Hog's Head Cake

This one is one of my favorites to date. Of course, there is a story. Our neighbors and friends go hog hunting. Well, the father and son do anyway. They thought it would be a cool idea to order him a hog's head cake for his birthday as a surprise. These are the same people who I did the Xbox cake for, so they have pretty high expectations of what they get from me at this point. They gave me a few pictures of other cakes as reference material for what they were looking for. I like when people do that, because it helps me visualize what's in their mind as long as they understand that I always put my own spin on things.

   

This one was a little weird. I started with two eight inch layers and two six inch layers. I then cut off one side of the stack to make a flat surface and turned the stack on it's side. This one was chocolate cake with chocolate icing. My chocolate cake tends to be extremely moist, so it's not always the best thing for something that needs a lot of structural support. It worked out though. I sent a text to the mom chastising myself for not thinking to make a red velvet cake with red icing or filling instead of chocolate. It would have made cutting the cake so much more fun.

   

After turning the stack on it's side, I started carving out the shape. It's actually a reasonably easy shape to carve out if you have any type of experience doing that sort of thing. It's mostly just visualizing what you need and knowing you'll be adding another 1/4 inch or so of additional material over the entire surface, so you have to account for that. Once carved, I covered the whole thing with a light brown marshmallow fondant. I also had to cut out the ears pretty early and set them aside. For the ears to be sturdy enough to hold up to standing upright, they have to dry out for quite a while. Drying overnight is best. I actually set them in front a small fan to help out with the process. Marshmallow fondant tastes better, but it doesn't really ever get rock hard when you shape it, especially if you grease up your hands too much when you are working with it.

   

Once the head was covered, I went about making it look a little more realistic. The fur effect was done with a fan paint brush and brown cake dye stippled directly on the fondant. I just dabbed it on until I got the color and effect I wanted. On the top of the nose, where I wanted it a little lighter, I simply put less on. The eyes and tusks are also made from fondant. The son saw this and loved it. It was a great reaction that I wish I had on film. Nobody wanted to cut it. Not because it looked cool but because it was sort of creepy to do so. The birthday boy cut off the nose and ate that himself. Even cut, people tended to steer clear of the eyes, because they were still sort of creepy. I am told that there wasn't any left by the time the party was over and this is a party where there were several desserts.