Cakes for Dad!

Sorry for being absent for over a week. Things have been pretty shaky here, at least for the latter part of last week.

Things started off well with plenty of progress being made in our bedroom makeover. Paint was going on the walls, floorboards were up, radiator was fitted and all rubbish had been taken away. We managed to get a day out with some friends, then I took my son out to a theme park to blow off some steam. When we came back, one of our cats was not behaving in his usual way. He was very listless and moving very slowly. I took him to the vets where they suspected asthma. This seemed a reasonable explanation as there had been a lot of dust from sanding the walls and lifting the boards. He was given some shots and we took him home. Unfortunately he did not improve so back we went again. This time the vets hung onto him and did lots of tests. We picked him up with pills and special food to give.  Well the weekend was just horrendous. He hated being force fed the food, he wouldn't drink, he would just lay there on the floor, and after fighting us over food he just lay in my husband's arms for 20 minutes, all the fight out of him. It was truly heartbreaking, especially for my son who has a very special bond with this particular cat.  Yesterday we appeared to turn a corner. He began to eat and drink on his own, he purred when we petted him and even got on my son's lap for a cuddle. His energy levels are still pretty low and he does have fluid on his lungs. He then started to groom himself yesterday evening which is a huge sign he is feeling better. The vet called this morning to say the test results look good but that they want to do a final couple of tests to rule out some other things.  I am very hopeful today that things are going to be OK for our cat.

Here's my beautiful boy. Get well soon!

I feel I can move on to thinking ahead now that he appears to be on the mend. The next big thing is of course Father's Day. If you like to home make something token for Dad, Grandpa or Husband, you can't go wrong with some cake! I've gathered together some of the cakes I have made for the men in my family and how easily they can be adapted for Father's Day. Most of these incorporate chocolate into the design as well as flavour! Well you can't go wrong with chocolate and what do they say about the way to a man's heart?

Let's start with something super simple!

Here we have a simple square cake. This was done in a sheet pan and decorated by myself and son! Perfect base for kids to get involved! We purchased ready coloured fondant, ready made chocolate icing and icing shapes.  I let my son cut out stars and hearts from the fondant, and after liberally applying frosting to the cake we went to town on the decorations! I made sausage shapes with some more fondant which I flattened with my finger and placed around the edge of the cake.

If you like to decorate but you prefer simple decoration, then this cake is for you. I adapted this from a Wilton design I found in a year book. The simple rectangle cake was covered with chocolate fondant and ready made chocolate frosting was used to decorate. I used tip 4 for writing the message and border along with a star shaped tip to add a zig zag border to the base of the cake and top edge.

Perhaps the man in your life prefers cupcakes? You could just make up a batch of his favourite recipe and cover them with a rich icing. That is pretty much what I did here, except I wanted to add a little decoration that was becoming of the recipient! I took some light brown and white fondant and made little beer jugs. I just manually shaped the mug, rolled out a little white for the handles and frosty tops, then scored the mugs with a knife to get the beer mug shape. Extremely easy!

This cake took some patience to buttercream smooth but it was worth it. I copied the design from an English decorating book that used a lot of royal icing. As I did not enjoy royal icing at the time, I did this completely in buttercream. Simple borders and simple colours fit well for a man.

Is your man always on his phone??? Perhaps a cake shaped like his own would work? Here I used a play phone as I could not get hold of the recipients actual phone (always with him!). I shaped the cake from a square pan so it became double height. I covered in buttercream to secure the layers in place, then covered it in black fondant. Using the play phone as a guide and cut grey and white fondant to size and used buttercream for the details of the buttons.

Perhaps Dad is a gardener? Loves to tend to his plants and flowers? Howabout an edible bouquet just for him? I did this cake during my Wilton 1 course and was given to my Dad when he retired. The cake was iced smooth with chocolate buttercream. I made the roses ahead of time using the Wilton method (find the instructions here), and placed them on the cake in a bouquet. The gaps were filled with leaves made with a Wilton leaf tip. Again the bow was piped following Wilton methods (find that tutorial here), and a shell border was added to the edge as well as a piped message. This cake is more involved but the results are worth it.

As you know, Wilton do lots of shaped pans. They brought out an Animal Crackers pan a few years ago which I snapped up as it looked so much fun! Sadly the pan is discontinued but if you search EBay you should still be able to find it.  I just loved this Go Bananas cake so had to do it for my husband! Find the details on how to decorate here.

Another Wilton inspired project was this fun lion! The pan they used had long since been discontinued so I again used the Animal Crackers pan. They do not have the instructions for this one on their website sadly. The method for outlining the features is the same as for the monkey above. I then used star tips to create the mane and face. I used a large open tip like tip 12 to fill in the tongue, eyes and nose. I dipped my finger in cornflower to flatten and fill the shapes with the frosting.  I made the crown from a piece of card and piped the message onto it. The mane is made by pulling long shapes from your icing bag, quick and simple!

Something a little retro for Dad to remind him of his youth! I had no method for making these cakes, just a picture I found on Pinterest. They use a combination of buttercream and fondant shapes. Here's how I made them :-

Beaker - I swirled some frosting onto the cake. I then took some flesh coloured fondant and formed an oblong shape. Using a knife, I indented a mouth. I rolled a small ball of orange for the nose, and two smaller white balls for the eyes. Small dots of black fondant were used for the pupils. I took another piece of orange fondant and cut it into rectangles which I then attached to the top of the head to make the hair.

Scooter - I swirled frosting onto the cake. I rolled out some yellow fondant and cut it into a face shape. I again used a knife to indent for the mouth, but this time made it wider so that I could fill it with other colours. I cut a small amount of bright pink to fill the mouth gap and layered this with a small piece of red as the tongue. I rolled two small yellow fondant balls which I shaped into ears. I cut a strip of black fondant for the glasses and attached flattened balls for the eyes. Hair was made with tiny sausage shapes.

Kermit - Swirl of frosting on cake. Roll out green fondant in the same way as for Scooter. Cut mouth in the same way as for Scooter. Fill in gap with pink. Roll and flatten white fondant for eyes and use an edible food writer to fill in the pupils.

Gonzo - Rather than swirl frosting, tint some blue and attach the Wilton multi opening decorating tip to a piping bag. Use this to cover the cake in blue 'fur'. Roll orange, white and black fondant balls for the eyes as before. Take a piece of light blue fondant and roll a large sausage shape for the nose. Dent the fondant 1/4 way down from the face to crook the nose. You may need to place something under the nose while it sets in case it decides to fall off the cake!

Miss Piggy - Swirl some frosting. Make a small flesh coloured circle with some fondant and place on the cake. Take some cream coloured frosting, and using the same tip as for the swirls, pipe random swirl and tufts to represent hair. Roll and large ball for the nose and flatten. Take a fork or toothpick to indent the nostrils. Indent the mouth as before. Take 2 small balls of flesh fondant and shape them like leaves for the ears. Indent these with a toothpick. Make the eyes as before but use an edible foodwriter for the eyelashes.

Animal - Using the multi opening decorating tip, pipe longer strands to cover the cake in 'hair'. Use some black fondant to make a wide mouth and rough up a couple of pieces to make the eyebrows. Make the eyes and nose in the same way as before. Take a small piece of fondant and roll into a fat sausage shape which you can flatten. Shape it into a teardrop shape and place on the face as the tongue. Indent the middle with a toothpick.

There you have it! Easy and fun ideas!

Look out for Thursday when I'll be sharing my ideas for hobby themed cakes.