Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cake

To go with the TMNT cookie pops for the school birthday celebration, I got to make a massive TMNT cake! 

TMNT Cake & Cookie Pops

This was a hefty 12" x 14", 5-layer rainbow vanilla butter cake, filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. It was so massive that I got a backache from carrying it. The cake was iced in yellow buttercream, with a large fondant panel to top the cake. 

massive rainbow sheet cake

I used a brick impression mat to indent a brick pattern onto the surface of the fondant. This was a little tricky to do since the piece of fondant was so large and the impression mat only covered 1/12 of the surface, so I had to carefully line up the mat with each impression to get a consistent pattern all over the fondant panel. I didn't apply enough pressure in some places and you can see that the brick pattern didn't indent too well in those areas. 

brick impression with a turtle shell silhouette

Rather than just put the four Ninja turtle faces on top of the bricks, I wanted to break up the monotony by adding the turtle shell pattern in grey. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello & Michaelangelo were cut hand-cut out of fondant using an exact knife, and then outlined in black with edible marker to make them pop. I waited until the pieces were dry before placing them on the cake. (and I now only realize that I forgot to put their tongues on!!!)

everyone's favourite ninja turtles

To finish the cake, I added "Happy Birthday" lettering and a banner with the birthday boy's name. I like the effect that the black fondant under each letter adds, making the words pop right out of the cake. 

3D lettering

This massive cake was enough to feed all the kids and teachers at school! Wishing birthday boy Leroy a very happy 4th birthday! Turtle Power! 

Happy 4th Birthday, Leroy!
(pic courtesy of Leroy's mummy)