(long overdue) How to Make a Tiger Cake

Bubby requested a tiger cake for his 6th birthday.  And I made one for him.  And now it's...oh, 2 months later, so I thought enough time has passed that I can show it to you :)

I think he liked it.

The basic shape was accomplished by combining a 9" round cake with 2 cupcakes for the ears (just use a regular cake mix or your favorite recipe--make one 9" cake and 12 cupcakes.  Put the extra cupcakes in the freezer for the next time you want to make cake pops).

I cut the rounded tops off of the cupcakes and added them to the tiger's face to form the cheeks.  Next, I frosted the whole ferocious beast with orange tinted frosting.  My friends, if you are going to be decorating things with frosting with any regularity, invest in some gel food colors.  The colors are much more vivid... And no, I did not use them for this cake, because I don't have any. *Sigh*

 

I used Oreo halves for the ears (you don't need to know how many tries it took to get them split perfectly like that... or what I did with the "failures"), Swiss cake rolls + a green M&M for the eyes, another Oreo for the nose, and pretzels for the whiskers.  The tongue is an airheads candy--hold it in your hand for a few minutes to soften it enough to mold.  The mouth is string licorice--mine is cherry flavored (made by Wilton).  The stripes are chocolate jimmies.  Or sprinkles.  Or whatever you wanna call 'em.

 

Happy Tiger Cake-ing!