I decided this year was the year to finally sign up to volunteer. And I chose to volunteer to make a young boy a Cookie Monster cake. I mean, who doesn't like Cookie Monster? And on top of it, this kid wanted a chocolate cake with strawberries. He has awesome taste!
The cake was way easier to make than I expected. I looked online to get some inspiration, but otherwise, I just winged it. The two hardest parts were 1) Getting the frosting the right color blue and 2) making the eyes. I would love to share how I achieved the color blue, but it is pretty much a random mix of Wilton black, royal blue, cornflower blue and sky blue. As for the eyes, it took me a while to achieve the right size. I made three separate pairs of eyes until I got the right size.
The inside: Two layers of a simple chocolate cake with mini chocolate chips and fresh cut strawberries tossed with some honey in the middle of the two layers. Simple and delicious!
The outside: My goal was to make the whole cake delicious (no gumpaste or fondant). I crumb-coated the cake with the blue tinted doctored buttercream recipe (a buttercream recipe that at I have used before). I then outlined the mouth with a toothpick. I knew if I messed up, I would be able to smooth it back out and /or cover it up with the "fur." I filled in the mouth with Oreo cookies that were crushed in the food processor (cookie part only, no cream). I then used a Wilton tip #233 with the blue buttercream and just went to town piping a "fur" effect all over the cake. The beauty of using this tip for this technique is that the fur did not have to be perfect. It made piping the cake fast and fun. I did learn, however, that some of the tiny holes in the tip got clogged with dried buttercream. I had to run the tip under water 5 times by the time I covered the whole cake.
The eyes were made out of melted white chocolate and melted Wilton black Candy Melts that were spooned on to parchment paper in the shape of large and small circular disks. And I as mentioned previously, this was one of the hardest parts of the cake. But I managed to get the right googly-eyed look that Cookie Monster is known for. Finally, what's a cookie monster cake without cookies? Because I'm lazy, I bought Toll House slice-and-bake cookies. But then again, I also don't know anyone who doesn't like them so it was a win-win. I tore some up to use for the mouth, as if they were being eaten by the Cookie Monster (the leftovers went in to my belly). And then for fun, I threw a few more cookies on the side. And voila! A pretty easy and delicious cookie monster cake.
I delivered the cake to the receptionist at the non-profit organization who would be organizing the young boy's birthday, so I was unable to see his reaction. But just knowing that I will make some kid smile is all I really need. Maybe I should change my nickname to the baking fairy :o)