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cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

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Angry Birds Birthday Cake

Published on March 3, 2013 β€’ Last updated July 22, 2017 by Elizabeth
angry-birds-birthday-cake

It’s hard to believe that our youngest has turned four. How the time has flown by! A few weeks ago my OH surprised me and bought me a Kindle Fire as a gift and our youngest (and the rest of us!)Β discovered the wonderful world of the Angry Birds app. He’s now properly Angry Birds obsessed, so what better a theme for his birthday cake could I come up with than Angry Birds! I bought 6 kg of of icing sugar for this cake. I hasten to add I didn’t use the entire 6 kg! I picked up quite an assortment of coloured sugar pastes, a modelling tool set and a cake drum from Sugar and Crumbs, some Dr. Oetker ready to roll white icing from the local supermarket and some natural food dye (‘Daffodil’ and ‘Juniper Green’ by JPE)Β and black and green edible food ink pens by Rainbow Dust from some other local shops and set to planning.

I figured a three tiered cake would give a fairly good 3D aspect to build the wooden boards and concrete block towers for the pigs to rest upon with the initial idea that the Angry Birds themselves would decorate the top of the cake.

cakesThen, the OH brought out a fantastic wooden catapult pencil he’d bought for the eldest for Christmas and then completely forgot about and my plans changed. A fourth cake would be required to showcase the Angry Birds themselves while they waited patiently to load up into the catapult and get fired across the table at the anxiously awaiting pigs.

The Angry Birds are sitting on a 6 inch in diameter cake made from Nigella Lawson’s fairy cake recipe sandwiched together with St. Dalfour sugar-free strawberry jam (as if this reduces this sugar content at all! This is our family favourite strawberry jam, so it’s what was available).

The three tiered cakes are as follows:
Base: cherry pound cake baked in a single 9 inch round spring form cake tin; Middle layer: Clara’s Arizona devil’s food cake baked in two 8 inch round cake tins. Each cake was allowed to cool and was then sliced horizontally to form four chocolate cakes. The layers were sandwiched together with vanilla butter cream;Top layer: Nigella Lawson’s buttermilk birthday cake recipe baked in two 7 inch cake tins and sandwiched together with vanilla butter cream tinted green with the natural ‘Juniper Green’ food dye.

The cakes were made and assembled on day one. Boiled, cooled apricot jam was brushed over the outside of each of the cakes before applying the ready to roll white icing. In hindsight I wish I had coated the layered cakes in some butter cream as you can see the cake layers through the icing. Ach well, lesson learnt! To layer the cakes I inserted four short wooden dowel rods into the base cake and then arranged a thick 8 inch paper cake circle on the top before placing the devil’s food cake (already iced) on top. The smaller iced buttermilk cake was then placed on top of a smaller 6 inch paperΒ cake circle. The dowel rods and cake circlesΒ help keep the cakes from sinking into each other. If my top cake was heavier I would have used dowel rods in the middle layer too. Then, using clean, unused watercolour paint brushes (stolen from DD), I painted the yellow and green food dyes onto the outside of the rolled white icing. I could have tinted the ready to roll icing itself, but I wanted to give more of a watercolour effect with the background. I think it worked. Again, in hindsight I would have used the same brand white icing for all the layers. The top layer is made from the local supermarket’s own brand of icing and it wasn’t of as good a quality as the Dr. Oetker I used for the bottom two cakes (I’d bought the cheaper brand because the supermarket had run out of Dr. Oetker). The cake is now three days old and the food dye still hasn’t completely dried on the top layer. Another lesson learnt.

angry-birds-pigs

On day two I made the sugar paste decorations. I have to confess that when I started out first thing in the morning, coffee cup in hand, I had no idea where I was going with the decoration. I was faced with a giant and rather gaudy yellow and green cake with still-wet food dye painted on the outside and a stonking sinus cold to boot. I started with searching Google Images for some Angry Birds pig images while I brought the fan heater up off the floor onto the table to blast hot air directly at the cake to dry it out and I dosed myself with some Beechams Cold & Flu tablets. I found a pig image I liked in the perfect size and, using a pencil and some paper, faintly traced an outline off the screen. I also outlined the nose so that the dimensions would be right.

birthday-pigTo make the pigs I rolled out some green sugar paste to 4 mm thickness and cut around the paper template with one of the modelling tools. I was really impressed at how well the sugar paste handled and how the modelling tool cut a lovely clean edge. I was starting to feel more optimistic about the whole project (I think the drugs had kicked in by then). To make the pig’s nose I blended some green sugar paste with a little yellow until it reached the right shade. Again, I was very impressed at how well the colours blended together. I used some white for the eyes, making sure each ball was the same size before flattening and adhering to the pigs face with a fingertip tipped in some clean cold water. I used the green food ink pen to draw the ears, eyebrows, nostrilsΒ and mouth on the pig and the black to make the eye dots. This was going really well, thought I.

