Boofy Cakes

Happy Birthday Brian! Today is my brother’s birthday! I always love making my brother birthday cakes because he has such a wide variety of odd interests that make for fun cakes! I typically ask him what kind of cake he wants, or I take suggestions from my other brother. But this year I came up with the cake all on my own! I recreated the Monster Book of Monsters from Harry Potter! I had so much fun making it! It is German chocolate cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream filling. I iced it in regular white buttercream. For the leather cover, I used Chocolate Clay.

To make Chocolate Clay, you microwave 10 ounces of chocolate chips stirring ever 20 seconds until it is melted smooth. Then stir in 1/3 Cup of corn syrup. I line a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper and spread the chocolate over it to cool. It must sit for a couple of hours, then it will become pliable. you can use it to make chocolate decorations such as roses for your cakes. For the book I just spread my chocolate clay over the sheet pan making sure it was the right dimensions to cover my cake.

Before covering the cake, I used a log shape of fondant on the top for where the eyes would go. Once covered in the chocolate clay, this area would be popped up. When my chocolate clay became pliable, I draped it over my cake covering the “spine” of the book and the top cover. Using a pizza cutter I cut off extra clay where the cake met the board. Then I used kitchen scissors I cut the edge to look like the jagged edge of the book!

I used fondant to create the mouth and teeth and dusted them with a terracotta dust to give it an old dirty look. I finished off the bottom border of the book with more strips of chocolate clay that I cut jagged with the scissors. On the top I wrote The Monster Book of Monsters with a paint brush. To make the gold paint, I used edible gold luster dust and mixed it with a tiny bit of vodka. You can substitute the vodka with lemon extract or anything edible with a high alcohol content. This will ensure that the paint dries quickly and doesn’t soak into the chocolate or fondant making it sticky. I prefer vodka because it is tasteless.

Take a look at my Monster Book of Monsters and let me know what you think!