It’s Alive! Cakenstein!
The leaves are falling and the spider webbing is going up. Light your candelabra and prepare to serve up a scary good cake to your favorite ghouls and goblins. It’s… Frankenstein’s Monster! Well, make that his sweeter distant cousin, Cakenstein!

I will be using a ¼ sheet of cake and 2 lbs. of icing. You’ll a few pastry bags and round tips (size 8 and size 3) as well as food coloring, I used black, yellow, and green liquid gel.

In preparation of piecing our monster together, you’ll want to color your icing. From my 2 lbs. of white I put 4 oz. of white in a piping bag with a coupler. Then I scooped out another 8 oz. and colored it black. The remaining icing I colored neon green. I like my bright greens on the yellow side. I used a teaspoon of yellow liquid gel and 3 drops of leaf green. Liquid gel is stronger than the little droplet bottles you find in the spice aisle of the grocery store. You would need much more than I used to get the bright colors.

Now, a quick note before you start mixing! If you are new to icing a cake you make need a little more green than I used. I ended up with a small fist sized ball of icing left after icing my cake. If you are still battling the crumbs when you ice you may want to have an extra ½ lb. of green in the bowl to start with to give you more icing to work with. Or, just cut back on the white and black that you bag up to start with. I probably used half of the white and maybe half of the black. It’s just nice to have more than you need in the bag, it makes it easier to squeeze and you won’t run out half way through should you have oopses.

Alright, you’ve got the icing. You’ve got a cake. You’ve got the equipment, time to let the experiment begin! Ice your ¼ sheet cake with the lime green icing. You should have some extra icing left. Bag this up in a piping bag with a coupler.

I’m going to pipe his face using the coupler, no ring, no tip. Draw his brow in about the middle of the cake. Next pipe a nose, start from the tip of his nose with a round circle and then bring it upwards tapering off at his brow. Think of a large teardrop shape. Using the same bag finish off the green parts by piping his ears on the sides. One side is a “C” shape and the other is a backwards “C”. Next up, his hair.

Using the bag of black icing with a size 8 round tip, pipe his hair. I like to leave it as a bunch of straight lines with slight variations in the length. Think of piping fence posts, really close together, across his forehead. Carry the hair lines down the sides of the cake as well. For the top of his head where we won’t really see it, you can either keep piping lines or, my preference, smooth it out. Just fill in the space roughly and then use a small spatula to smooth it out. Why do I like that? It’s just less black icing on the cake. It’s still black, but it’s a thinner layer.

 

Okay, we’ve given him face parts and hair. Let’s add in some eyeballs. Using the white with just the coupler in the bag, no coupler ring or tip, pipe his eye balls. I like my scooted up against his brow. I think it gives him more character than two big wide awake excited eyes. But, maybe your Cakenstein is wide awake and happy to see you… you are the mad scientist, the choice is in your hands! After the whites you can use the black with the size 8 round to pipe in pupils.

Our monster needs a few more details. A size 3 round with the white icing is perfect for making stitches. I chose white to brighten up the cake and bring balance to all the black. Little white dots in his eyes will bring live to his expression. I gave mine a squiggly smile with black and a size 3 round tip. And he needed neck bolts, I piped them with the size 8 round tip in black. I liked the white, black, lime color scheme and didn’t want to throw in random gray on the side. A few little highlight lines in white and the bolts fit in well with the minimalist color scheme.

And with that, throw the switch and pull back the sheet! Cakenstein lives!

Amanda,
Coborn’s, Inc. Pastry Arts Training Specialist

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