A penguin birthday cake

A week ago my biggest baby turned 3. I'm pretty sure that last year I promised myself that for his 3rd birthday I would stick to a simple cake... But when it came down to it, my biggest little boy loves cake almost as much as I do, so I had to create something fitting for the occasion! And this little boy loves his penguins almost as much as he loves cake.

Number 1 in Bobble's world of soft toys is Little Pempee - he's the one on the left by the way. He came into our house in a bag of second hand clothes and is a soft, pale blue comforter with a penguin head. It was a long time until Bobble could say penguin, so he became Pempee. On his second Christmas we bought Bobble a jellycat penguin. He was named Big Penguin and Pempee became Little Pempee.
 
Modelling a cake on a floppy comforter was going to be impossible, so I went for the easier option of Big Penguin. I'm going to be upfront and say that in spite of once enjoying a cupcake decorating lesson, my creative spirit does not always translate to a spectacular outcome! I certainly don't have any illusions of being an expert cake maker! If nothing else, I hope my cake inspires you of what a complete novice can do.

Method

1. I started by baking two 10 inch Madeira cakes using a recipe found on cakesbakesandcookies.com.
2. Having created some paper templates beforehand for my penguin, I then carved out my shapes. I also levelled off the two cakes to ensure they were also a similar depth.
3. After cutting each shape in half, I then sandwiched the two halves together with apricot jam.
4. Next, I joined all the pieces together. A piece of dried spaghetti can be used as a dowling rod to hold the pieces together. That's what the basic shape looked like - naked penguin!
5. After crumb coating the cake, it was then time to whip a massive vat of buttercream, colour it, then start piping!

Drum roll

So this was the finished product....

 
Spot the likeness...