I made this Hugo the Tortoise cake with my daughter, Katy. We decided to make a tortoise cake for my second daughter, Rachel, for her 24th birthday. She owns a tortoise called Hugo, so we decided to copy him from photos we had taken earlier. He took approximately three and a half hours to make, not including the first lot of four cakes that went in the bin as we messed up the recipe!!
We made the garden from two large rectangular cakes covered in green sugar paste. We needed two layers, as the first one ripped as we tried to put it on!! We then covered this in pretty sugar paste flowers, one of which was for Hugo to eat.
Next was Hugo’s shell – made in a bowl so that he was rounded. We then covered him in lumps of sugar paste for the bumps on his shell. We put two layers of brown sugar paste over the top, and his shell was complete. His head, arms and legs were made from sugar paste as well.
We used a cocktail stick to carve the grooves in his shell, and then mixed red and green food colouring to make a brown paint. We painted his shell using a normal paintbrush, and he was complete!
Rachel was gobsmacked and absolutely delighted! Luckily most of the baked cake was in the garden section, as she was reluctant to cut into him! She took him back to her house for her birthday party, and every single person said how amazing he looked! He was set up next to the real Hugo so people could compare.
We were so pleased with ourselves, and we both agree this is the best cake we’ve made yet!!
Hi Kath, I was looking for ideas to complete a tortoise cake for my son’s 18th Birthday. I have had Cyril for 42 years and is part of our family. I had got as far as cooking the cake in a bowl and colouring the sugar paste brown but was stuck on how to get the bumps. Your cake is perfect and your instructions clear. Thank you.