I then had another fantastic idea (I think!). Why don’t I top the cake with a giant birthday pig wearing a party hat! Done! I sat him on some concrete blocks and made sure he was looking down at the the Angry Birds cake. The wooden boards were made using a mixture of brown and yellow sugar pastes, left not completely mixed so that you could still see veins of colour through, like wood grain. The concrete blocks were made using grey sugar paste. Using the edge of the flat modelling tool I pressed grooves into the boards and blocks for effect. Simple but effective.

angry-birds-sugar-pasteThe Angry birds were made with assorted coloured sugar pastes and the straight edged modelling tool. Again, they were really easy to make. The only fiddly bit was trying to use the right amount of water to stick two bits together. Too much water and the feathers or beak would slide right off the birds. A little trial and error and it was sorted. I love how the edible black ink pen makes their eyes look so fantastic and cartoonish.

angry-birds-TNTUsing the remaining blended brown and a bit of Dr. Oetker ready to write red icing I made a little TNT box and placed grey stones above it, like you’d see in the game. I was pretty impressed with this bit of the decoration, to be honest!

After our youngest blew out the candles on his cake Daddy helped him fire the sugar paste Angry Birds at the pigs. It took a few goes as the birds had a tendency to fly across the room! That little catapult as some power in it – who would have thought sugar paste birds could fly so far!

In the end the Birthday Pig was defeated and all human bellies were stuffed with as much cake as they could possibly fill themselves with. The rest will, thankfully, be frozen. I made sure to use freezable recipes so we wouldn’t have to eat all the cake right away!

the-end

I am entering this blog post into the AlphabakesΒ foodie round up which is alternately hosted by Ros fromΒ The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline atΒ Caroline Makes. This month Caroline has tasked us with baking something involving the letter ‘i’. She does say that she hopes we will come up with something a bit more inspiring than icing, and I know this cake is all about icing – but I think it’s rather Impressive Icing, wouldn’t you agree?

I have also included this cake in the Cake Week cake round-up by Make, Do and Push!

Make, Do and Push!: Cake Week 2013
blogbadge photo badge_zpsf0b88074.jpg

Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary was sent a selection of Sugar and Crumbs ready to roll icing for review. All opinions expressed are our own. This is not a paid post.

Category: Cake, Product, Recipe, Review

About Elizabeth

Solivagant. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

Previous Post:Chocolate-topped Cupcakes
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. wishmood

    April 13, 2023 at 12:41 pm

    Wow, what a cool Angry Birds birthday cake! It looks amazing and I’m sure it was a hit at the party. The attention to detail is impressive, and the colors are so bright and vibrant. I can only imagine the time and effort that went into creating this masterpiece. I hope the birthday person had a great time celebrating their special day with this awesome cake. Well done!

    Reply
  2. Kirsty Fox

    September 13, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    My boys love Angry Birds and would love this cake, it’s brilliant!

    Reply
  3. Heather Haigh

    July 16, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    Oh wow that is just amazing, the detail is fabulous. I just wouldn’t know where to start!

    Reply
  4. Heather Haigh

    June 22, 2014 at 2:25 pm

    That’s an amazing looking cake!

    Reply
  5. Baking Addict

    August 24, 2013 at 7:28 pm

    Sorry for the late comment – this is an absolutely brilliant entry for AlphaBakes and yes that’s a lot of icing!

    Reply
  6. Anne Stone

    August 9, 2013 at 9:22 pm

    What a fabulous cake, or should I say cakes, I love the way you thought it all out, brilliant. Thank you for linking up with my cake/party linky x

    Reply
  7. Karen S Booth

    April 9, 2013 at 7:04 pm

    That is, without doubt, the BEST home-decorated cake I have seen recently – it’s amazing! It looks like a professional cake and it’s such fun too! I hope the Halo cake turns out as well! Karen

    Reply
    • Elizabeth S

      August 7, 2013 at 8:35 am

      Aw, thanks Karen for your lovely comment! You made me smile! πŸ˜€

      Reply
  8. Hannah

    March 28, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    This cake is amazing!!! Thank you so much for linking up πŸ™‚
    Hannah xx
    http://www.makedoandpush.co.uk

    Reply
    • Elizabeth S

      August 7, 2013 at 8:34 am

      Thanks, and thank you for giving me the chance to share it with your linky!

      Reply
  9. Caroline

    March 11, 2013 at 5:14 pm

    This is brilliant, thanks for sending it into Alphabakes!

