Earlier this week I posted a picture of my Gruffalo Cake and the response was incredible. I had many a discussion on Twitter about people making cakes for their children's birthdays and decided to post some tutorials of popular ideas for children's cakes.
The first being a Creme Egg Gruffalo: My cake had to travel from St Helens to Leeds and I knew the Gruffalo was not going to be eaten so was safe to insert a cocktail stick to keep the head on - normally I would use a piece of pasta to stick the head onto or even just make it a few days in advance so the head will just stick. I used sugar glue to stick everything together - make your own or just use cooled boiled water.
I used Chocolate Flavoured Fondant Icing. Roll out a piece of fondant, paint the creme egg with sugar glue and cover with the fondant. Make the seam at the back and smooth down the joint with your finger. Mark the 'body' with either a veining tool or a knife. Attach a small ball of icing for the neck. At this point insert the cocktail stick/pasta if you are using one.
Next get a ball on fondant slightly smaller than the body and roll the ends until it is an oval shape. Cut a mouth and open it - the gruffulo has a BIG mouth! Make the same marks for fur as on the body and make 2 holes for eyes - I use the end of a small pointy rolling pin (if you haven't got one, you could use the end of a clean paintbrush)
Stick the head on top of the body. Get 2 small balls of orange fondant icing - make one end of each pointy and stick into the eye sockets. You shouldn't need glue for this but if you do only use a tiny bit. Add a tiny black dot of icing to each orange eye.
Make 2 small sausages of brown for ears and attach to each side of the head. Put a tiny bit of pink icing over the front of each ear. Roll little grey sausages for teeth and attach some to the top lip and some to the bottom lip. 2 slightly larger grey sausages, pointy at one end make the horns on top of the head. A thin sausage of brown icing makes the nose with a small pale pink ball. He also needs a teeny weeny ball of green on top of the pink ball for the wart on his nose. He also needs 2 VERY thin black sausages for his eyebrows.
Make his legs and feet all-in-one with a long sausage folded just past the middle for his foot. Flatten down the foot bit and try to make some more markings again for his fur on the legs. The legs and feet will help him keep upright. 2 more brown sausages for his arms - cut into fingers at the end and try to round off the edges (back of a knife will do this) and attach to the body.
Tiny grey sausages made really pointy at the ends are attached to his hands and feet for claws. Loads of spikes are then attached to his back (the ones in the book were brown so I did them brown but my 4yo is convinced they should be purple - its up to you!)
And he's done and so is my first tutorial. How was it? I think The Gruffalo is quite a hard cake topper to do so maybe next time I'll go for something a little easier - any requests?
Brilliant! I'm absolutely rubbish at this kind of thing, but I think with a good, clear step by step like this even I'd be tempted to have a go! Thanks x
He's fantstic, thank you so much for the step by step tutorial. Now I need to kidnap a nephew or niece and make them a Gruffalo brother or sister 🙂
Fabulous, have not tried this yet but I have been stressing for weeks about how to make a good looking Gruffalo cake topper and am convinced this is the way to do it- thank you so much!
Fabulous ! I made some decorated creme egg animals for Easter but when I found this design I knew I had to make some more !!! I am really pleased with my creme egg Gruffalos and I will be posting some pics later this week at thatcutelittlecake.blogspot.com
Thanks a lot for this fantastic idea and the tutorial
Gruffalo creme eggs pics now posted !
http://thatcutelittlecake.blogspot.com/2012/04/party-favors-gruffalo-decorated-cream.html
Thanks again
wow i have been searching for the last hour for a tutorial and now i have find yours!! its great! but i still think it is going to be hard to do x
Thank you very much! That's a great tutorial, very clear & easy to follow. I will attempt it tonight for my nephew's first birthday 🙂
Good Luck, Niamh. So pleased you found the tutorial useful. Don't forget to post a pic when you have done your Gruffalo! x
thanks for instructions on making a gruffalo my daughter wanted one for her sons birthday i changed it slightly as no cream eggs to be got i used a chocolate orange for body and used a plastic straw cut to size to hold body and head together i thought it would be safer i hope this is of some help to anybody using this excellent tutorial
So yummy and adorable and easy tutorials . Would like to feature on my Squidoo Lens under construction: Gruffalo Monster Costumes .
Thank you - feel free to share the post! Glad you enjoyed it.
This is fab followed instructions I'm not great with modelling but am really pleased with results :). Have to say though your 4yr old is correct his prickles are purple even says so in the story. Not sure what book you looked at but if you take a closer look they are purple in the pictures too. 🙂
This is great, thinking of attempting this for my little boys 2nd birthday in June, if I'm not busy giving birth to my daughter who is expected very near that date!! How long will the gruffalo keep for/how far in advance could I make him before he is to be eaten?
Thanks
Hi Jenny. You should be fine if you made the gruffalo now for June. The icing will keep as it has such a high sugar content. You are best to use the cream eggs while they are still available in the shops - by June they might be quite hard to come across. Best of luck with your new arrival. Don't forget to come back and show us a pic - of both the gruffalo and your daughter! x
this is fab, been trying for ages to make a gruffalo for my daughters first birthday cake and it get squishing as the head was too heavy for the body to hold so thank you! not sure my first attempt is perfect but i have 2 more eggs and 3 weeks til the big day so i'm sure i'll get there. i used thorntons eggs as they have a flat base which helps it stand easier. thank you!! x
Thank you for the tutorial! This is fantastic! My son is obsessed with The Gruffalo. Where would you store him if made in advance?
HI Sheana,
Thanks loads for your message - Hope your Son loves him! I would store him somewhere warm and dry so not a fridge - Perhaps a living room - just cover with a tissue if you need to, away from sunlight x
Oh wow this is amazing , I love to have a go at things like this #Serentata
Oh, this is amazing. I'm so glad I came across this tutorial as it actually looks as though I could manage it. All the other ones I've seen look really, really difficult to do. I had tried to persuade my daughter in a different direction but she's adamant she wants a gruffalo cake ? Fingers crossed I actually manage it. Thanks so much.