How To Make An Angry Birds Fondant Birthday Cake

My fiance has officially admitted he is addicted to the ever-so-popular game "Angry Birds", although everyone around him already knew this bit of information. I wanted to do something special for his birthday this year by creating a cake with the characters from the game. I am not a baker, nor am I any kind of chef and before this cake I had only worked with fondant once in my lifetime. This was definitely a goal that I was not sure I would be able to make, but to my surprise it worked out great, and was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to share how I made my version of this themed cake, as well as some pointers for fondant newbies like myself.

What you will need:

• Cake mix of your choice (and all ingredients needed to bake the cake)
• Frosting - I chose vanilla because the colors would stand out more than with a brown color
• 1lb box of white fondant
• Gel food coloring (I used the 4 pack of green, blue, red and yellow)
• (7) mini Twix Bars
• (2) mini lollipops
• Tin Foil
• Toothpicks
• Water

Directions:

• Bake the cake in a 9x13 baking pan following the directions on the boxed mix
• Let the cake completely cool and then frost with the frosting of choice. Leave a small amount of frosting to attach the Twix bars together
• Cut the fondant into 4 equal parts
• Add the green gel food coloring to one part and kneed until the color is even throughout the fondant, add more to achieve the green that you need

• Separate a small portion for the noses, and add a little white to lighten the green
• Create 6 equal portions from the remaining green, and roll 5 of the portions into round balls
• Roll 10 smaller balls from the remaining portion for the ears
• Roll 5 equal portions from the lighter green into balls to make the nose, and then flatten to a thick coin shape
• Using a toothpick poke two holes in the front
• Dab a small amount of water on the back and stick to the main round ball and hold until it adheres.
• Create the ears but slightly flattening them out and then using your knuckle, indent the center to create the inner ear
• Attach the same way you attached the nose
• Create accents from the lighter green color under the nose and on the top of the head
  
• Create 2 small very thin white circles for the eyes, and adhere to the head like the other parts
• Dip a toothpick in the end of gel food coloring and "paint" the inner ears, eyebrows, eyeballs and the inside of the nose holes.
• Continue this process to make the birds.
  

Asseble The Cake:

• Create the "structure" by laying in the Twix bars, using the remaining frosting to connect the candy bars for more support.
• Poke the two lollipops in the cake at the opposite end of the cake facing the structure
• Roll a small snake out of fondant and attach one end to each lollipop to create the "slingshot"
• Lay the green pigs in by the structure, and line the birds up next to the slingshot
• present and enjoy the expression of pure joy!
  

Tips:

1. I chose to use a cutting board under the fondant for kneeding, coloring and molding. I covered the cutting board with plastic wrap so that the color did not stain the board when the color seeped into the cut marks. The board wrapped in plastic wrap also made the board stick to the counter so that it did not move around.
   
2. Remember fondant is sugar and edible, therefore the more that you work with it, the stickier it will get. If it begins to get sticky, set it aside for a while and you will notice it will reform it's structure. The heat from your hands will make it softer.
3. The trick to adding color to fondant is starting with less color, and slowly adding color to create the hue that you want. If you add too much gel food coloring the fondant will become to sticky and you will no longer be able to mold it into shapes.
4. When mixing colors like orange where you would need two colors, red and yellow to create: mix a ball of red and a ball of yellow, and then kneed the two fondant colors together to create the mixed color. This way you can control the amount of gel used, and it is much easier to control the hue.
5. Only use a very small amount of water to attach the parts. If you use too much water it will dilute the fondant and it will just slip off. If you do get a piece too wet, just set it aside and wait for it to dry a little bit.