Armadillo Red Velvet Cake
For Red Velvet Mud Cake
- 660g/23.3ozs. butter (doesn't matter if it's at room temp or not in this recipe)
- 480g/17ozs. white chocolate broken up into pieces
- 4 cups caster or superfine sugar
- 4 cup water
- Red Velvet colouring (4 tablespoon of the LorAnn one plus 2 tablespoons regular liquid just for good luck)
- 4 cups plain flour
- 1 cup cornflour or cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 300g/10.6ozs. white chocolate
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1 tablespoon LorAnn Red Velvet food colouring gel*
To decorate
- 750g/26.5ozs. White fondant
- A little black fondant for eyes
- Black food colouring
- 2 rice paper sheets
- 2 toothpicks
- 2/3 cup cherry jam mixed with 1 tablespoon red food colouring
- Red string candy (for guts)
- 100g/3.5ozs. dark chocolate
- Pebble shaped candy (or chocolate cookie crumbs) for dirt
*The Lorann Red Velvet food colouring gel is thicker and very strong than liquid red colouring. It is also ideal for melting with chocolate as liquid red food colouring may cause melted chocolate to seize. You can purchase it at Glasshouse Cakes and Supplies in Revesby for $14.95 a bottle.
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 150c/300F. Line two 8x8 inch square baking tins with parchment.
Step 2 - Place butter, chocolate, sugar and the water in large saucepan over low heat until melted and combined. Cool for 15 minutes. Whisk in both red food colourings.
Step 3 - Using a whisk, add flour, cornflour, cocoa, baking powder and then eggs. This is a huge batter mix so make sure to get the bits of flour at the bottom.
Step 4 - Bake for 1 hour and then cover with foil and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool in tin. Once cold, cover with cling film.
Step 5 - Make chocolate ganache by melting the white chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler. Mix the food colouring gel with the cream whisking until it becomes a uniform red colour and add to the melted white chocolate. If you don't have a gel and only liquid red food colouring, I'd leave the ganache white as it may seize if you add the liquid colouring as it is too much like water which causes chocolate to seize. Heat if it becomes too stiff and unworkable.
Step 6 - Trim the cakes and discard any crusted over bits. You can always use the excess cake for cake pops.
Step 7 - Now comes the tricky part-carving the armadillo. Take your cake board (for a heavy cake, make sure it's one of those really thick ones and not the less expensive, slightly flimsier ones) and spread a little ganache on it to secure the cakes to it. The ganache will act as a glue and filler. Sandwich the two cakes together with some ganache. Allow to set.
Step 8 - Take a knife and start carving at the cake. A skilled person could probably do this with one cake but I am not that skilled person. You want a rounded football shape from the top. Make sure that there are no hard corners, it should be smooth. It helps if you have a few pictures at different angles of armadillos.
*Spreading ganache on the surface-this will be smoothed down to provide a smooth surface for the fondant *
Step 9 - Spread ganache on top of the armadillo. It doesn't need to be neat and smooth at this point. Place in the fridge to firm up for an hour or so.
Meanwhile, make the ears. Lightly mist a sheet or rice paper with water and fold up into four quarters lengthwise to get a long rectangle. Stick a toothpick in the bottom of one and press down. Cut an ear shape out with scissors.
Step 10 - Smooth the ganache. Have a glass of water and a palette knife and dip the knife in the water and smooth the ganache. Press it firmly and it will smooth out. This takes practice so don't worry if you don't get it straight away.
Step 11 - Tint the fondant with a little black food colouring. I did this in the mixer with a dough hook as it was a large amount of fondant.
Step 12 - Roll out the fondant onto a large, clean area and use cornstarch or cornflour or even sifted icing sugar to prevent it from sticking. Gently lift the round of grey fondant onto the cake and using a sharp paring knife, cut off any excess and tucking any bits in underneath it. Smooth it down with a square of overhead projector film. Make sure to cover up any excess fondant up as it dries quickly.
Step 13 - Cover the head and ears with the fondant. Roll out some more fondant and make the armour plates which are just long, thin strips of fondant. Adhere these to the armadillo using a little water.
Step 14 - Make a tail by rolling a sausage of fondant thinning it out at the end. Then fashion little paws out of the fondant cutting the pieces with scissors to make the paw shape.
Step 15 - Take the end of a piping tip and draw armour scales on the armadillo. Shape two small balls of black fondant and adhere these as eyes. Once the fondant on the ears has set, attach the ears. You now have an armadillo!
Step 16 - To make a road kill version, just cut a one inch slice in the middle of the armadillo and squash down the cake spreading the armadillo halves slightly apart. Remove any excess grey fondant as you mostly want the red velvet "guts". Line with the red string candy and spoon the cherry jam over and near the "wound".
Step 17 - Cover the silver board with melted dark chocolate. Use the palette knife to make out some tyre marks. Apparently you can also use a toy truck to make these imprints but I couldn't really find one large enough. Cover with cookie crumbs or pebble candy to simulate road terrain.