For my daughter’s second birthday I decided on an owl theme, as I had recently decorated her new bedroom as a forest with owls in the trees. I decided on a purple, pink and yellow colour scheme, to be more ‘girly’, rather than a brown owl.
To make this Owl Birthday Cake I used vanilla and chocolate packet cake mix. The base and head were baked in Pyrex bowls, and to create a more oval body shape, I baked a simple round cake for the middle. After semi-freezing the cakes I trimmed the round cake level, and a bit off the base cake to make it more stable when standing. I used white chocolate buttercream icing and satay sticks to attach the layers together. I created the ears by sandwiching pieces of trimmed cake together with icing, and cutting to shape, attaching with toothpicks. I trimmed a flat section off the face area, crumb coated with a thin layer of the icing, then refrigerated.
I tinted the white chocolate buttercream icing with AmeriColor “Violet” and layered it on thickly, using a child sized knife to drag small sections, creating feather like shapes all over the cake. I smoothed icing on the flat section for the face.
All additional decorations were pre-made and attached with excess icing. The wings and flowers were made out of coloured melted white chocolate which I spread over baking paper (leaving texture for effect), and then hand cutting with a sharp knife as the chocolate cooled (or in the case of the flowers, marbled coloured chocolate cut with a cookie cutter). For the beak I covered ¾ of a banana lolly with orange tinted chocolate and painted on the nose holes with red colouring. The claws are banana lollies cut in half length ways. The eyes are biscuits dipped in white chocolate, with melted milk chocolate as the centres (a touch of white icing for glints). I piped melted milk chocolate directly on to the platter in strings to create the branch.
I drew a heart shaped belly outline with a toothpick, and used icing tinted with AmeriColor ‘Electric Pink’ to pipe star shapes over the belly. I also used this pink icing the create eyelids over the eyes, before attaching them to the face, and then as additions to the chocolate flowers, and for the candles to be set in.
The cake received many “WOW” comments, and my daughter could not have been happier!
That is the cuteste cake EVER!! GREAT job, mom! You should be a professional baker…I love it!! I may attempt this for my daughter’s birthday, but I know it would never look as great as yours! Thanks so much for sharing!
Was this just from one cake mix? My son wants an owl cake and I’m trying to figure out how to do it. I’ve never baked in a bowl before….
Thanks for your kind comments :)
I used one cake mix per bowl, and one for the middle piece. The cake ended up about 30cm tall, and it was a lot of cake, however, it fed the 25 party guests well.
I must admit I baked 3 trials in bowls in the weeks before to get the temperature and time right (I think it was about 150degrees C – can’t remember how long for). For my daughters actual birthday I baked a flat, cut out version of this cake using a round tin (with a bit of trimming for the ears) and it worked out beautifully.
Rita, I am sure whatever you make for your son, he will be very pleased. Good luck!
I love this cake and want to make one but I was wondering if you knew about how long you cooked it for?
Sorry, I can’t remember the cook time. The middle, circle cake was about 50 minutes at 160C, but the 2 bowl ones were lower temp, and it took 3 attempts to get the cook time and temp right. It just meant a lot of yummy cake to eat before the big day. I think it was about 150C for about 1 hour 15min?… not sure.
Sorry I can’t recall much more than that.
Good luck.
This cake is fantastic and exactly what i want to make for my daughters 1st birthday. Great Job. Could you tell me what size bowl you used for the bottom and top. Thanks
OHMYGOSH i loooove this cake!!!! Im obsessed with owls, and this is by far the cutest owl cake ive seen!!!!! You did a FANTASTIC job!!! :)