Cookies

After my castle, I felt good. I liked my cake. Then my husband had to be browsing Threadless shirts and say, "Hey I've got a really cool idea for a cake...." Thus, Cookie was born. The idea is all my husband's. I just made the cake.

I had not forayed into the wilderness of fondant before this. I was a buttercream girl because all the fondant I'd ever had was ick. Since everyone else is doing it and I felt I must at least pretend to conform, I decided to try it. Wow. It's fun. No wonder everyone is doing it.

I choose a scratch chocolate chip pound cake for the base- just seemed to fit. Attempting to scale down the cake a bit, I baked some 4 inch rounds. I tried to buy a 6-inch pan, but everywhere I looked was sold out. So I settled for the ol' glass bowl cake, which I think actually looked more Cookie Monsterish. While the cakes cooled, I made the fondant, which was that simple marshmallow recipe you see everywhere. And, as I commented, it was way too easy and far more tasty than any fondant I'd had before. I dyed some blue, some black, some brown, and made my hands a beautiful shade of mud. Then the fun part started- decorating!


Fighting my daughter off at every turn (I almost ran out of fondant and chocolate chips because everything I wasn't touching at that exact second MUST BE a scrap for her to eat...), I managed to get the blue fondant on the cake fairly easy. Then I wasn't sure what to do- trim the bottom edge, tuck it under... what? I decided to trim most of it and then tuck. I cut some marshmallows in half for eyeballs, cut out a few small circles of black fondant and voila! Cookie eyes. Next, I made the mouth, using the bowl I had baked in as a template.

The cookies were quick- cover with buttercream, slap on fondant, stack. We had a tense moment when they destabilized, but I quickly recovered it with a little extra fondant on one side. Chocolate chips were added one at a time spreading a tiny dot of buttercream with a toothpick and sticking on by hand. By far, this was the most tedious part of the cake. I circled the bottom with more chocolate chips. Fin.

Cookie only took about 5 hours total to make, including baking time. Next time I'd be a little less lazy and actually tint the white buttercream so it blends a little more- that's perhaps my least favorite part of the cake. But everything was completely edible (and delicious if I do say so myself) and no supports were used.

Cookie spent the night in the fridge and after dinner the next day we cut into him. My daughters specifically requested the eyeballs and seemed to enjoy them immensely. I discovered that fondant makes an excellent snacking cake as it is much easier to slice off a little piece, carry it around AND still keep your hands clean. Buttercream just gets everywhere. I love this contest. I want to make cakes for it every year so I hope it never stops. Hooray for cake 2! Would have loved to make a third... but you know... deadlines and all....