The 7hr saga of a pig (dodgy photo alert!)

It wasn’t just any pig, it was Peppa Pig!  If you have a toddler and live in the UK, it is very likely that you have been acquainted with Peppa Pig.  An adorable little pig who likes jumping in muddy puddles (all the time to some very annoying music in the background). 

Daughter no. 1 was obsessed with Peppa Pig when she was about 2 years old.  Daughter no. 2, slightly obsessed but not to the same level luckily.  Our house is filled with Peppa paraphernalia and various bits of Peppa plastic.

Needless to say, when it was No. 2’s 2^nd birthday, she wanted a Peppa Pig cake! 

Now, my attempt at a Peppa Pig cake for no. 1 looked like this. 

Not great.  I so wasn’t impressed with it that I only took about 2 photos of the cake.

I was determined to get it right this time around.  Absolutely determined. 
Step 1:
Find the perfect vanilla cake recipe.  I tested several recipes (to the point where my colleagues started getting a little tired of eating vanilla cake) and once again, Sweetapolita delivered the perfect recipe.  Very vanilla-y, light and moist.  ‘Moist’ being the important part as I find that vanilla cakes can sometimes be on the dry side.

I made 1 20cm square cake and 1 18 cm round cake from the recipe. 

Time taken: 2 hours.

Step 2: 
Fondant (ie. Sugar paste).  I used this recipe again.  I love it and always end up nibbling on too much sugar when I make it.

I made the base recipe and left it overnight to settle while my hands and arms recovered from the kneading.  The next night, I divided the large hunk of fondant into 6 (unequal) parts, coloured the parts into 6 main colours: pink (for the face, ears, arms and legs), dark pink (cheeks and outline for the face and ears), red (dress), dark red (mouth and outline for the dress), white (eyes) and black (eyes and shoes).

Time taken: 2 hours

Step 3:
More sugar.  Vanilla buttercream.  Once again, my favourite site Sweetapolita didn’t let me down.  I used this recipe.  I love making icing.  When I’m stressed, I make icing.  All that whipping of the butter and the sugar just de-stresses me.

Time taken: 0.5 hours

Step 4:
The fun part: putting it all together.  This took the most time but this is where I had the most fun.  I levelled the cakes with a bread knife so they were the same height – more or less.

Then armed with yet another knife, I carved out Peppa’s dress from the square cake, used the round cake as the head and used the offcuts from the square cake for the ears and nose.

The bits of cake were held together by the vanilla buttercream. 

Peppa was then covered all over with buttercream and the fondant was draped over it.  By this time I was starting to OD a little on Peppa.  But once the fondant was on, I could see the end of the tunnel – though it did look like there was a lot of fog around!

Next were the details, eyes, nose, cheeks, outlines, arms and legs.  Phew.

Time taken: 2.5 hrs

It’s not perfect but it’s an improvement on my last Peppa!

7 hours of butter and sugar = 1 Peppa Pig cake = 1 super happy 2 year old!

Definitely worth it.

Ps.
Now I know why decorated cakes are so expensive to buy.