Loch Ness Imposter

This cake entry was meant to be something quite different, but a few issues meant I ended up with this design. Not that I’m sorry about it – I think it’s cute and I’m very happy with how the cake turned out. I was originally looking at doing the “Party Pieces” design, and wanted to experiment with using sugar glass to form the outsides of the shredder. However, when I went to do the sugar, it began to change colours before it hit the correct temperature, so I threw some colour in there to avoid having the brown cooked sugar colour, and ended up with pretty green sugar glass. I poured the sugar into some ‘moulds’ I’d made using royal icing, and let them dry overnight.

As I’d already cooked the cakes by then, I decided to press on and turn it into the “Loch Ness Imposter” design. I cooked a single batch of lemon cake (with lots of lemon peel to make it extra lemony!) and split it across two loaf pans. Once they were cool, my partner levelled them while I mixed up some chocolate buttercream. I used that to fill between the cakes and also covered them with the buttercream.

I used some leftover fondant from my last octopus-related cake to create the swirled blue fondant for the sea. Being much better at drawing than I am, my partner sketched the octopus design on the top of the cake using a toothpick, and I painted it with some thinned gel colours. I sculpted the loch ness head using a piece of fondant, painted it, and let it dry overnight.

The next day, I added the final details to both the octopus and the monster – eyes and mouth. Then I added the piece of sugar glass on the top (it wasn’t quite the right shape as I’d planned it for a different purpose, but I didn’t want to try to trim it down as I thought this would be too difficult – and sticky). I heated up a metal chopstick and ‘drilled’ a hole through the sugar so that the loch ness monster could be placed. I was very pleased with the water-like effect when looking through the sugar glass!

I removed the sugar glass before cutting the cake, and cut some pieces out for us to share. The cake was very fluffy and light – and had lots of lemon flavour, which I was happy about. The chocolate icing was super sweet but the chocolate still went nicely with the lemon.

While this cake was not what I’d intended at the start, I’m still happy with how it came out. I was glad I was able to think on my feet and manage to pull off a different design. Thanks again to Threadcakes for this great competition and it’s just great to see everyone’s cakes!