Furious Fowl

Yes, I realize that in the first week there were excellent entires of this design.... and there was no way I could enter anything 3-D that would ever remotely compare. But then, I kept thinking, "wouldn't it be fun to make a Furious Fowl cake with Angry Birds?" The intricate design of Furious Fowl is far beyond my cake-making abilities, but Angry Birds are a bit more my level, fairly simple. I first made myself a little template. Then the real fun stuff began.

I started off with marshmallow fondant because I'm a masochist and it tastes so much better than any store bought I've found. I must say after an hour of kneading all those colors I can see why people go for the store bought stuff. Still, I pressed on.

Next, I started the cake baking. I decide to try a new recipe for a sugar cookie flavored cake because I was intrigued. Baking was fairly standard, the easiest part of course. While in the oven...

I started on the molding of the design. I pretty much did it piece by piece as illustrated by the pictures. I did underestimate how incredibly difficult those little blue birds would be- the details were so tiny and I had to do it three times! Really, I think they were the hardest part of the cake.

By the time I had most the design made, I was tired. After a break for dinner and putting the kiddos to bed, I resumed my efforts. I leveled the cakes, which sunk horribly. I suppose that's what happens when I try a new recipe, but that's what the frosting in the middle is for right? Filling in the bubble?

I made some quick buttercream, but was too lazy to actually color it. I knew it wouldn'' be part of the design, just glue. Then, even though my other new recipe hadn't turned out wonderfully, I attempted to make chocolate marshmallow fondant. It turned out a bit stiff and took quite a while to roll, but I must admit, it's tasty. I covered the cake and the dark brown made a lovely backdrop as I hoped it would.

Next was time for the transfer of the design, which I was a little worried about. It did stick, but I used all my patience and it went off without a hitch. I glued it to the top with some vanilla extract. Then I add the final few details- the black tail feathers on the red and yellow birds, the yellow bird's eyebrow, finished up the slingshot, and the top was done. The bottom looked a little bare and uneven so I used some of excess fondant to make a rope, cleverly intertwining the red, yellow, bird, and green together as a metaphor of the struggle of the birds against the pigs. Or more likely, because I didn't have a lot left of any color and that made it all connect.

Hooray! I'm done. I didn't actually eat the cake until the next afternoon as I was exhausted and I needed to provide a good example for my children and not eat cake for breakfast. At a reasonable snack time, the cake was pretty good. I'm not sure if I was crazy about the chocolate fondant on the vanilla buttercream and sugar cookie cake. It's delicious alone, but I think it would be divine on a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The sugar cookie cake did taste like a sugar cookie in cake form and was pretty good. I may have to tweak the recipe a bit for a more beautiful end result.

All in all, I spent about 7 hours on this cake, which isn't bad considering some of the other entries. I'm thrilled with my result. It was precisely as I pictured it. I love it and I hope you do too. :)