Sculpted Dog Cake

I'm always up for a good challenge especially when it comes to cakes. So when J dropped me a mail and asked if i could make a sculpted Dog cake of her dog, FOR her dog, i was intrigued and all raring to go! 

J gave me a real challenge for this cake. I was modeling the cake after not just any dog, but Singapore's TOP DOG since 2008.  the pressure was definitely one. On top of that, the cake was meant to be consumed by BOTH humans and canines. And did i mention that i have never done a sculpted dog cake too?

So i did my research and found that what dogs can consume, humans can. but what humans can consume, it can be lethal to dogs. to up the ante a notch, dogs cannot eat chocolate, and chocolate ganache is my weapon for ALL my cakes. So i am totally out of my comfort zone here. 

I baked layers of doggy bacon cake and frosted it with peanut butter, and once i finished frosting my sculpted cake, i knew it was doomed for failure. 

The cake was CROOKED!!!! and no matter how i shifted the cake, it STILL was crooked. to make matters worst, it looked like it was going to collapse as the texture of the cake was not dense enough. So i went back to my oven and re-baked layers (a total of 11) but this time i tried a sugar less banana cake recipe meant for dogs (Apparently too much sugar is bad for dogs) frosted it with peanut butter. this time i managed to get as far as covering the cake with fondant. but the cake was still leaning to one side like no tomorrow! 

I had so much trouble sculpting the cake cos the texture of it was just not helping, when i run my knife through it, crumbs did not come off, but CHUNKS. *faint* 

Basically to cut a long story short, i dropped J an email the night before delivery and told her that there was a possibility that Stormy (her dog) was not going to get a sculpted dog cake for his birthday. i just couldn't bear to hand her a cake which even i myself wouldn't look at for more than 3 seconds. I tried airbrushing the cake the next day, but this was what Stormy looked like.

Like a ninja no? or maybe a penguin? even my dear husband hand molded a mini husky when he saw his wife so helpless. 

So, with just 4 hours left, i re baked some layers of bacon cake, frosted it with cottage cheese and peanut butter and molded to the best of my ability, a dog that was meant to be Stormy. 

To Jermaine: my sincerest apologies that i was unable to deliver. Feeling absolutely awful that i couldn't pull it off. i have never failed on any cake before and this is my first and definitely the last.

But as i always like to believe in the saying "there's always a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow", Jermaine has kindly allowed me another go at making a sculpted dog cake, but this time for human consumption! 

I'm gonna nail it the next time round!