Echidna Cake - Animals in Autumn - Melbourne Cake Club

The Melbourne Cake Club met on Thursday evening a couple of weeks back, and our theme was Animal Cakes. 

I had by chance purchased a book called Aussie Cakes for a mere $7 prior to this theme being chosen, and as you would expect, it contains quite a lot of ideas on how to make Aussie animal cakes.  This book is more of a design and concept "how to" book; you wouldn't buy it for the recipes as it talks about packet cakes and ready made icing.  However, some of the cake designs are really clever and it is a fun book if you are into Australiana.

After being tempted by the Barbara the Bat cake (after my Bendigo trip), I went for the Emma the Echidna Cake.  The concept is quite simple:  make two chocolate cakes, one large and round for the back (I used a metal mixing bowl to give it a more 3D effect), and one small and rectangular for the snout:  

Carve your snout and glue it to the body with a little melted jam: 

Smother your cakes in chocolate buttercream and use chocolate bits, chocolate melts and a jelly snake to create the  eyes, nostrils and tongue:

Get 3 packets of Woolies choc finger biscuits and arrange them as the echidna's spines, et voila:

Linda Lomelino probably did not have an echidna cake in mind when she wrote her recipe for Chocolate and Espresso Cake in Lomelino's Cakes, but that is the recipe for the cake and icing that I used.  (Yes, as the folks on the Amazon forum point out, the recipe omits what to do with the melted butter in the method for the cake; if you are a baker at all, you can work it out.) Someone else has posted the recipe online here, fixing up the omission,  if you are interested in making this cake and don't have the book (which, by the way, is scrumptious, especially the espresso icing).   

That's me done.  Now onto the other animal cakes brought by the Club.

Here is Sue's gluten free hummingbird cake - a moist tropical delight with cream cheese frosting:

This is Karen's gorgeously decorated Noah's Ark Cake, which hides an orange cake with fig buttercream icing:

Dalya, our Club founder, made a gluten free chocolate hedgehog cake which was superbly moist (and can I add, I just loved those Flake spines):

Our fun evening was hosted by the good folks at Pause Bar in Balaclava, who were very gracious in accommodating us and our cakes.