Gloverly Cupcakes

A few months ago my friend Monika asked if I would be able to make an owl Birthday cake for her husband Aaron. I did a bit of research and found a few owl cake ideas which I sent over. The majority of ideas were cartoon like owls, probably more appropriate for a kids Birthday cake. But I managed to find a realistic barn owl cake too which looked amazing, but I honestly had no idea if I could make a cake like that! So I sent Monika the links to the various cakes, I was pretty sure the realistic owl would be her favourite, and it was. Despite it looking impossibly hard to make, I really hoped she would chose this one as I have never attempted anything like this before and was keen to give it a go, but I honestly had no idea where to start!

After doing some research and coming up with a plan for how I would do each part, I made a start on the cake. I baked 3 6” ginger cakes, you can find the recipe here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1462/sticky-stem-ginger-cake-with-lemon-icing Once the cake were completely cool, I made some vanilla buttercream and began sandwiching the layers together. Next I carefully carved the cake to make the owl shape. This was the trickiest part, I used a small serrated knife and a small tool that I had to carve pumpkins. I used some of the chunks of cake that were cut from the sides to build up the top of the head. Once I had finished shaping it, I covered with a thin layer of buttercream and put it in the fridge to harden up. I then iced the cake board with some green fondant and left to harden. Once hardened I place the cake on top, positioned slight to the back of the board.

For the decoration, I began by covering the whole cake in a thin layer of white fondant so that I had a base to stick all the feathers to. I just used one large piece of fondant and draped it over the top and carefully smoothed it around the cake. Next I started on the white feathers for the chest. Before I made any of the feathers I used the veining tool to make a feather effect around the bottom and edges of the white fondant on the chest as I wasn’t covering all of it with feathers. I then used a medium sized rose leave cutter and used Mexican modelling paste and it is slightly easier to work with than fondant. I rolled the paste till it was about 1mm thick and cut out several leaves, I placed them on a foam mat and with the veining tool I added some texture. Using a paint brush I lightly dampened the back of the feather and stuck it onto the cake, starting at the bottom. I gradually added the feathers on the chest of the owl until I had reached the top, I made sure that they weren’t stuck on completely flat and left some of the edges loose to give a bit of texture.

Next I added brown modelling paste to outline the face of the owl and use the veining tool to add texture to it. I then cut out more white feathers, this time with a smaller leaf cutter. I then stuck these on to the inside of the eyes as in the picture. Next I used brown petal dust on the white feathers to darken the inside of the eye and a bit on the feathers at the top of the chest.

I then used some brown Mexican paste to cover the top of the owls head, I rolled it out and added some feather patterns before fitting it to the top of the owls head. I didn’t worry about making the edges too neat as I was going to cover them up with more feathers. I then made lots of brown feathers and stuck them on to the top of the head, side of the head (along with some more white feathers) and made some wings and a tail too. I then used the brown petal dust to add darker areas to the brown feathers. Next I made the eyes, I used black Mexican modelling paste and rolled out 2 balls, I damped the inside of the eye sockets and inserted the balls. To get a shiny finish I sprayed them with glaze spray.

The final details were then added. I made a beak out of some peach modelling paste and carefully blended it into the rest of the face and then dusted the end with dark grey and brown petal dust. I then used some whitener mixed with some water to make a white paint and painted stripes onto the feathers. Once these had dried I added some black colouring to the white ‘paint’ to make a dark grey and painted small dashes over the top of the white stripes to give the slightly striped effect. I made 3 leaves from some green flower paste and used the veiner on them. I coloured some modelling paste a dark brown and rolled out numerous long thin bits to form branches for a nest, which were arranged around the front of the owl as in the picture. I then attached the leaves.

Finally the owl was finished, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and it’s probably the coolest cake I have ever made! Happy Birthday Aaron!