Chica Cake

Ingredients:

• ½ sheet cake, baked and refrigerated till cool

Sprout-terrific Shortcut: purchase the cake baked and iced, with no border or decoration. Request orange icing, for a good Chica base.

• 8 ½  cups buttercream icing (widely available pre-made at craft stores or baking supply stores)
• 2 ½ cups. chow mein noodles
• 3 cups crushed peanut butter logs (substitute crispy rice cereal for allergies)
• Food color paste: golden yellow, brown, and orange or copper
• 10-15 candy corn pieces
• Red licorice twists
• Round black candy ¾-1 inch round (optional for eyes)

Supplies

• Apron
• Cutting board and knife
• 2-3 icing/decorating bags or gallon size zip-close bags
• Mixing bowls -food color stains plastic, plan your mixing bowls accordingly!
• Hot water
• Icing spatulas
• Cardboard base (unless you buy a ready-made cake)
• Paper plate
• Paper towels
• Paring knife
• Printable cake template
• Rubber gloves (to avoid staining hands when mixing icing)
• Wax paper to cover your work area
• Paper plates to practice on!
• Round plates (9-10 inches and 6-7 inches across)
• Ruler or tape measure
• Scissors
• Toothpicks to remove crumbs from icing
• Trashcan
• Very large plastic googly eyes (optional)

Directions

Tip: For a party-throwing parent shortcut, consider buying an iced ½ sheet cake already made at your local grocery store or bakery. Ask for the cake frozen and iced in orange with no border. A very cold cake will be easier to decorate! Make colored icing and set aside. Keep the icing at room temperature for easier icing.

1. Ready made buttercream icing is easiest to decorate with, and gel paste food coloring can be purchased at your local cake supply or craft store. When using gel paste food coloring, you can make your icing slightly lighter than you want it, it will darken as it sits. You will need:

• 5 cups golden yellow for body (mixed with a tiny bit of brown or copper food color to create a bright butterscotch color)
• 1 cup bright golden yellow for belly and beak
• 1 ½ cup brown for nest
• ½  cup white, optional, for eyes
• ½ cup orange or copper for collar, optional

1. When mixing icing for Chica’s body, start with a bright golden yellow. Set aside 1 cup of the golden yellow icing for the belly and beak. Add brown or copper food coloring to the rest of the golden yellow to make a nice bright butterscotch Chica color! Make brown icing last, using any leftover yellow and butterscotch color to mix with brown food color for Chica’s nest.
2. Start with a cold, fully iced cake and cut cake into the shape of Chica according to template dimensions. Measure your cake, marking the center and cutting points. Press all of the shapes that you plan to cut into the icing before actually cutting, just to be sure it looks right. It’s okay if you need to re-mark the lines, you will be decorating over the first layer of icing!
3. To create the main body, lay a 9-10 inch round dinner plate upside down on the bottom half of the cake directly on the icing. Press the shape of the circle into the cake and remove plate.
4. To create Chica’s head, use a smaller round plate, 6-7 inches to press a circle onto your cake, overlapping circles about one inch. 
5. For Chica’s wings, cut a paper plate in half, and press one half onto the cake surface to make a wing shape, as pictured.
6. Cut at lines and carefully remove the extra cake pieces. Gently wipe off the cardboard base with a damp paper towel.  The cake will be easier to decorate if you chill again before continuing to decorate.
7. To ice the cake, start by filling a decorating bag or plastic bag with the golden butterscotch yellow icing and trim the tip straight across. Squiggle generously all over the top of the cake and sides. Then use a damp spatula to smooth the icing, dipping into a mug of warm water frequently, and wiping the excess icing onto a paper plate. It is not necessary to ice the bottom area where Chica’s nest will be with golden yellow (until you switch to brown icing).
8. Dip your spatula into warm water and use the moisture to help make the icing nice and smooth. (Tip: The secret to a nice, smooth cake is to use a LOT of icing and spread with a warm, wet icing spatula to remove the excess. If you get a lumpy spot, add a glob of icing, dip your spatula in hot water and touch up. If you get any blemishes on the cake that you want to smooth, just chill the cake so the icing hardens a little, then tap and smooth with a clean finger. Pick any crumbs out with a toothpick and smooth with a damp spatula or tap flat after chilling.)
9. Using the same squiggle technique, squiggle brown icing onto the cake top and sides where Chica’s nest is. Smooth into a thin layer of brown, then press chow mein noodles into the brown icing for a nest.
10. Next, refrigerate the cake while you crush the peanut logs for Chica’s wings. They can be placed in a zip-close bag and pressed into coarse crumbs by hand from the outside of the bag. Fill the area where you have pressed in the half-paper plate imprint with the crushed peanut butter logs, pressing firmly onto the icing.
11. Use the tip of a paring knife to draw the beak and Chica’s curved collar line into the icing. For the beak, begin about 4 inches down from the top center of Chica’s head, and make a 2½ x3½ inch sideways diamond with rounded edges. Don’t forget that if you make a mistake, simply smooth the icing with a damp spatula, chill the cake, and try again.
12. Fill a decorating bag or plastic bag with the bright golden yellow icing and trim the tip straight across. Use the decorating bag to squiggle icing between the wings to make Chica’s belly. If you find it to be easier, you can fill in Chica’s entire belly using dots! Create the beak by making an outline of icing dots where you’ve outlined the beak. Fill in with more dots. Make another, slightly smaller layer, of dots on top of the first layer, repeat layering until you have a small elongated 3-D pyramid of dots that will serve as our precious Chica’s beak!
13. Use a toothpick to press a thin strip of black licorice, pulled from a licorice wheel, across the beak to make a mouth as pictured.
14. Create Chica’s collar by pressing candy corn along the curved line you made across Chica’s neck. Accent with rows of dotted orange, copper, yellow, or butterscotch colored icing, or any combination you like!
15. Press red licorice twists into the top center of the cake to make Chica’s crest. Add as many as you like to create your party masterpiece!
16. Chica’s eyes will complete your work of birthday art! Chica has very large eyes, and there are two ways you might choose to create them. The easiest way is to press very large googly eyes directly onto the icing. Remove Googly eyes from cake before serving, they could be a choking hazard!
17. You can alternately press a 1 ½ inch lid onto the icing to make a circle, fill in with white icing, refrigerate until firm and tap flat with a clean dry finger. Add a ¾ to 1 inch round black (licorice) candy with a small dot of white icing at the center of each black licorice circle.
18. Create eyelashes with small, thin strips of black licorice pulled from a licorice wheel.
19. Hooray Sproutlets! You have a beautiful Chica cake to celebrate your special day! Refrigerate until serving.

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