Ready, Aim, Fire!!

This last year has been interesting.  The whole single mom thing keeps me pretty busy and I find myself in the kitchen only to make food for my kids.  I've taken very few cake orders. I just haven't had the time.

However, I was willing to make an exception for my very favorite "customers"... my kids.   

Since the divorce I've had my kids share a birthday party.  Their birthdays are only three weeks apart and they haven't minded, so I'm taking advantage of it while I can.  This works because they're still young.  At some point, being a boy and a girl, they will want separate parties.  But for now, I'm getting by on one- and this year they even managed to agree on a theme!!

Thus brought about the Angry Birds cake.  My kids both love the game.  My daughter, age 4 now, is even becoming skilled at shooting the bird in the right direction.  By that I don't necessarily mean towards the right beams and blocks to take out pigs.  I really do mean, quite simply, in the right direction- forwards.  But she loves the game no matter what her skill level.  My son, on the other hand, now 7, can beat levels even I cannot.  This surprises me not, since he's been playing games on the computer since he was just two.  I'm not certain I'm proud of this fact, but it is what it is, LOL.  

Anyway, Angry Birds.  They agreed.  Hallelujah, mommy only has to make ONE cake!  But it's got to be a good one!

I asked my kids what flavor they wanted.  I was hoping they'd both agree on a flavor just as they agreed on a theme.  "Blueberry mint!!" my son shouts.  "Huh?" my daughter says.  I hear ya Zo.  Blueberry mint?  Really?  Fortunately, they agreed that perhaps chocolate with berry filling was an acceptable alternative. 

And so with all agreed upon, I commenced caking.  I did my share of online research for Angry Bird characters.  Those tiny things on my phone screen weren't going to work at all!  Luckily for me, everyone and their dog plays this game, so photos abound. 


I have to say, crafting the characters for this cake was incredibly fun.  Getting the expressions right was tricky and I had some do-overs and some rejects.  My son happily ate one reject pig- though I myself wouldn't ever be caught eating non-marshmallow fondant.  Ick!!  Though I greatly dislike the flavor, I created my characters using standard Wilton fondant, because it is far firmer and dries better than marshmallow fondant.   

I've been asked to explain how I made my characters, but quiet honestly, I'm not sure I can.  Unless you can count "I looked at pictures and sculpted them to match using fondant (dyed with frosting colors)" as enough of an explanation.  There's no real tricks or hints I can offer.  It just took time and effort and the willingness to totally scrap what you've done if the face doesn't look right, etc. 

In the end I had 10 characters, five birds and five pigs, along with a slingshot, a nest, and some building pieces.  Using those, some nutty bars, chocolate rocks, chocolate eggs, and a couple of jewels from ring pops, I constructed the cake you see to the right.  The part you'd want to eat- it's not blueberry mint, thankfully.  It is, however, dark chocolate fudge cake with mixed berry filling and dark chocolate frosting with a hint of blueberry.

I was pleased.  The kids were thrilled.  No one was angry except those birds.