Dinosaur... ROAR !

Back in June I made a cake for a friend's son's birthday ! The little guy loves dinosaurs so much that his super Mam had this awesome Dinosaur themed party all set up for him and his friends.
I love baking cakes, and it's the second year I have the privilege to bake his birthday cake.

I'm going to share my now favorite Chocolate Cake recipe. Spoiler alert - it is to die for! It's moist (love this word), moist, moist and very moist (and delicious) ! The cake is tasty but without being too heavy. I am now using this recipe for every chocolate based cake I need.

Because it's Friday (TG) and feel generous before the weekend, we are going to top it up with a decadent Chocolate Buttercream frosting.

Let's all welcome and give a round of applause for Calories, my dear friends.

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For the skeleton, it's quite simple in fact. All you will need is Google Image, a printer, some grease proof paper, white chocolate or assimilate and piping bag/piping bottle.
To make sure that your dinosaur doesn't break, I would suggest to go over the drawing several times. It will create a thick and resistant decoration for your cake and it will allow you to move it easily from the grease proof paper to the cake.
 
Bake your Chocolate Cake (double the recipe if you want two layers, like me), and let the cakes cool completely down.
Prepare your Chocolate Buttercream frosting, and let it set in the fridge for 15-30 mins if you find it too liquid-y.

Once the cakes are cold, cut the excess to make them even. With the leftover you can make cake pops for example - you're welcome !
Spread a thick layer of buttercream on top of the first cake, and place the second cake over it. Make sure that they are straight, and smooth out the extra frosting that may try to escape.
They are now as one.

You will have to carve a hole in the top of the cake, to create that "excavation" look.

Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of frosting and make sure to have it real smooth. Be careful to not put crumbs in the container of frosting, you may need to wipe your spatula several times in between two spreading. Pop the cake in the fridge for half an hour.
Once the frosting is set, finish it up ! Go crazy and spread the remaining frosting all over the cake - smooth or rough finish, that's up to you. It's supposed to be mud, so I kept it rough enough.
I put frosting on the edges of the excavation cavity as well, and then I crumbled some digestives biscuits to fake the dust. 

Gently place the skeleton in the hole, add more "dust" and pop the whole thing in the fridge until delivery.

The final result:

Extras: Dinosaur footprints Sugar Cookies and Dinosaur Eggs cake pops (without the stick - too dangerous with children running around at a birthday party!). Just add some cream cheese to your cake leftovers and shape some ovals. Dip them in the white chocolate you used for the skeleton and Voilà !

I hope you'll like it as much as he did. 

love

Ben