The Making of a Panda Cake

Until last weekend I had zero experience in making a child’s themed birthday cake (probably because I don’t have children). I hear from my friends that do have kids just how highly competitive childrens’ birthday parties can be. It seems that all the parents are trying to out-do the other parents, particularly when it comes to the cake. 

Of course not every parent has the time, inclination or confidence to produce a cake that is going to make a statement. So when my neighbour asked me to put together a cake for her daughter’s ninth birthday party, I was a little hesitant in my ability to fulfil the task. Sure, I can bake a cake that tastes good, but to have it looking like an animal, castle or fairy?

Always one to rise to a challenge, I accepted the task and did what every resourceful cook does – did a google search. The theme was fairly broad, as long as it started with the letter “P” (but it couldn’t be a Pig).  Being my first kids cake, I wanted to find something that was not too intricate. After visiting various websites, I came up with the idea of a Panda Cake. I found a great concept for a Panda Cake on the Betty Crocker website which looked good and appeared to be not too complicated.

The Panda Cake comprised of two round cakes, one slightly larger than the other, that were joined together to form the Panda body.  To ensure the cake had a home-made taste, I baked the cake from scratch (rather than used a packet mix as was suggested by Betty Crocker) - a tried, tested and true recipe for a family chocolate cake. I also used home-made vanilla butter cream icing (rather than a pre-made product). I used separated Oreo biscuits to make the paws, ears, eyes, and mouth of the panda and M & M’s for the nose and eyeballs (together with marshmallows). Desiccated coconut was sprinkled on the bottom half of the body to create a “furry” effect and cocoa was mixed in with some of the coconut to define the area around the legs and the bottom portion of the body.

From start to finish it took me about 3 hours hands-on time in the kitchen. You could save some time by buying ready-made cakes or using a packet cake mix. All in all I was happy with my first attempt to make a child’s birthday cake and I had a lot of fun putting it together. Judging by the photos (kindly given to me by the Mum), it was a hit with both kids and parents alike.