Dinosaur Cake

Birthday boy Aryan wanted a "scary" dinosaur cake this year. My how fast they grow from cutesy to scary... it was only last year that I made a him Robocar Poli cake! Anyway, now he's celebrating his 3rd birthday and he's into dinosaurs, thanks to the recent release of the latest Jurassic World movie. 

"Scary" Dinosaur Cake

The cake is a hefty 4 layers of the ever popular Devil's Food Cake filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache, good to serve 50 guests! It is frosted in vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, with a dark chocolate ganache drip. I used Americolor Super Red and red candy oil to get the buttercream a nice bright red colour. 

dark chocolate ganache drip on top

Once again, I had "fun" applying the gold leaf to the front of the cake. It's really a process that you have to hold your breath for, cuz that gold leaf is so sensitive to air movement! I use tweezers to lift if off the transfer sheet, and a toothpick to help position it onto the cake. 

gold leaf detailing

To decorate the cake, I made a couple of chocolate sails. It's a pretty easy process. Just melt some dark chocolate, pour it onto parchment paper and spread it thin (not too thin or too thick!) using an offset spatula, then crinkle the parchment paper to get some curves, using clothespins to secure. 

chocolate sail, in progress

Leave the chocolate to set on the counter, or in the fridge for 15 mins, before peeling the parchment paper off of chocolate sail. I added some flecks of edible gold dust on the sails, using Rolkem Supers gold mixed with a little vodka, flicked on with a paint brush. 

view of the back of the cake

And because you can't go wrong with more chocolate, I added some Choco Crossies around as rocks, and a Kinder Surprise Egg too, since dinosaurs hatch from eggs! Yep, Kinder Surprise, not Kinder Joy. My kids know not to eat the plastic bright yellow toy capsule that comes inside a Kinder Surprise. Kinder Joy is safer for those kids who don't know. Anyway, the toy capsule did not go on the cake! 

Chocolate rocks with buttercream grass

RoaAaaRRR! Scary enough for ya?

I used crushed Oreos to decorate the cake board, applying a thin ganache layer on the board first so that the Oreos have something to stick to. 

gold fondant number candle

fondant message scroll on crushed Oreo soil

I am glad I found a scary enough toy dinosaur to top the cake with! I had to go on a bit of a dino hunt for it, cuz most places only carry smaller figurines or those larger toys that roar! I placed the dinosaur on the cake at the venue, cuz there was no way to secure it onto the cake for transport. 

Oh, I also made a fondant no. 3 candle, painted with the same edible gold dust. It's sometimes hard to find a number candle that matches nicely with the cake, so the easiest thing is just to cut out a chunky number from fondant, poke a hole on the top with a chopstick, and insert a regular stick candle into the hole. Boom, number candle. 

Dinosaur Cake, all lit up!*

Loved how this straightforward and very chocolatey design turned out! So happy to hear that the birthday boy and his guests loved the cake! Happy 3rd Birthday, Aryan!

"ooo scary!"*

Make a wish!*

*photos courtesy of the birthday boy's mummy