Dinosaur Cake - Timmy's 3rd Birthday

It was Timmy's 3rd birthday and I offered to do the birthday cake for his school celebration. Grace mentioned that he is currently into dinosaurs so I did just that!=) I surfed the internet for some ideas but there seemed to be this particular design which was rather common and it was more 2D than 3D so I decided to use only part of the designs I see online (body part) and experimented with the rest. As this was my first 3D cake, I did not use fondant to cover the cake but replaced it with buttercream instead as it is easier to work with.

As both my hands were busy with flour, sugar, icing etc, I did not take pics of the early processes. But I will state the steps that I had taken:

(Without the icing, the cake on its own weighs about 2kg plus)
1. For the dinosaur's body, I halved a 9" chocolate cake, put some buttercream to stick them together and placed the sliced side down on the cake board.
2. For the head, tail and four legs, I had cut a second chocolate cake into rectangular cubes, stick them with buttercream, stack them up and then carved out the tail and head using a small knife.
3. When the shape of the dinosaur had taken place, I crumb-coated the whole cake to seal the crumbs in so that it will easier to ice the cake and a "cleaner" finish with no crumbs sticking to the final coating.
4. I had then placed the cake in the fridge for about an hour before taking it out for the final icing

This how the cake looks like after the final coating

For the spikes and claws, I had used baking chocolate. The chocolate comes in small rectangular slabs so I just halved them to get the triangle shapes before sticking them at the back of the dinosaur. As for the claws, I just used the broken pieces from the baking chocolate so as not to waste the delicious bits.=)

For the eyes, I sliced marshmallows and stick a chocolate chip on each side. And the teeth, I had cut White Rabbit candies because not only are these my favourite candies but it also has that off-white colour that I want for my dinosaur's teeth. To further-defined the chocolate spikes, I had also placed Rice Krispies along the back of the dinosaur and sprinkle some conrflakes all over to add on to the details.

I had some chocolate icing left so I added in even more details like the brown spots, eyebrows, noses.....

As this cake was meant for children, I had made a "pull-out" kinda cake where the little ones can eat bits and pieces off it and that is why I included loads of little goodies like jellies and plenty of chocolates. For the sand, I used brown sugar.

Edible rocks!=)

View from the top..



Lil' Dino 'resting' in the fridge..eehheheh..

Didn't sleep the whole night doing this cake but it was well worth the effort definitely!! I thought the cake turned out ok considering it was my first time but maybe next time I should try to use more cake and carve the dinosaur body as well so it will look more realistic and use fondant! heh...;p