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Coolest Hedgie Birthday Cake 10
by Aunt Ruth
(South Carolina)
Homemade Hedgie Birthday Cake
My nephew and his wife did me the "favor" of producing 11 children for me to bake birthday cakes for. A great outlet for this 75-year-old lady's creativity! I've found this site to be a treasure trove of ideas to get me started and guide me along! This Hedgie Birthday Cake was served today at the party for 7-year-old Josiah. I got some of the tricks from this site and others from a web search for cute Hedgehog photos - in order for the little guy to look more authentic. Josiah and his siblings tended to think that it looked more "porcupiney". We decided that it was either a "hedgepine" or a "porcihog"!
The cake was from a caramel mix in "pound cake" form - (4 eggs, 1 cup water, 1/3 cup oil, & 1 small pkg. instant pudding mix) - with mini chocolate chips. I baked it in a round 2-qt. Pyrex casserole dish and made two small ones in Pyrex custard cups (one cut in quarters for the feet and the other trimmed to form the head). The cooled cake was cut down the middle and folded upward with the two top surfaces stuck together with a little icing (after trimming off the inevitable "dome"!).
The nose was a walnut half dipped in chocolate ganache that I had on hand and the "quills" were small, straight pretzels dipped (all but the bottom inch) in the same THICK ganache and dusted with fine chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (because the ganache was a little too soft!) The eyes were two little balls of ganache and the rest of the features were piped on icing.
I liked the "claws" on his little toes! This one was FUN, but more time-consuming than some. The trick is to be sure you don't have to rush, spoils the fun!!