    Reply
  10. Caroline

    March 11, 2013 at 5:14 pm

    This is amazing, I’m so impressed! Thanks for sending it into Alphabakes!

    Reply
    • Elizabeth S

      August 7, 2013 at 8:33 am

      Thanks Caroline, so glad you like it! πŸ™‚

      Reply
  11. Sarah Wheeler

    March 10, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    Absolutlely stunning, beautiful cakes and photos.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth S

      August 7, 2013 at 8:33 am

      Thank you, I was quite pleased how well it turned out. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  12. Sally

    March 7, 2013 at 10:13 am

    This cake is amazing. Another work of art.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 7, 2013 at 10:27 am

      Thank you Sally πŸ™‚

      Reply
  13. The Beesley Buzz

    March 5, 2013 at 2:12 pm

    i must not let my kids see this – they will want one! Looks fab – well done. xxx

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 5, 2013 at 6:03 pm

      Thank you! πŸ™‚

      Reply
  14. helen

    March 5, 2013 at 12:46 pm

    this is amazing! you have far more patience than me.
    My youngest turns 4 this month too πŸ™

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 5, 2013 at 12:54 pm

      Thanks πŸ™‚ I think it’s one part patience four parts procrastinating working on my research paper! Happy Birthday to your little one!

      Reply
  15. Lisa-Jane

    March 4, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    Its fantastic!!!

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 5, 2013 at 12:53 pm

      Thank you πŸ™‚

      Reply
  16. Louise at Cake and Calico

    March 4, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    I’m so impressed – just designing that cake must have taken hours! I think you should be getting awards… (Erm, are you? I wouldn’t be surprised.)

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 4, 2013 at 3:43 pm

      Thank you πŸ™‚ Yes, it did take some forward planning! As far as I’m aware I’m not getting any awards, just the happy expression on my son’s face when he saw the cake!

      Reply
  17. Mumsfilibaba

    March 4, 2013 at 1:27 pm

    Impressive cake and really nice blog :). I would like to give you the Liebster blog award.This is given to new bloggers. Liebster is German for dearest, loveliest or favorite. I would like to pass the award on to you. This is a vehicle to help you connect with other new bloggers and to mutually encourage one another. Please check out my page to know more: http://mumsfilibaba-mumsfilibaba.blogspot.ch/2012/02/liebster-blog-award.html.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 4, 2013 at 3:42 pm

      Thank you ever so much, that’s really kind of you πŸ™‚

      Reply
  18. Jean

    March 4, 2013 at 10:14 am

    That is one amazing and spectacular cake. A real triumph. I don’t know how you have the patience to do something like that!

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 4, 2013 at 10:25 am

      Thank you Jean πŸ™‚ I have to admit that by the time it was done I was really glad it was finished and I could go on to something else! I can be a bit stubborn and when I get an idea it has to come out!

      Reply
  19. Susan heavenonaplate

    March 3, 2013 at 11:17 pm

    Wow thats impressive! Well done it must have taken you a few hours to do that. x

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 3, 2013 at 11:43 pm

      It took a day and a half! I booked it in – cake baking and assembly on the first day and then decorating on the second. It paid off though, he loved it!

      Reply
  20. Angela Darroch

    March 3, 2013 at 10:45 pm

    Sounds like you had lots of fun making this beautiful cake. I still remember all my birthday cakes from when I was a child and loved the fact that my Mum had made them for me. Hope you all had a special day.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 3, 2013 at 11:42 pm

      I certainly did have a lot of fun! I didn’t hide the making of the cake from the birthday boy either, so he had the chance to see it develop. He was fascinated and thought it was brilliant. I hope my children fondly recall the cakes I’ve made them over the years. We had a fantastic day πŸ™‚

      Reply
  21. Bonnie Emond

    March 3, 2013 at 8:28 pm

    I would never want to cut into that amazing cake !!
    I can see all the fun and love you put into it !!

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 3, 2013 at 8:53 pm

      Thanks Bonnie πŸ™‚ We had no trouble cutting into it, that’s where the chocolate was, haha! πŸ™‚

      Reply

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Cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

Image of Elizabeth Atia making a cake in the Aald Harbour Hoose, Shetland. Photograph by Misa Hay from Shetland Wool Adventures.

Welcome to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary, Scotland’s most northerly award-winning food blog.

I’m based in the wild and remote Shetland Islands, where I’ve been sharing my adventure-fuelling recipes since 2011.

As seen on Shetland: Scotland’s Wondrous Isles on Channel 5.

β€œNever underestimate the power of your own story. Life may have taken unexpected turns, but it’s never too late to weave new threads of adventure into your tapestry. Keep spinning those yarns, my friend.

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