Dinosaur Cake 恐龙蛋糕

Dear Ming Ray,

Happy belated 8th Birthday!

Where has time gone? I just couldn’t believe we had just celebrated Ming Ray’s 8^th birthday last week! It felt like it was just yesterday when I still had him in me.  Flashing back to the day of Ming Ray’s birth on the 14^th July 2004, I can vividly recall the more than 6 hours labour agony ending in a forced C-section because of baby’s heartbeat dropped drastically on every contraction. The labour process was awful to remember, but meeting my first born little baby boy for the first time was a moment no words could ever describe and now he is 8.  It didn't seem at all that long ago when he was just a thought...a wish.

Ever since I indulged myself in baking, I had always wanted to bake a cake for his birthday. In fact this dinosaur cake was long overdue, I saw this fantastic Dinosaur cake idea last year from Betty Croker website via YouTube but at that time we just moved back from Auckland and had yet to settle down.  That, plus the house renovation work didn’t make the right opportunity to bake for him.

Like many other kids, Ming Ray loved dinosaurs since he was baby.  Any item related to dinosaurs attracts him. I couldn’t recall how many times he had watched the series of movie Jurassic Park over and over again; I guess it is very common that boys like dinosaurs.

In fact he had designed a very creative dino cake box for his Auckland School's garage sales which I shared in my previous muffin post back in 2010. Check it out here.

I was glad I managed to fulfil my promise to him to make an icing sculptured dinosaur cake. However, I must thank hubby for helping to decorate the cake.  Without his fine touch I supposed I would end up with a flop project as I was struggling with the icing to make volume to the body of the dinosaur cake. The icing I made was a bit too runny hence it was difficult to lay and shape on the cake.

We had a small birthday party with another close friend of ours whose children were also Ming Ray’s buddies.  I felt so happy and relieved when the kids said the cake was yummy!

Yes! Mission accomplished!

Dinosaur cake    Sponge Cake Ingredients 250g sponge cake mix 5 eggs 1 tsp vanilla essence 50g milk 50g butter/Oil  Method: 1.       Mix cake flour, eggs and milk in a large bowl and mix at low speed for 1 minute. 2.       Whisk at high speed until light and fluffy. 3.       Fold in oil/melted butter slowly until well mix. 4.       Bake in 8” x 3” round cake tin(layer with baking paper)  at 180C for 30-35 minutes. 5.       Take out let it cool, rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before cut into dinosaur shape.    Chocolate Icing Ingredients 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract 4 cups sifted confectioners' /icing sugar 3/4 cup baking cocoa 2 tablespoons milk Tips: ·         Makes about 3 cups of icing. ·         You can follow the original icing colour by adding green colouring and excluding cocoa powder.  Method 1.       Place the shortening and butter in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat for 2 minutes or until very light and fluffy. Add vanilla and 3/4 cup baking cocoa. 2.       Gradually add the icing sugar one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often and beat until the mixture is very pale and fluffy. Gradually add the milk and beat until smooth and well combined. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. 3.       Frost the cake with the icing made once the cake cut into dinosaur shape. 4.       Decorate dinosaur with button chocolate and M&M candy. Making Dinosaur shape: 1.       Cut cake into Dinosaur shape using the following template: Dinosaur cake Template ( click to get to Betty Croker website for the dinosaur body template)    恐龙蛋糕   海绵蛋糕成份 250克海绵蛋糕混合粉 5个鸡蛋 1茶匙香草精 50克牛奶 50克牛油/植物油 方法： 1。混合蛋糕粉，鸡蛋和牛奶, 在个大碗里用低速搅拌1分钟。 2。后高速搅拌直到蛋糕面糊轻和蓬松。 3。慢慢加入油和牛奶，搅拌直到均勻。 4。在8“×3”圆蛋糕烤盘里铺上油纸，把拌好的蛋糕糊全部倒入烤盘，預熱到180 C度的烤箱內烤30-35分钟。 5。取出让它冷却，可放入冰箱里冷却30分钟才整形。   制作恐龙的形状： 1。使用下面的恐龙蛋糕模板形状以切成蛋糕模板： （点击Betty Croker 网站恐龙身体模板）   巧克力糖衣成分 1/2杯植物起酥油 1/2杯牛油或人造黄油 1茶匙香草精 4杯过筛糖粉 3/4杯可可粉 2汤匙牛奶 提示： •约3杯糖衣。 •你可以按照原来绿色糖衣的颜色，不加入可可粉，添加绿色色素。  方法 1。把牛油和酥油放置在一个大碗里搅拌，用电动搅拌器打2分钟，或直到轻和蓬松。加入香草精和3/4杯可可粉。 2。用中等速度搅拌，每一次逐渐增加一杯糖粉，直到奶油糖霜蓬松。逐步增加牛奶，搅拌直到均勻。用湿布覆盖以避免干起来。 3。用奶油糖霜装饰恐龙形状的蛋糕。 你也可上Betty Croker’s Youtube网看如何制作：http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqzVWKJr_hI