It all started with a beautiful pink cake posted on Aww Sam‘s instagram (@aww.sam) that I had liked, like almost everything she does (her account is just awesome!). At the time I had just thought it was a pretty cake. But when Toya sent me the same pink flamingo saying that I had to make it, I thought she was so right and I realised how much a flamingo pool float cake was a good idea.
The only thing is that Sam used a giant donut tin and I did not really have neither the time nor the intention to order one for this cake. So I opted for a rum baba mould – yes, yes, that good old mould with a hole that we all have at home. As it almost doubled the size of the cake, I needed to find a solution to create proportionate neck and head for the flamingo. Sam simply uses fondant icing but it would never have been possible at such a large scale. I needed to find something.
Then I thought about the Rice Krispies technique that many cake designers use to make 3D cakes. I had never really used before because even if the texture is great, I don’t think the taste is particularly interesting. However, my Mars cake recipe uses a similar technique and I love it so much that I forbid myself to do too often (need to think about that cellulite thingy…).
So I decided to get on with my flamingo cake. It’s only my second day on Snapchat, this is too good of an opportunity so I film all the making process of the cake. Everything goes well, it’s great. My flamingo pool float cake is superb. But while I was Snapping away I did not realise that the neck was sagging slowly. Impossible to take a decent photo, my flamingo took 80 years in the face and looked like an old man. Too bad because it was really delicious… (so if you want to follow my failures -and hopefully some successes too!- follow me on Snapchat @fashioncooking)
Lesson learned, I made my flamingo cake one more time, fully focused on it this time and changed the mix for the head and neck. The concept remains the same but of I went for a firmer – but blander – texture. We won’t eat the head, that’s all.
And above all, I learned on the way that putting a layer of buttercream icing or ganache before using fondant icing is not mandatory. So if you put the cake in the fridge, the fondant hardly suffers any damage and the structure does not collapse. Good to know!
Voila, to make a long story short, I can finally post my version of the lovely flamingo pool float cake and I have to say I’m quite satisfied with it. I am even ready to proudly ride it in the pool if I hadn’t nibbled a few large pieces along the way. In short, this is not what will help me float …
- 300g Rice Krispies cereal
- 125g unsalted butter
- 6 Mars bars
- 250g marshmallows
- 200g Rice Krispies
- 1.25kg paste pink sugar
- black sugar paste 30g
- white sugar paste 20g
- food sticks
- 1 black edible food pen
- 1 knob of margarine (or other vegetable fat)
- Cut the Mars bars in 4 and the butter into pieces. Melt together in a saucepan over low heat stirring almost constantly. When only a few pieces that do not melt remain, use a whisk to dissolve them. Whisk in the pan until the mixture is homogeneous and shiny.
- Place the Rice Krispies in a large bowl and add the melted mixture over it. Mix gently with a wooden spoon until well-coated.
- Spread half of the mix in the rum baba mould. Press well and smooth the top with your hands. Put 25 minutes in the freezer to harden. Leave the rest of the mixture at room temperature, do not exceed 25 minutes otherwise this half will begin to harden too. After 25 minutes, put the mold under a fine stream of hot water, with your hands beneath the cake because it will slide off the tin at once. Put this first half of the ring in the fridge on a sheet of baking paper.
- Rinse and dry the mould. Fill with the rest of the Rice Krispies mix and put once again in the freezer 25 minutes. After the second ring is done, return one of the rings on a sheet of baking paper and place the second over, press down firmly to weld and get a beautiful ring. Put in the refrigerator.
- Melt the marshmallows in the microwave for 1 minute, mix with a spoon and put them back for another 30sec (you should have the mixture is almost liquid).
- Reserve a tablespoon of melted marshmallows. Add the Rice Krispies on the rest of melted marshmallows and stir until well-coated. Cool for 15 minutes at room temperature (if the mixture is too hot, we can't shape it).
- Meanwhile, prepare the neck structure. Plant a skewer in a polystyrene block. Foll a piece of thin wire in two and wind it around the skewer, let go higher than the skewer by approximately 6cm. Give it a slightly curved shape for the beak. Brush this structure with the tablespoon of melted marshmallow that you had set aside. This allows the Rice Krispies mix to adhere better. Spread a thin layer of margarine on the block to prevent the neck from sticking.
- Coat your hands with margarine. Take handfuls of the Rice Krispies mix and just put them around the neck structure. Pack well, pressing with your hands before adding another layer. Keep going until you form the neck and head of the flamingo like in the picture beneath. Cover tightly with cling film. Allow to set in the refrigerator 1 hour.
- For the decoration, you must proceed quickly so that the flamingo does not have time to melt. Prepare everything you'll need in advance and take the different items out of the fridge when you are ready, one at a time.
- Spread out the pink fondant icing to 5mm thick on a surface lightly sprinkled with icing sugar. The circle of fondant has to be much larger than the ring to cover its volume. Cover the Rice Krispies ring with fondant. Smooth out the surface and cut the excess with a sharp knife.
- Cover the neck and head with pink fondant. Add a strip of white fondant cut like in the picture and cover partially with a large strip of black fondant to form the beak. Paste it all with food glue. Add an eye on each side and using the black edible pen, draw a line on both sides of the beak.
- Stick the neck structure slightly oblique in the ring. Fill the qaps with pink fondant. Add a large pink fondant strip on top and smooth well.
- Put your pool float flamingo cake back in the fridge until you're ready to enjoy it!.
I decided to not eat the neck of the flamingo because I do not particularly like the Rice Krispies marshmallow combo. So, it does not bother me to use wire in the structure. If you want to eat the head of flamingo, try to separate the wire from the preparation using cling film or aluminum foil.
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