madnad

ZombieHeadCakeI made a zombie head birthday cake the other day. Who would want such a disgusting thing, I hear you cry? ME!! I love the TV show The Walking Dead, and I am extremely excited and anticipating season 4 which starts in a few weeks.

Yes, folks. I made my own birthday cake. I have been wanting to give this a try for ages, and started without a clear plan of what I was going to do, but I think it turned out ok. I wasn’t going to bother doing a post about it, but I have had a couple of people ask how I went about it. So, here goes.

  1. Bake the two halves of the skull using the Wilton Skull Cake Pan. Level the cakes off using the tin as a guide, then sandwich together using buttercream
  2. Put a thin layer of buttercream all over the cake to help the covering stick, except for the eye sockets.
  3. Take one Rice Krispie Treat Mallow flavour, and cut it into three. Crush the first piece into a small ball, then repeat for the second piece. Eat the last piece.
  4. Cover the ball in white fondant. Place a wooden barbecue skewer through the eye socket of the cake angled at about 45°. Using sharp scissors, snip off excess leaving about half an inch showing. Stick the eyeballs on the end of the skewer. This holds the cake together and the eyeballs in place.
  5. Roll out a small oval of white fondant, and press firmly over the mouth area. Using modelling tools, and the handle of some cutlery, mark individual teeth.
  6. Put a tiny dab of brown, black, blue and red food colouring in separate areas of a small plate. Wet a clean paint brush, and add some water to the dabs of paste until it flows like a water colour, then use to paint shading, outlines and detail on the teeth and eyeballs.
  7. While your paint dries, carve a small circle of cake out of the back of the skull about ½ deep. Apply a little buttercream to the cavity. Take a lump of fondant, and colour it pink. Form into a long sausage, and then wind into the cavity to look like exposed brain.
  8. Take about 700g of white modelling chocolate (or fondant) and colour with a little yellow and a little grey, and kneed until the colour is combined and the modelling chocolate is smooth and pliable. Roll out into a large circle, about half a centimetre thick.
  9. Roll the ‘skin’ onto your rolling pin, and drape over the skull. Smooth over the back of the skull. Press lightly over the brain cavity, then using a knife, cut a small gap in the skin over this area, then using scissors, cut away the ‘skin’ until the brain is exposed.
  10. Repeat this method to expose the eyes and mouth areas. Using your fingers, liberally coated in cornflour, to rub all over the surface, ensuring it adheres to the buttercream and smooth any lumps, creases or joins.
  11. Using a modelling tool or tines of a fork, score lines over the skull to loosely represent mummified flesh. Dust lightly all over with some black edible tinting dust, and green edible tinting dust.
  12. Take some very small pieces of ‘skin’ and form into small balls. With a dab of water, attach to the cheek of the skull in a group to look like sores, or pustules.
  13. Paint more colour around the eyes and mouth. Finally, colour a half teaspoon of clear piping gel with red food colouring paste and dab on to the brain cavity and pustules.

If you do make one, or make anything else with this cake pan, let me know and send me a picture!

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2 Comments

  1. Christina Bunting InfingerReply
    June 4, 2015 at 15:47

    I love it! I received the cake tin as a gift (since I, too, am in love with zombies)… I’ve been looking around online for decorating ideas and now have several that I intend to try. Now I just have to figure out how to make fondant. 🙂

    • mutherfudgerReply
      June 4, 2015 at 18:47

      Fondant, or sugar paste, is available in most supermarkets or online. I actually don’t like the taste much though. I much prefer to make my own marshmallow fondant. It is a little messy to make, unless you do it in the mixer with the bread hook, but it tastes SO much better.
      https://www.mutherfudger.co.uk/recipe/marshmallow-fondant/

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