Chocolate Froggy Birthday Cake

It was recently my frog loving sisters 21st Birthday and i wanted to make her something special for the party..... and so was born the chocolate froggy birthday cake. This cake recipe is great just on its own or you can dress it up like i did for a special occasion. With just a little ready roll icing and hand moulded marzipan

Moist Chocolate Sponge
340g Unsalted butter
340g sugar of your choice
220g self raising flour
170g chocolate powder
6 eggs
hot water

Cream together the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, sift in the flour. In a separate bowl mix the chocolate powder with 2 table spoons of water until it is a smooth paste add more water if necessary and the stir into the main mixture until combined. spoon in to cake tin (this mixture doesn't rise much to don't be worried if the mixture comes close to the top of the tin i used a dome shaped tin for the frog cake to give me a good basic shape to work with later.) Bake for 30-35 minuets at 180 or gas mark 4. The best way to see if a cake is cooked is to gently stick a skewer into the centre when you remove it, if the cake is cooked it will be clean. 

To make a frog

I baked some of the cake mixture separately in a cup cake tin and used two cup cakes to add googly sticky out eyes.  After the cake is completely cool i placed it on a cake board (made from a piece of firm cardboard covered in tin foil)  i cheated just a little bit, there are so many products in your local supermarket that save time and make baking easier and stress free. I used a pre made frosting and covered the cake and attached my cupcake eyes on. Then i used marzipan which i moulded by hand into four foot shapes attaching this around the cake. you should now have a rough froggy appearance. Now the tricky bit, i used ready rolled fondant icing and added green food dye rolling this out i then draped it over the whole cake (including feet) take your time doing this. I also added some extra white fondant icing cut into circles to highlight the eyes and the added pupils and a smile with writing icing.