Waching daily Nov 26 2018

Hello.

Welcome to American Baker in Germany.

I'm Michelle and today I am redeeming myself.

Because when—my daughter's second birthday—my oldest daughter's second birthday, I made

her a duck cake.

And it was a total fail.

It was like one of those "nailed it" pictures where you say, "this is what it was supposed

to look like" and "this is what it ended up as."

I will admit that it did not turn out very well.

However, it was only my second cake that I had ever decorated, and it was the first time

that I had ever used fondant, and it was the first time that I had ever attempted to carve

a cake.

So, let's take a look at my awful version from three and a half years ago.

I know.

It's terrible.

I'm sorry.

But today, I get to redeem myself.

Because my husband's cousin has a little girl who is turning three.

And she asked me if I wouldn't mind bringing a cake with a duck on top.

And I thought to myself, "Yes!

I get to redeem myself today!"

I'm so excited.

So, a few changes are being made.

The cake itself is going to be 8-inch cake covered in buttercream instead of fondant.

Just buttercream.

And a little bit of decorations that will look like water.

The duck on top is going to be rice krispie treats.

But the original cake was carved cake, and I think I could have done a better job if

I had chosen to do that, but this one is going to be rice krispie treats instead.

And I'm really looking forward to it and I sincerely hope that everybody agrees that

it's better than the last time.

So, let's get started.

I start out making the rice krispie treats.

I melt about half my bag of marshmallows in the microwave and add chocolate rice krispies

to it.

If you are wondering why I use chocolate rice krispies, those are readily available in Germany.

The original rice krispies are really hard to find.

But they work just as well to make sculpting rice krispie treats.

Then I butter my hands and finish mixing the treats by kneading them with my hands.

I intermittently add more butter onto my hands to keep it from sticking to my hands.

Then I begin sculpting my duck with my hands, resting it on the bottom of a cake pan the

same size as my cake layers, so I'm sure not to make it too large to fit onto the cake,

but I still want it to be fairly large on top of the cake.

I mean, what's the point of a tiny duck in a huge pond?

This is a duck cake, not a pond cake!

So, I first sculpt the duck's head and beak, then shape the tail pointing up.

By the way, this is not meant to look like a realistic duck.

This is a rubber ducky kind of duck.

After I was done sculpting the duck, I set it aside to set up overnight.

Once the rice krispies are dry, they are light, but hard as a rock.

I did have to set it up with a bit of support for the head to keep it from drooping, however.

I assembled the cake directly on the bottom of my cake carrier.

This is my vegan chocolate cake and Swiss meringue buttercream.

I filled and crumb coated the cake with my buttercream and put it in the fridge to set

up completely.

I cleaned up my cake board with a damp rag.

While the cake was setting up, I crumb coated my duck.

Why do you need to frost rice krispie treats?

Well, rice krispies have a very rough texture, which will show through the fondant, so it

is helpful to have a layer of frosting in between to smooth the surface out a bit.

I used my smallest off-set spatula because of the irregular shape.

When I was happy with my frosting job, I put it in the fridge to set up the buttercream.

Now it's time to frost my cake.

I started out by putting about a third of my buttercream in one bowl and about two-thirds

into another.

The larger amount I colored blue with gel food coloring.

Then I colored the smaller amount with green food coloring.

I had to add more at one point to get the color I was looking for.

I put most of my green buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a leaf tip.

But before I use it, I need a base.

I put a good amount of blue buttercream on the cake.

Because the white buttercream was completely set up, it actually had a bit of trouble sticking

to itself, so I had to use a good amount.

Once all the white was covered, I textured the buttercream with my small off-set spatula

to look like water.

Then I clean up the cake board at this point.

Using my green buttercream with a leaf tip, I pipe on various lengths of green around

the cake to look like reeds.

Then I chilled it again in the fridge to allow the buttercream to set up completely.

Now back to our duck.

The buttercream has set up, so I run my fingers along it to soften the edges of the buttercream

wherever there were ridges.

This technique only works with meringue buttercream as far as I know.

Then I roll out my yellow fondant, pick it up with my fondant rolling pin and drape it

over the duck.

I smooth the fondant as well as I can over the irregular shape with my fingers and cut

the excess off with a sharp knife.

I tuck the stray edges under the duck cake as well.

Then I roll out a small piece of orange fondant, lay it over the beak and cut off the excess.

I use my fingers and my ball tool to create the shape of a duck beak and the nostrils.

I give it a smile with the back of the knife blade.

Then I make eye holes with the ball tool and press small balls of black fondant into them

to create the eyes.

Then using a tapered fondant tool, I make the shape of the wings.

I originally made the second wing backwards, but I was able to correct it.

I also used the tool to make slight feather texture on the back and the tail.

Then I pick up the entire duck by sliding the knife blade under it and place it in the

middle of the buttercream covered cake.

I had to press the duck into the cake a bit because the set buttercream did not want to

give.

I added just a tiny touch of white buttercream onto the blue waves.

I then had to correct some missing texture with my fondant tools.

Just a reminder, this was my first attempt.

I am so much happier with my second duck cake.

I think it turned out really cute and was just what my husband's cousin was hoping

for.

Her daughter pointed at it and quacked at the party.

Everyone loved it.

It was perfectly appropriate for a small child's birthday party.

I'm really happy with the buttercream texture and piping as well.

It really looked like a pond surrounded by reeds.

Happy third birthday, Lucia!