Melting Snowman Cake Topping
By OcadoLife
Published on 13 February 2023
This Melting Snowman Cake is high impact but
simple to achieve. The fondant is easy to colour and shape, so you can pay
around with the snowman’s appearance – make his clothes as intricate or
straightforward as you fancy, and there’s no need to worry about getting a
super-smooth finish either. Sure to be a hit with the kids, this was made for
us by creative whizz Kim-Joy, a 2018 Great British Bake Off finalist and
author of three baking books.Time and servings
1 hr 10 minsTotal time
1 hrPrep time
10 minsCooking time
Ingredients
- 1 blue, black, orange and red food colour gels
- 200 g of icing sugar
- 180 g of ready-made white fondant
- 2 m&s salted pretzel sticks
Method
Step 1
Mix a little blue gel into the vanilla buttercream to get the colour you like, then assemble the cake: place 1 cake layer on a flat serving board and pipe a blue buttercream border around the top edge. Spread the Biscoff buttercream in the centre, then drizzle with the caramel. Place the second cake layer on top. Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of the blue buttercream, using a palette knife to smooth it on – don’t worry about getting a particularly smooth finish or crumbs in the buttercream at this stage, as these will be covered up by a second layer later. Chill the cake in the fridge for about 1 hr (or in the freezer for 10 mins), until the buttercream is firm.Step 2
After chilling, spread a second layer of blue buttercream onto the cake. Use a palette knife to smooth it out, starting with the top, then the sides. For a smoother finish at the end, run the palette knife under hot water first. If you spot gaps in the icing, add a little more and smooth out again. Don’t worry if the top isn’t perfect. Once your cake is covered (leave a little spare buttercream for the buttons), chill in the fridge for 1 hr (or in the freezer for 10 mins).Step 3
While the cake is chilling, make the icing for the top. Add the icing sugar to a mixing bowl and very gradually whisk in just a little water, until you have a thick icing that still flows a bit. You want it to be thick enough so it won’t run straight off the cake but not so thick that it won’t drip down the sides at all. Test it on the back of the cake if you’re not sure – wait a few mins to see how far the drip goes, then adjust the mixture with extra icing sugar (to thicken) or water (to loosen), as needed. When you’re happy with the consistency, carefully spoon small amounts of icing around the edge of the cake, allowing it to drip down the side to different lengths. Then fill in the top of the cake with more icing.Step 4
To make the snowman’s head, roll 100g of the white fondant into a ball, flatten one side slightly and position it on top of the cake, to one side, flat-side down. For the eyes and mouth, add a few drops of black gel to a small bit of fondant and knead in to get an even colour. Roll into small balls and press them on. Add a few drops of orange gel to a little more fondant and knead in until you have an even colour; use it to create the snowman’s nose. To make the snowman’s scarf and hat, colour more fondant in the same way using the red food gel. Pull off a small ball and flatten into a thick disc, then pop on the snowman’s head as a hat; top with a white fondant bobble. Roll some more red fondant into a scarf shape and wrap it around the head; use a cocktail stick to add detail to the scarf and hat, if you like, such as indents at the ends of the scarf to resemble fringing, and a pattern to make the hat look knitted. Create the melting snowman’s buttons using blobs of leftover blue buttercream, then stick 2 pretzel sticks into the cake for his arms.