Have a little mischievous fun this Pancake Day by making your own illusion cake that looks just like a stack of thick fluffy American pancakes! This pancake stack features ‘fake’ maple syrup, ‘fake’ whipped cream and a selection of chocolate fruit. It’s not too tricky to put together and if you are short on time, you could always swap in real fruit rather than modelling your own!
Cake artist: Zoe Burmester
Edibles
6x 6in round cakes approximately ¾ in in height Buttercream to fill and cover cakes 800g white or ivory The Sugar Paste 75g white modelling chocolate Cream, navy, deep purple, red, gooseberry green, honey gold and brown gel colours (Sugarflair) Corn yellow, milk chocolate, squirrel brown, cream, almond, khaki, black, navy, aubergine (or deep purple), chilli red petal dusts (Fractal) Vodka or dipping solution Royal icing Piping gel Confectioner’s glaze in spray can
Equipment
10in white Masonite cake board
Cake knife
Rolling pin
Working mat
Turntable for working
Cornflour pouch
Dresden tool
Bulbous cone tool
Ball tool
Pointed silicone tool
Dusting brushes various sizes
Painting brushes various sizes
Cocktail stick (or nail dotting tool)
Medium calyx cutter
Pouring jug
Piping bag and star nozzle
STACK AND COVER THE CAKE
1 Begin by slicing your cake rounds between ½in and ¾in thick. Overall height should be about 5/6in.
2 Stack and fill the cake rounds with buttercream.
3 Make sure you offset the cake circles so they resemble a stack of wobbling pancakes.
4 Give the whole cake a covering of buttercream and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. You want the cake nice and firm before you cover it so it’s easier to work on.
5 Colour the sugarpaste to a pale cream by kneading in a few drops of cream gel paste. Roll it out to a generous thickness and place it over the chilled cake, using your hands to find the shape underneath.
CREATE THE SHAPE
6 Take a tool such as a Dresden or flat edged clay tool and go back in to define the shape of the six pancakes. Trim off any excess sugarpaste around the bottom edge.
7 The next stage is to add definition into each thick pancake, so it looks deflated in the middle. Push in the centre of each pancake with a bulbous cone tool. Work your way from the top to the bottom of the stack. Use your fingers to pinch the tops and bottoms of each pancake so it looks as though there is a straight edge.
8 As you work you may find that you need extra pieces of sugarpaste to help form the pancake rims. If you do. roll out sausages to the length you need them.
9 Brush with a little water and then use your fingers to blend them into place. Dep
