Jungle Safari Cake

I got to make this Jungle Safari cake for a little boy celebrating his 1st birthday! His mummy was DIY-ing the dessert table and she was very excited to get a nice cake for him, full of lots of his fave animals!

Jungle Safari cake

The cake is a very special flavour: Ube-Macapuno. This is a traditional filipino cake made famous by the international bakery chain, Goldilocks. The last time I made this flavour was for a Tinkerbell cake for my elder daughter's 2nd birthday! In Tagalog (the filipino language) ube means "purple yam" and macapuno means "coconut sport". Both cake tiers are made of ube chiffon cake, with an ube Swiss meringue buttercream and macapuno filling. You can buy jars of macapuno at most filipino grocery stores or large supermarkets with a well-stocked asian section. 

purple yam chiffon cake

ube buttercream & macapuno filling

Baking this cake was a lot of work, especially the part which involves passing the puréed boiled yam through a fine sieve to get all the fibres out. The recipe doesn't have this step, but I had to do it cuz I felt that the fibres would've ruined the texture of the cake!  The purple yam of course, gives the cake a nice purple tinge. 

sieving out the yam fibers

This cake appeals to those who don't particularly have a sweet tooth, because it's borderline savoury, but has a nice soft texture. (yes, I'm talking about old folks. Old Chinese people specifically. Haaa. I always use my mother-in-law as a "sweetness guinea pig" when I'm baking. And she definitely gives ube-macapuno cake two thumbs up!)

lots of jungle leaves all the way around

view from the side

The cake was decorated in jungle-style, with lots of jungle leaves, vines and of course, animals - a lion, a monkey, a tiger, an elephant, a hippo and a giraffe! I actually threw in the hippo even though it wasn't part of the original design! 

cheeky monkey & a lion

stripey tiger

I used a heart cookie cutter to make the lion's mane and for the elephant's ears. The tiger's stripes are drawn on with an edible ink marker. I tried to make the monkey a little cheeky, having him scratch his head, hold a banana and have a silly grin on his face. 

elephant with big ears

hippo swimming in a puddle

cute giraffe

My fave item on this cake is the "Happy Birthday" bunting on the bottom tier, made out of jungle leaves! The cute little number 1 with the teeny jungle leaf came in a close second. 

jungle buddies

I got to use my new letter cookie cutters to spell out the birthday boy's name. The cookie cutters are a much bigger size the the letter cutters I usually use, and I like how prominent the name is on the cake. 

Jungle Safari dessert table
(pic courtesy of Jarryl's mummy)

love the topiary name!

The birthday boy's mummy set up a really awesome safari jungle-themed dessert table, filled with lots of goodies like cupcakes, cake pops, eclairs and jellies, to name a few! She was super happy with out the cake turned out, and said that it made the table complete! I love the 1st year milestone chalkboard poster that she did for the birthday boy as well. She really put in a lot of work for her boy's big celebration! 

Happy 1st Birthday, Jarryl!