Multicolored Highland Cow Cake

Highland Cow Cakes are the thing right now.  I'm seeing them everywhere.  Here is one I made for my sister-in-law's niece.

It started as a 9"x13" red velvet cake sheet cake.  I cut the sheet cake in half making two 9"x6.5" cakes that I stacked (with filling between the two layers) to give me a cake about  3-1/2" tall.  I then carved the cake into a rough head shape, cutting shallow depressions for the eyes and building the forehead and nose bridge a little higher.  The carving process didn't leave me with many cake scraps, so I had to make the ears by piecing smaller scraps together.   I didn't worry too much about the carving right because everything was going to be covered in fondant strings/ropes.  I just wanted the general shape.

Here is the pattern I used for the cake.

Once the cake was carved crumb coat and chilled, I then covered the cake in a thin layer of white chocolate ganache which gives a firmer base for the fondant.

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I made the horns from white fondant mixed with Tylose Powder.  The Tylose power (also called Gum-Tex and CMC) causes the fondant to harden and allows it to keep its shape without flopping over.  The more Tylose you add to the fondant the harder the fondant will become.  This is a cheaper alternative to using gum paste.  

For the cow's nose I used Wilton Chocolate fondant.   I cut the nostrils out of the chocolate brown fondant and backed the area with some black fondant.  For the lower jaw, I used the same brown fondant mixed with Tylose so it would hold its shape.

For the eye, I started with a brown oval shape then added a white circle of fondant and then a black circle of fondant.  I added some white fondant highlights to the black part of the eye, and added some thin strips of brown fondant for the eyelids.

I attached the nose and lower jaw to the cake.  I also added a thin piece of black between the nose and lower jaw to cover the white area.

The eye went on and then the pink tongue.  

Then came the time consuming part: putting on all the stands of hair.  I tinted a bunch of fondant in shades of orange, yellow, red, pink, purple, blue and green.  Then used my Ace food safe extruder to make long strands of fondant.  I covered all the strands with plastic wrap to keep the fondant from drying and getting cracked.  FYI: you could also just roll the stands of hair by hand.  I started doing this in the end because it was so time consuming to use the extruder.

I cut pieces from the long strands to match the size of the area where the hair was being placed and started positioning the hair.

When I reached the top of the head I added the horns and added more hair around them.

As a final touch I added some brown eyelashes to the eye, and a flower in the cow's mouth.  In hindsight I should have added the second eye peaking through the strands of hair.  I think that would have looked better.  Oh well....

But regardless, Hanna loved it.  Happy Birthday, Hanna!

Happy Decorating,

Carol