Monday 30 July 2012

Smash It! Pinata Dinosaur Nest Cake


My son is turning 1!
Time to make a cake! 

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Flicking through 'Kids' Party Cakes' by the Australian Women's Weekly, I stumbled upon the 'Party Pinata' cake. I thought "This is perfect! He loves to smash stuff!". The only problem: the cake in the book doesn't quite go with a dinosaur theme. I thought, 'if I could make two chocolate bowls and attach them together with a toy inside, it would make a perfect Dinosaur Egg for him to smash'.
6 blocks of chocolate later, I came to the conclusion this is NOT going to work the way I want it to. 

Back to square one. I wanted a cake that he could smash, and I wanted a dinosaur theme! I couldn't find anything that matched that description online or in any of my books. I spent some time 'googling' to learn what a dinosaur nest really looks like. It turns out they have lots of eggs in a nest, not just one. 

Rummaging through my cupboards I found these small bowls and had a light-bulb moment. It was perfect! I would make fondant dinosaur eggs and fill them with lots of colorful lollies. 
I wasn't sure if eggs made of fondant would smash quite like the chocolate, but it was certainly worth the risk. It turns out they smash brilliantly! I mixed the fondant with some tylose powder to help it dry out and they took a few days to dry properly.

The eggs had some obvious flaws, such as the joins and marks where I didn't smooth the fondant quite right. This is probably the wrong thing to do, but once the eggs were dry, I wet them a little bit and rolled them in corn flour (some needed more water and corn flour than others). This rounded out the eggs and gave them a rough egg look. 

I made some sticks from fondant and crumbled some chocolate mud cake to use as dirt. This is what it looked like when it was put together.


I loved the reaction of guests when they saw the cake, many overlooking it as a decoration.
It was a complete surprise to the guests, when we cracked the eggs open and all the colour burst out! 

The kids absolutely loved it!



I had such a wonderful time making this cake. What can I do next...?


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