Flamingoling Cake Art

Those of you who are kind enough to follow my exploits via Instagram and Facebook, know that cake has featured heavily in recent days. The not yet vet was surprised with a (baby) flamingo cake on her last day at her zoo job. The very same ‘not yet’ was up for a turn at cake Wednesday and decided to make a Rhinoceros Hornbill cake (guess which team she was on at the zoo).

I have had some questions about how to go about making bird cakes. My first  piece of advice is ‘don’t’. If you insist (don’t say I didn’t warn you) these images will give you some idea.

Baby flamingos, known in the cake trade as ‘flamingolings’, are fluffy. Candyfloss was the best fluff I could muster. A candyfloss covered cake is not to be taken lightly – the floss decomposes pretty darn quick when exposed to the atmosphere – I suggest that your floss application be timed to perfection.

The icing covered Hornbill is much more robust.

Neither cake lasted long so I don’t suppose it matters much in the end.

Step 1 

Find the bird you want to recreate and make sure you have a good image. I can't share mine with you as it was embargoed (like all flamingoling cake comms prior to the surprise delivery - should that be happy hatching?)

Step 2

Make (or buy) cake and build the rough shape of the bird - don't be too amitious with your first steps and don't be defeated.

Step 3

Cut the cake to make the shape you need

Step 4

Add other edibles as needed - we have never had so many sweets of different shapes and colours. The supermarket shelves were filled with potential.

Step 5

Commit - when you have your shape, cover in buttercream (you don't need me to tell you how to make buttercream)

Step 6

I had to stop here and take the cake to the zoo. The candy floss would not have survived the journey so the ling was naked for a while.

Step 7

When in the zoo carpark, break out the latex gloves (taken from our lab) and apply the candy floss. Prepare for the bird to fly the nest.

Alternatively, you can do the same but cover with chocolate buttercream and carefully poistioned, beautifully coloured, fondant icing.

Happy making - send me pics?