Wasp cake: final product

Well it is complete. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but as with most things I make, I just started and just rolled with it. I should mention that this is simply a description of how I made the cake, and I'm certainly not saying that it's the best way or the quickest. I wanted to write down the process so I can learn from my cake making endeavours for the future, and if someone else can gain some inspiration on the way, then all the better. I really have no idea about cake making: I just think of something and try to make it using cake as my medium.

How to make your very own Spider Hunting Wasp cake:

I made the cake (the innards) a few days ago. As I've mentioned before, if I'm making a character cake, I always like to make the cake in advance because it's so much easier to carve and work with and also means that I have time in case it doesn't work (my cakes have a habit of not working under pressure!). Because of the shape of the wasp, I decided to make the cake in two loaf tins. I made a lemon loaf cake based on these two recipes. I like my lemon cakes to be really lemony, and this one is certainly lemony!

Beth's superzesty lemon cake

Makes 2 loaf cakes. Can be frozen.

250 g butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6-8 large lemons)
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 eggs
400 g Greek-style yoghurt
3 cups self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line base and sides of 2 x 7cm-deep, 10.5cm x 20.5cm (base) loaf pan with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at both long ends.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time.
3. Combine lemon juice, yoghurt, and vanilla in a separate bowl.
4. Add the flour, baking soda and yoghurt mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

To make the wasp:

For the body:

• 1 packet of Orchard icing
• Food dye
  
• 1 packet of dark melting chocolate
• 1 Kinder Surprise or Easter egg (for the eyes)
• Apricot jam

• Prepare your mounting board if needed. I use a large wooden chopping board covered with gift wrapping foil.
• Shape the cake and round any edges. You will need a head, thorax and abdomen. I made the head and thorax out of one loaf but cutting 1/3 of the end of the cake (for the head) and the rest for the thorax. I rounded the head and made the thorax pointed at one end. The second loaf was used for the abdomen. Mine ended looking up like so:

• Using bamboo skewers, join the 3 body pieces together as below. I used two skewers to attach the head to the thorax, through the front of the head. I used one skewer to attach through the top of the abdomen through to the thorax.
  

• Roll out the Orchard icing as per instructions. I chose to colour my wasp orange. Make strips for the segments on the abdomen.
  
• Start with the abdomen. Brush the abdomen with apricot jam. Lay the strips of icing over the top of the cake and press gently so it attaches to the cake.
• For the thorax, I rolled out a big square of icing, laid it over the top of the cake and with a sharp knife I cut it to shape. I rolled the icing back to apply the jam onto the cake, and then pressed the icing back into place.
  
• For the head, I removed the cake head piece, rolled out circle of icing, brushed the cake with jam and wrapped the icing around it. I stuck the head back on.

For the wings:

• 1 x 500 g packet of air drying clay
• Aluminium foil
• 500 g packet castor sugar
• 1/2 cup water
  

I should mention that this is the abridged version of how I made the wings. I spent a bit of time over the past week tinkering with different ideas, different moulds, but in the end I decided to make my own mould for the wings out of cheap, air drying clay that I picked up at my local craft shop. I made two wing moulds (wasps have two sets of wings). I then wrapped the clay moulds in aluminium foil and poured the toffee in. Because I only had one mould, I had to make the wings in two batches.

• Lightly coat the aluminium covered moulds with spray oil.
• In a saucepan (don't use a dark coloured saucepan!), heat 250 g sugar and 1/4 cup of water together. Leave it to bubble, without stirring, until it turns golden brown.
  
• Quickly pour it into the prepared moulds. Leave to set on the bench for 30 mins.
• Avoid getting water on your toffee or it will turn to liquid.

For the legs, antennae and eyes:

• Melt your dark chocolate. I'm lazy and melt chocolate in the microwave.
• Lay down a sheet of aluminium foil on the bench. Using a teaspoon and a skewer, spoon out chocolate onto the foil and smooth out to make the shape of a leg. Leave to set for a few minutes, then turn the leg over. Apply chocolate to the other side to give the leg more "body".
• For the antenna, carefully draw a thin line of chocolate across the foil with the edge of the teaspoon. Build up the chocolate with a few extra layers if it's too fragile. It doesn't matter if it looks a bit blobby or rough: wasp antennae are moniliform!
• I attached the legs to the body by literally shoving the edge of the leg straight into the cake.
• I gently pried open the kinder surprise using a sharp knife, then wedged the halves into the side of the head. I then attached the antennae in the same fashion as I attached the legs.
  

• Using a paintbrush, I made lines across the back of the plates of the abdomen with melted chocolate.
  

Mounting the wings:

• This was a challenge that I hadn't really thought through when I started the whole project. In the end, I jammed the wings into the back of the head, which seemed to work fine. I needed to remove them for transportation though. I would probably do this right before the cake is to be presented, or alternatively make the wings thinner in future, because the weight was a bit too much for the head in the end, and it ended up partly caving in. It was able to be patched, but just a reminder for myself for the future.

This photo is just before I brushed down the icing sugar off his face. A post-icing-sugar-face photo to come!