Peppa Pig Apple Tree Cake & Peppa Pig Cookies

Lucky birthday girl Isha continued her Peppa Pig-themed 3rd birthday, celebrating with a fun party at home. I had the chance to make a Peppa Pig car cake for her school birthday a couple of days ago, and now I got to make her another Peppa Pig cake. One of the iconic images in the Peppa Pig cartoon series is a big apple tree (Grandma Pig grows apples in the orchard near their house). So for this cake, Isha's mummy requested for an apple tree to be in the design. 

Peppa Pig Apple Tree Cake

Before decorating the cake, I worked on the Daddy, Mummy, Peppa and George Pig fondant figurines, made in the same way as the Peppa Pig family figurines I did for this Peppa Pig House cake. The figurines can be made way in advance, and stored in an airtight container once fully dry. I was a little apprehensive about making figurines that would be standing upright on spindly little legs, but I was up to the challenge. I didn't think about how to make them stand until it was time to assemble the cake, of course. More on this later. 

Fondant Figurines of Peppa Pig & family

To make the apple tree, I had the ingenious idea of using marshmallows as a base to hold up all the leaves. Otherwise, it would have been far too heavy had I just used a hunk of fondant! I cut 4 marshmallows in half and stuck them together to form a ball, and then stuck that to the end of a chopstick. Then, I cut out lots and lots of leaves using a mini sunflower fondant cutter and stuck those all over the marshmallows using a little bit of water. 

marshmallow tree base

After completely covering the tree with leaves, I rolled out tiny red fondant balls for apples and stuck those on as well. For the tree trunk, I marbled some dark chocolate fondant with some black fondant and rolled a thick snake before poking a hole through it with a chopstick. I let the base of the tree dry separately from the leaves cuz I didn't want the weight of the leaves crushing the trunk. Once fully try, I threaded the trunk onto the chopstick that was holding up the marshmallows and tree leaves and stuck it on using a little bit of water. 

fondant apple tree

The thing that I was most looking forward to for this cake was finally getting to try out the highly praised and most talked about brand of fondant for humid climates in the professional cake decorating world. This is, of course, Carma's Massa Ticino Tropic fondant, manufactured in Switzerland. All the buzz said that this is a no tear, super easy to work with, not to mention tasty, fondant, with a special recipe to fight the humidity. The normal store-brand fondant that I use has a tendency to tear when draped over a cake, even if it's just a small 5" round. This fondant doesn't taste very good (although my son LOVES eating it) I've also tried Satin Ice, but I've had problems with elephant skin developing once the cake has sat in air-conditioning for a while. Click here to read all about my Massa Ticino fondant experience for this cake. 

smooth smooth fondant

Both cake tiers are the ever-popular Devil's Food Cake, filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache and chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. The bottom tier of the cake was covered in pink fondant, and then decorated with fondant apples that I cut out using a cute apple cookie cutter that I found at a Japanese housewares store. It's suppose to be used for bento boxes, but it makes just as good a fondant cutter! I used the regular fondant that I always use to make the apples and the figurines and the apple tree because the texture is stiff since it's drier and completely not elastic compared with the Massa Ticino fondant. Every brand has its plus points for sure. 

apples on the bottom tier

The top cake tier was covered in light blue fondant. I cut a number 3 out of pink fondant using a cookie cutter and stuck that on the centre of the tier using a little bit of royal icing. To top both tiers, I rolled out circles of green fondant "grass", using a PME impression rolling pin to give it texture. I used a smaller impression rolling pin to add an "orange slice" pattern to the cake board as well (too bad it wasn't an apple slice pattern!). 

cute number 3 with teeny daisies

I added a pink rope to border the bottom of both tiers, accenting with teeny tiny white daisies and some green bushes. The birthday girl's name was cut out of red fondant using letter cutters, and stuck onto the cake board using a little bit of water on the back of each letter. 

Now that the base cakes are decorated, it's time to finish the cake off with the Pig family on top. For their legs, I rolled very thin snakes of pink fondant, and then poked a thin 20 gauge wire through each leg. I added little black shoes too. I let the legs and shoes dry upright on a styrofoam block, with the wires running through them. Once the legs were completely dry, I poked the ends of the wire into the bottom of each of the figurines, and then poked the other ends of the wires into the cake. 

view from the side

view from the back

It is very important to let the legs fully dry before standing the bodies on top, or else the weight of the figurine will slowly but surely squish the legs down and you'll end up with stumpy pigs. I'm so glad that I managed to make all four pigs stand upright, cuz I really didn't have a plan on how I was going to do this and didn't know if this method was going to work!

In addition to the cake, I also got to make Peppa Pig sugar cookies for Isha's party, individually wrapped in cellophane and tied off with a pink twisty tie. They were made in the same way as these fondant-decorated Peppa Pig cookies. 

Peppa Pig Cookie Army

do you like my Peppa Pig lunch box & cookie jar?

Peppa Pig fondant cookies

The Peppa Pig Apple Tree cake and Peppa Pig sugar cookies were featured on a cute Peppa Pig-themed dessert table put together by Hitched Weddings & Parties. I love the chocolate milk in little glass bottles and the retro juice bar! Isha's super mummy Anamika whipped up a very nice spread of canapés for the party to go along with all the desserts and candies, including smoked salmon & cream cheese on mini toast, and tomato & bocconcini caprese bites! Yummy!  

Peppa Pig-themed dessert table

retro juice bar

Thanks very much to mummy Anamika for trusting me to make Isha's Peppa Pig birthday cakes! I'm so glad to have been a part of Isha's birthday celebrations. Happy 3rd birthday, sweet Isha Zaara! 

Happy 3rd Birthday, Isha!