Tux the Penguin Cake

We're in the middle of birthday season for my family. My mother's birthday was last month and my husbands is next month. But this month it was my brother's 28th birthday. He doesn't like a lot of fuss so we usually just celebrate with a low key barbecue, but this year he suggested going out for lunch and chose a Ribs and Burger place close to where I live. After lunch my family came back to my place for cake, coffee and presents!

I'd bought my brother some Bucky Balls and a gift card. I also made him a cake. I make most of the cakes for family get togethers and birthdays. I usually stick with cupcakes, but to be honest, I'm getting sick of making cupcakes. I also couldn't find a way to decorate the cupcakes that would suit my brother. Everything thing seemed to cutesy and I didn't just want to stick with chocolate ganache as that's my usual icing.

I searched through my recipe books for a cake and saw the penguin cake in one of my Australian Women's Weekly party cake books (I think it's the Party Animals? book) They call it the Penguin Prince cake and in the book they also put a red bow on the cake. I was a bit reluctant to do this cake, it involved cutting out the penguin shape from a pattern in the book and it just seemed like a lot of bother. I haven't made a carved cake since year ten home ec! But nothing else seemed to fit, so I bit the bullet and made the penguin cake.

My brother has always liked Tux, the linux mascot. He used to have a tiny little Tux keyring. He's been a linux user since high school so a Tux Penguin cake seemed appropriate.

This cake was a challenge. I didn't have the right sized cake pan, it was just a smidge too small, but I knew that once I carved the cake I'd have tonnes of scraps left over. So I used one of the larger off cuts to build up the sides Tux's feet.

I'd also never worked with black icing before, or iced a cake like this where you have multiple colours of icing. I bought black americolour icing which didn't actually go black, but more of a deep grey. I think instead of starting with a white buttercream, I should've started with a chocolate to get a deeper colour. I also got black icing everywhere! Thank goodness my bench top is black granite so doesn't show stains!

I put the cake in the freezer for 20mins before carving it, then crumb coated the cut edges before putting it back in the freezer. I transferred it onto the cake board and started icing! Starting with the white, then the yellow and finally the black. I piped the icing on before smoothing it down with a heated spatula. The eyes were the trickiest part! I messed them up twice! The second time I got them right, then went to pat down a small peak in the icing with my finger only to transfer food dye onto the white icing.

It took me hours to ice this cake. Luckily I had a few tv shows I wanted to catch up on, so played those in the background while working on it. This was also the first time I'd made buttercream since I got my Kitchen Aid for my 30th birthday in March. Holy cow is it easy to make buttercream now! I loved my pink mixer before, but after making buttercream in it, I love it even more!

The cake turned out pretty good, I see a few flaws in it. I'm still not happy with the eyes and I couldn't get the icing as smooth as I would've liked. But it's not bad!

Next to book. And before I'd smoothed down the icing and messed with the eyes.

My brother was really impressed! He didn't want to cut into it for ages, and in the end would up taking the head and feet home. (I held my breath when he cut it, as he decapitated Tux!) 

The only thing is, is how do I top this for his birthday next year? Or the year after for his 30th? I think I've set the bar a little high now!