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CreativityTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm Lori Gelman from Howdini.com. Who doesn't love a panda bear? They're adorable.
00:07 And when they're made of cake, like this one, they're absolutely irresistible. And this
00:13 panda cake is the star of the party. So let's make our way over to the kitchen where Liev
00:17 Hansen for the Betty Crocker Kitchens is going to show us how to make it.
00:20 Hey, Liev. How are you?
00:22 Hi, Lori.
00:23 Boy, a panda cake. Very excited about this. This is really cool.
00:26 It's going to be fun. So this one, you actually have to bake off three cakes. You're going
00:30 to have a 13 by 9 inch and then two 8 inch. And you can use yellow cake or chocolate cake.
00:37 So the first step is we actually want to cut off all the domes so that all the cakes are
00:40 level. And we can discard those. So I'm going to flip it over. Now, we have some templates.
00:47 This is the body. And here are some paws. Just lay them out so they fit. And then take
00:55 a small serrated knife and cut it out.
00:58 I guess this would be a hard thing to do freehand. It's really better to have something to guide
01:01 you.
01:01 For something like this, it's good to have a template.
01:04 Did you chill this cake before you?
01:06 Yes. It's a great idea to chill your cakes beforehand because that will reduce the number
01:09 of crumbs. Now we can remove the excess pieces. And we're going to arrange it. The body will
01:14 go down here. And then the paws line up there.
01:19 And this fancy platter is just a piece of cardboard covered with colored paper.
01:22 Exactly.
01:23 Fantastic.
01:23 You just get a roll of wrapping paper.
01:25 I love that idea.
01:26 And the next one we're going to do is just the head. And that's just a plain, round 8-inch.
01:30 Oh, so you just use the one cake.
01:32 Yes. And again, I'll invert it to reduce the number of crumbs. And the last one, we'll
01:39 cut out the snout and the ears. So again, we have templates for that. Just lay them
01:47 out and cut.
01:51 Perfect.
01:52 Serrated knives work best. They cut through the cake nicely. And that would go there.
01:59 That's your snout.
02:04 And the ears go here.
02:05 All right.
02:06 And now we're ready to do a crumb coat.
02:07 Which is a really important step, isn't it?
02:09 Yes. Especially for any cake that has any cut edges. When you put a thin layer of frosting
02:13 over the entire thing, it'll seal in all the crumbs so your final coat's really clean.
02:17 Right.
02:17 So we've actually already crumb coated one, and we'll go get that.
02:20 Okay.
02:20 Here we go.
02:21 Oh, that looks great.
02:22 I'm going to do the chocolate first.
02:24 That's not chocolate. That is black frosting.
02:25 It is actually chocolate mixed with black.
02:27 Wow.
02:28 It's a lot easier to get a black starting with the chocolate because it's already dark.
02:31 Of course, yeah.
02:33 Looks good.
02:34 And the best thing about it is it still tastes like chocolate. I don't think you can have
02:38 too much chocolate.
02:39 You're putting a lot of frosting on.
02:42 This just makes sure I cover it completely. And that also forms that lip on top, which
02:48 will get removed.
02:49 I'm realizing we're making it the colors of a panda bear, but it could really be a teddy
02:52 bear, a polar bear, any type of bear that your child likes.
02:55 Yeah. You could even for a teddy bear, maybe even do a little bow.
02:57 Bow around. Yeah. Decorate it any way you want.
03:00 So now I'm taking that lip of frosting off, getting off the excess.
03:03 Okay.
03:03 Now I'm smoothing it out now, but what we're going to do a little later is we're actually
03:09 going to make the furry texture.
03:11 Oh, fun.
03:12 I'll do the ears.
03:17 The black frosting is so dramatic.
03:19 It is.
03:19 It really is.
03:20 Okay. So now I'm going to frost the white part.
03:27 Does it have to go around curves or little bumps like this?
03:32 Well, what I like to recommend is you start at a point where your body can reach the farthest,
03:38 and then just try to do one fluid motion.
03:42 Nice job.
03:47 So now we have it all covered. We're just going to do some pipe details, and then we'll
03:50 go back and do the furry texture.
03:52 Okay.
03:52 So I'm going to fill up two bags, one with black and one with white.
03:55 First thing I'm going to do is some black accents. I'm going to make little eye patches.
04:02 Just take your spatula and smooth it out. You just want to make sure they're large enough
04:09 to fit a marshmallow that's cut in half.
04:11 Okay. Oh, actually I have the marshmallow. I'll do it.
04:13 Great.
04:13 This is a great tip that you taught me, is you spray your scissors with nonstick cooking
04:18 spray before you cut anything sticky like a marshmallow, and it glides through like
04:22 butter.
04:22 Look at that. It's as easy as it goes.
04:24 I'll do one. I'll do one. And just put it right up against the snout there.
04:28 Right up against the snout.
04:29 Okay.
04:29 Okay.
04:30 They look good.
04:31 And then you can put a little chocolate-covered mint on. You know, I'll get a little frosting
04:35 since we already have these tubes on.
04:37 Okay.
04:37 And put a little there and a little there. And then you can put on the mints.
04:42 Okay.
04:42 Now he's looking good. At least he's looking.
04:46 Okay. I'm going to do a few more piped accents here. I'm going to do a nose.
04:53 Cute.
04:54 And a little mouth. And then we're going to make a little center body here. And then I'll
05:01 fill it in.
05:05 Just fill it in.
05:06 And again, I'm just going to squeeze it in there and then we can spread it out with the
05:13 spatula. And we're going to do little paws.
05:20 Now the idea here is we actually want it to look like his two front paws. So what we're
05:27 going to do is I'm just going to pipe a little extra black right up along there.
05:35 Oh, I see.
05:37 And this is when we get that furry texture that I was talking about.
05:40 Oh, right.
05:41 Then you can come back and you just zigzag it a little bit and it'll give it a little
05:47 furry texture. So now the only thing we need to do is just clean up the edges.
05:51 Okay.
05:51 So you just run your spatula right along and scrape it off.
05:55 I guess if you don't have a spatula, you can also use a butter knife.
05:58 Anything that'll get into those little crevices there.
05:59 All right. Looks good.
06:01 Great.
06:01 Yeah. Let's turn him around so everyone can see him.
06:04 Any way you look at him, he's unbearably cute. I've got a million of these puns. You're going
06:08 to find lots more birthday cakes from the cake experts at the Betty Crocker Kitchens.
06:12 Party ideas and inspiration right here at Howdini.com.
06:16 Thanks, Lee.
06:17 Thanks, Lori.
06:17 I'm Lori Gelman for Howdini.
06:19 (jingles)