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You are here: Recipes > Barn Owl Cake

Barn Owl Cake

A simple vanilla sponge coated in white chocolate ganache, with a carved vanilla sponge hand painted to resemble a barnowl.

Recipe by Beth Collins

Uploaded by

Time to make

Skill Level

Experienced

Serves

18 people

Baking ingredients

  • 24 oz Self raising flour
  • 24 oz Granulated sugar
  • 24 oz Baking marg
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla
  • 12 Eggs
  • 2 tbsp Milk

Decorating ingredients

  • 1 kg Renshaw Teddy Bear Brown Ready to Roll Icing
  • 1100 g White chocolate
  • 300 ml Double cream
  • 1 kg White Sugarpaste
  • 1 Edible glaze
  • 250 g Renshaw Lincoln Green Ready to Roll Icing
  • Food colours and rejuvinator spirit to make edible paint
  • 50 g Renshaw Jet Black Ready to Roll Icing

Instructions

Step 1

Cream butter and sugar together in stand mixer. Add eggs and mix on high til fully incorporated. Add flour and mix on low until smooth. Add vanilla and milk and mix until incorporated. Brush 7" cake tins x 3 with cake release and bake at 140°C fan for 1 hr 50 mins.

Step 2

Once cakes are cooled, level and fill with buttercream. Melt chocolate and cream together until smooth then set aside until peanut butter consistency. Smooth onto outside of cake and leave to set hard.

Step 3

Cover the top of the cake with a little teddy bear brown mixed with white sugarpaste. Score woodgrain effect into the top of the cake. Roughly panel the sides of the cake with the fondant, overhanging the top edge slightly. Score the fondant roughly and randomly to resemble bark.

Step 4

Add indents to the "bark" and slits on the top edges to resemble split wood. Use a cakepop stick to support a small branch out of side of cake.

Step 5

Build up colour with an airbrush, start with yellow, then a small amount of red, brown, black and finally a gold shimmer.

Step 6

Carve owl shape from cake, with cake card underneath to support. Cover with the white chocolate ganache.

Step 7

Dowell the tree stump and secure the owl shaped cake to the tree stump with a little royal icing. Use 2x Dowells at an angle straight into the tree stump and through to the middle of the owl cake - these will form the legs

Step 8

Build up fondant "feathers" one by one, using a flattened small amount of fondant and slit the edges to make them appear ruffled. Cover the chest of the owl with white fondant, and make very small incisions to cover entire chest to mimic small feathers.

Step 9

Cover face of owl with white fondant, indent two "eye" sockets. Add 2 balls of black fondant for the eyes. Add a small piece of white fondant for the beak and add grey edible paint, then paint eyes and beak with edible glaze.

Step 10

Add a line of fondant as an eyebrow across top of each eye to meet just above the beak. Using a craft knife, cut the strip of fondant to look like ruffled feathers. Add a small line of fondant to the edge of the face and once again cut to look like ruffled feathers

Step 11

Use white fondant for creating feet, with notches across them. Paint with diluted grey and brown edible paint.

Step 12

Use a light brown mixed with yellow to paint the edges of the wing, head and back feathers. Add highlights with grey paint, and dots of black. Dots of black to chest to make a female owl.

Step 13

Cover board with Lincoln Green fondant and airbrush to shade. Make "mushrooms" and butterfly from fondant then hand paint.