddy puddles for the top of the cake from brown icing and stuck these on with edible glue. Using pink icing I cut out Keira's name and stuck on the outside along with some butterflies to try and cover the bumps. 

Cake is iced and named

Muddy puddles

Close up..

Finally once we reached the house, using cocktail sticks, Peppa and George were placed on the top. The cake was complete. 

The finished cake

Close up Peppa and George

Slightly different angle

The marbling on the inside came out much better this time so I've learnt that the lighter colour needs to be a much higher ratio than the darker. 

The cake is sliced and here's the inside

A bit of artistic photoing from my hubby!!

My verdict is that it was ok but I would have preferred to get the icing better as I think this spoilt the finished product, I would also have liked to have letter cutters for the name 

Peppa Pig Cake Take 2

I received a message asking if the cake could be a chocolate cake so that ruined all my ideas for a lovely pink and white layer, so I thought about how I could still get some of the wow factor when cutting into the cake. 

I decided on a marble cake, chocolate sponge with pink sponge mixed in creating a marble effect. I made a cake batter and split it in 2 adding chocolate to one mix and pink to the other. 

Batter is coloured and ready

I placed spoonfuls of each mixture in the cakes tins mixing them up with a knife to create a swirled effect. 

Cakes swirled and ready to go in the oven. 

And the put them in the oven to cook. 

Cakes out the oven.

While the cake cooked I made a start on Peppa, I wanted to take more time over her today and try and do a better effort. Following information from my mother, I made the body more of a semi circle ready for the head to sit on. I took much more time over the head, I started with a ball and then carefully shaped out a snout, the rest of the head I formed an oval shape out of. The snout started off too long so I shortened this a little and tried to make it more in line with the top of the head as this is how it looks in the pictures. 

Once I was happy with the shaping I carefully painted on the outline of the snout. To make the eyes and cheeks this time I decided to use icing. I coloured one bit a deeper pink, made tiny balls and flattened these out for the cheeks. For the eyes I did the same thing, even smaller, and painted a black dot in the middle. At the moment I don't have paint brushes so I had to use toothpicks for the painting, challenging but I think I pulled it off. The only issue I have now is the mouth, I've only seen a 2D image and it's difficult to make the mouth work, it can't be just one side but all the pictures just show it on the side and not going under the snout. When I try and draw it on her mouth looks too long and gives a bit of a freaky grin about her. I think once I've got the mouth sorted I'll be quite happy. I made some small ears and arms using the pink icing. I held on the arms with just 1 toothpick going through the body to hold them in place. 

Peppa Pig

Finished cake side

Finished cake other side

 I decided to decorate the top of the cake with green icing as this is what it'll be for the finished cake. The eventual aim is that this is the grass and they'll be muddy puddles that she's jumping in. I don't have any brown at the moment so I think I'll have to purchase some already coloured brown for that purpose. I need to also make a George pig and a number 2, each in puddles. There's also a possible house to build but I think I might run out of room on top of the cake.

For the final cake I intend making it 4 layers so there's a larger cake underneath, the cake will look more grand and will have more height to it. I hope she'll like it. 

 The final cake didn't have the marbling that I hoped once baked. The chocolate seems to have taken over the cake. Next time I'm going to try 3/4 pink and 1/4 chocolate in order to try and get the marble effect across. I hope it'll still be chocolatey enough then, only way I can check is to try it!! I made this cake with just standard pink buttercream, the cake was really missing something without the raspberry buttercream. That'll certainly add something to the final cake, flavour and colourwise. 

Please let me know what you think.. 

A slice of the cake showing the marble effect, or lack of it.

Peppa Pig Pink Cake!!

Today I thought I would try out a new idea and practice some animal making in case I need it in the future. I decided to trial a pink cake with raspberry buttercream and make a little Peppa Pig for the top. 

I made 1 batch of normal sponge mix and then divided it in two. One I left as it was, the other I coloured with a small amount of pink, enough to give it a pink hint but I didn't want a really dark colour. 

The cake batters are coloured and ready to go...

These were then placed in cake tins and baked until lovely and spongey...

Nicely cooked cakes out of the oven

Once out the oven the cake didn't look so pink but you could see the slight colour in it and I hoped that the inside would be stronger. 

I then made the buttercream, as I said I wanted raspberry so I made normal buttercream and then mashed up some raspberries. I originally wants a marble effect through rather than making it so pink but as you'll can see that didn't quite work out but I rather like the finished product. 

Peppa side view

Peppa front view

I then made a Peppa Pig, according to my pictures she has a pink head with a rather large snout and then a red triangle body. It took a while to convince my premade icing that it wanted to be red but in the end it came out a lovely strong colour and a nice contrast to the pink. I made a ball for the head and then shaped it to create the snout. The body I then also formed a ball and shaped this into a more triangle shape. 

I made arms and ears, the arms are attached by cocktail sticks to give them structure and the head is also held on by a stick. I painted on the eyes and marks using another cocktail stick so it's not great but it gives the effect it needs I think. 

Finally I put the cake together. I used the buttercream to sandwich it together and then placed this all over the cake. This won't be what I do when I make the next one but today was just about practice. I then placed Peppa in the middle and decorated the top with the remaining raspberries. 

Top View of the cake

Side view

Front View

I was quite pleased with the finished product but I wanted to check the colouring inside so I cut out a slice to check. I think the result is great, a lovely pink sponge inside and out. 

Colours shown on a slice

A view inside the cake

Overall I need to still work on making Peppa better, I'm not sure she's very recognisable yet and I want to make George and create a whole scene rather than just the characters. I'm pleased with the cake itself, I think the buttercream tastes great but I'm might still try and make a marble effect, it is also a little runny with the extra juice from the raspberries. Not really a worry if this is just for the inside though. I would also like to find some better fondant icing as this isn't perfect, it's a little soft. 

Let me know what you think, there is room for improvement and knowing nothing about Peppa, any comments about her would help.