Red Robot Cake

Pfoinkle — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:24:29 +0000

Red Robot cake made from two square layers.

Over thirty years ago, a college roommate (yes, I am that old) gave me a wind up retro/replica robot. It was an innocent gift, but it started me down a slippery slope of collectable wind-up toys.

I have many wind-up toys now, but my favorites are still the retro robots. And given my thing for retro robots, I knew I had to make a retro cake that just happened to be a retro robot cake.

And because my latest retro robot acquisition is red, the robot cake had to be red.

Alright, Mad Scientists, prepare the lab and get your supplies together — it’s time to build your very own Red Robot Cake.

Robot Cake Supplies

Cake Batter (I used a modified Betty Crocker mix, one box).
One batch of chocolate buttercream frosting (I used 1-1/3 cup of cocoa.)
2 square pans of equal size
Red and Black gel food coloring (I used Wilton’s “No Taste” Red and Wilton’s Black)
Assorted candies, gumdrop decorations, sugar decorations, mini-marshmallows, children’s cereals, etc.

Robot Cake Instructions

Bake that cake! Bake two square layers of equal size (the robot in the picture was made with 8″ pans) and set aside.
Download the PDF that illustrates the very simpleRobot Cake Pattern (see pic below).
Whip up a batch of your favorite chocolate buttercream. I chose a chocolate buttercream because a true red is a very difficult color to achieve in the world of cakes. If you start with white buttercream, the best you will likely achieve is a dark pink. I do recommend avoiding a dark chocolate buttercream because if the chocolate is too dark, it will mask the red food coloring.
Before coloring your buttercream red, set aside one cup to be used for the grey pieces.
Add red food coloring to the buttercream until you’re satisfied with the color. Colors often deepen after they’ve “rested” for a bit, but I wanted a deep red and used a full 1 oz pot of Wilton’s “No Taste” Red
Add black food coloring to the buttercream frosting you set aside until you achieve the desired color.
Once the cake is cooled, cut it according to the provided Robot Cake Pattern
To make visible joints, frost and smooth all pieces individually. If you’ve never “smoothed” buttercream, check out this video tutorial. If you’re frosting with a pastry bag, you probably won’t need a crumb coat, but if you’re frosting with a knife, your life will be much easier if you crumb coat the cake.
Place all pieces together on a cakeboard, covered cutting board, or gigantic flat serving platter (yeah, I don’t have one of those, either).
Decorate with assorted candies, gumdrop decorations, sugar decorations, children’s cereals, mini-marshmallows, etc.

Download a PDF file of the Robot Cake cutting pattern.

Download the Red Robot Cake Pattern (the pattern is a .PDF file which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader). The Red Robot Cake is made from two square cake layers (of equal size) and is very simple to cut out.

Cut up cake robot.

I baked two square layers of cake (using the Modified Chocolate Cake Recipe). I left one layer whole (serves as the robot’s body and cut the other layer according to the Robot Cake Pattern.

Gumdrop Oscilloscope.

The robot’s oscilloscope was made using rolled gumdrops (see the gumdrop decoration tutorial. To make the basic shape, I used two square fondant/cookie cutters. I cut out a black square with the largest cutter and then cut a hole out of the black square with the smaller cutter. I also cut out a green square with the smaller cutter. I placed the small green square in the hole in the black square. Voilà!

I rounded the corners of the gumdrop screen just by smooshing it about with my fingers — it’s a bit more instinct than science.

I rolled out a bit of black gumdrop (like rolling out a clay snake) for the “squiggle” line and chopped up bits of gumdrop for the knobs.

Robot Head Closeup

Rivets made of children cereals (with a dab of gel icing in the center), jelly beans as “flashy lights”, a mini-marshmallow as the goofy tooth, and marshmallows cut in half and placed on two jumbo gumdrops for the eyes.

Initially, I placed two black jumbo gumdrops on the cake for eyes and I loved how they looked, but… I really wanted blue eyes. But but but… no blue gumdrops.

Dyeing a gumdrop with food coloring.

OTOH, I did have white gumdrops and blue food coloring. I plopped a white gumdrop on top of a fondant/cookie cutter and started dripping dye on the gumdrop. It worked like a charm — it was a bit dark, so I blotted it with paper towel and I had perfectly blue gumdrop eyes. You might wish to wear latex gloves during this process.

I didn’t wear gloves and attended a meeting with lovely blue fingernails. Your call.

Simplify This Cake

If you’re in a rush, here are a couple of simplifications to speed up the Robot Cake Process:

Instead of making gumdrop decorations, use a variety of candies, breakfast cereals, and cookies.
Instead of frosting each body piece individually (for visible joints), attach pieces with a small dab of frosting and then frost all pieces at once (this saves a lot of time… and irritation).

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Gumdrop Decorations

Pfoinkle — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:58:10 +0000

Gumdrop cake decorations.

I’m working on a cake design that requires decorations — sparkly decorations. I was wondering what to use when I remembered flipping through a 1960s cookbook that included information about “rolling out” gumdrops. Time to experiment.

Turns out working with gumdrops is simple… albeit sticky. Very, very sticky.

Supplies You’ll Need

Assortment of gumdrops (or similar candies such as “spearmint leaves”)
Rolling Pin
Sugar
Assortment of fondant or cookie cutters