Wolf Cake

Eldest’s 14th birthday last month brought one of the hardest cake requests yet- a wolf. I asked for other ideas & options, but he really wanted a wolf cake this year. I warned him (repeatedly) that my cake decorating abilities might not be able to create it well. His response “You need a good challenge mom. It’ll make your decorating skills better.” Darn child- he’s getting way too old & good with words.

So I started by doing a sketch (because if I can’t draw it there’s no way I can carve it!) I had a hard time getting the muzzle right, but eventually I figured it out.

Then came the research and just as I suspected- good wolf cake images are hard to find. And most of the one’s I found were made by decorators with much more skill than I possess. I pinned my favorites for inspiration- here’s the top ones that helped me the most:

1. 3D Wolf Head by Muse_of_Dreams on Cake Central
2. Howling White Wolf by Louise Hill at Love to Cake
3. Howling Wolf Silhouette by Dragonsanddaffodils at Deviant Art
4. Howling Wolf Head by sweetthang1 at Cake Central

And after a lot of thinking, researching, sketching and baking it was time to just go for it. I started with a stack of 6 8” rounds, some knives & a lot of frosting. I had a lot of doubt and trepidation about how I was going to manage it and I *may* of let a whole bunch few curse words slip, but I just kept at it and somehow managed to turn it into something resembling a wolf’s head. (It also reminded us slightly of a pig, a bear & finally a shark at some point of time during the process. You can kind of see how it could of been a good shark in the the bottom middle picture.)

But all that mattered was the last picture- Eldest was happy with the end result. And I’m glad this mom didn’t back down from the challenge despite all my misgivings. (But boy am I thankful I don’t ever make the same cake twice!) Oh- and the cake was delicious!!! One of the best tasting cakes I’ve made ever & it was very durable! I finally found the perfect recipe for carving cakes. :o)