Monday, September 24, 2012

Halloween Wolf Cake


I love a fun challenge!  A friend of mine asked me to bake a wolf cake for her daughter's 10th birthday last week.  Her sweet girl, Annika, LOVES wolves!  In fact I baked werewolf cupcakes for her birthday two years ago too.  Annika and her mom had looked online for some ideas and they sent me a link to this cake.  I liked the idea of it and immediately had ideas of how I wanted to make it my own. 
 
First of all, the lady who posted the other wolf cake used the Wilton "Animal Crackers" pan to get the basic shape,  and I don't have one.  I wanted the face to be a little more narrow than that anyway, so I decided to make one with the pans I have on hand and carve it into the shape I wanted it to be. 
 
The majority of the wolf's face is actually a 2 layer 8" round cake!  I set a cupcake on it's side and attached it with frosting to the bottom of the cake to make the shape of Mr. Wolf's snout and I cut another cupcake in half and laid them on their sides to make his pointy little ears.  {Is it strange that I named him?  I became quite fond of Mr. Wolf in our short time together.  He was very easy to work with - a quality that I always appreciate in cakes to be decorated - oh, and in people too.}
 
I carved a little bit of cake away from his ear to his cheek and then from the bottom of his cheek to his snout to give him a more narrow, wolf-like, shape.  Once I liked his shape I completed my crumb coat and let it set before I busted out my grass tips and frosting bags and then I gave Mr. Wolf a whole lotta fur!
 

Believe it or not, it didn't take me as long as you'd it might to cover him in fur.  I also wanted to make Mr. Wolf more realistic so I made the frosting at the top of his snout and around his eyes a little lighter to give him some dimension.  I used green skittles for his eyes to really make them pop and add a little drama to it.  I know that Annika loves Halloween, and the wolf cupcakes I made for her all had bright, candy eyes too.  I just knew that she would like him better this way.  I liked him better with bright green eyes too!

 
Mr. Wolf is one of my favorite cakes that I have ever baked.  I had so much fun making him!  I also love how easy he was to make and how many different party themes this wolf cake could be used for.  This cake could easily be used as a Halloween werewolf cake, a Little Red Riding Hood "Big Bad Wolf" cake, a Twilight "Team Jacob" cake, Wolf Cub Scouts cake {as the woman who made the inspiration used it}, and I'm sure lots more!
 
My girls were sad that they couldn't eat such a neat cake, so if anyone out there would like to see a tutorial on how to make Mr. Wolf yourself, leave me a comment and I'll make another whilst taking pictures and then post a tutorial later on.
 
Thanks for stopping by!

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