Angry Birds Cake – Chocolate Cake from Scratch

Some people don’t like the idea of homemade cake.  Perhaps they had some bad experience with it in the past or they just can’t see themselves going to “all that trouble” and dirtying up all those dishes.  Fear not!  A Betty Crocker Cake mix requires 1 bowl and some kind of beaters/mixer to mix it.  That is all you need to make this recipe too!  So you aren’t dirtying up any dishes.  Timewise, you can mix this recipe up and it take about 4 minutes longer.  Just a few minutes to save yourself from all those weird ingredients on the box and the time it takes to go to the grocery store and buy the box.

Onto the Angry Birds Cake part:  This didn’t turn out exactly how I had pictured it in my head.  Believe me  – it tasted great.  And I would rather have a weird cake that tasted awesome than a great looking cake that tastes gross.  Sigh, I guess I’m  just not that great at decorating.  Part of the cake was sinking and the Twix bars I bought wouldn’t stand up, so I just used the mini Twix bars instead.  Next time I would use dowel rods and small pieces of cardboard to support the top layers.  Similar to what the wedding cake pros do for tiered wedding cakes.

This recipe will look very familiar as it is the same one I used in the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake earlier.

Chocolate Cake
yield 16-20 servings  (24-26 cupcakes, or 2- 8×4 loaves, 2 – 8″ or 9″ round pans)

2 cups sugar
1 and 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (substitution: 1 Tbs. lemon juice and 1 cup 2% milk)
1 cup strong coffee or hot water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In one big bowl, add the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt.  Stir together with a whisk or beat on low in the mixer.
2.  Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, vegetable oil, and vanilla.  Beat on medium for 2 minutes.  It will be watery and that is just fine.
3.  As cupcakes:  using a large scoop (3 Tbs), spoon the batter into the cupcakes and bake 14-16 minutes
As 13×9″ cake: bake 35-40 min.
As 2- 4″x8″ loaves: bake 22-25 minutes
As 2 round pans: bake 22-25 minutes

As always: check with a toothpick for doneness.  Cool for 10 minutes then invert the cake/cupcakes out of the pan to cool on the wire rack.

Chocolate Buttercream

yield: about 3 cups

2 sticks (1 cup or 8oz.) of unsalted butter, room temp.
3/4 cup cocoa, sifted
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp. vanilla
3-4 Tbs. milk

1.  Cream the butter until light and whipped – about 1 minute on medium.
2.  On LOW speed, slowly add the  cocoa and powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time.
3.  Scrape the bowl to make sure all the sugar is in there.  Add vanilla and milk.  Beat on medium/medium high speed for 2 minutes.
Use immediately or store in the fridge until later use.

Recipe from Wilton.com

Buttercream Icing
yield: about 3 cups

2 sticks (1 cup or 8oz.) of unsalted butter, room temp.
OR 1 stick of butter (4 oz.) and 1/2 cup shortening
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. milk

1.  Cream the butter until light and whipped – about 1 minute on medium.
2.  On LOW speed, slowly add the  cocoa and powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time.
3.  Scrape the bowl to make sure all the sugar is in there.  Add vanilla and milk.  Beat on medium/medium high speed for 2 minutes.
Use immediately or store in the fridge until later use.

Recipe from Wilton.com

To construct Angry Birds Cake:

What you will need:
2  – 4×8″ loaves of chocolate cake
1 recipe of chocolate buttercream
1 recipe of buttercream
6 mini Twix bars
1 package of Hershey Drops
1 decorating bag and #32 tip
offset spatula
12″x26″ piece of plywood covered in foil
4 mini Snickers

1.  Bake Chocolate Cake in 2 – 4″x8″ loaf pans as instructed above.  Cool completely and use immediately.  Or store in the fridge to use the next day (covered in wrap).  Or store in the freezer to use within 1 month (covered in cling wrap then foil).  Thaw in the fridge overnight when ready to use.

2.  Prepare a piece of wood at least 12″ wide and 28″ long.  We used scrap from the garage.  You could use a piece of cardboard if you don’t plan on transporting the cake.  It should have no warps at all or the cake will fall.  Cover the bottom with aluminum foil.  You may need some tape to keep it flat.

3.  Add green food coloring or gel to the white buttercream to make it look like grass.  Spread onto the foil in a  thin layer.  Using an offset spatula, tap the frosting with the flat end to make peaks that resemble the “grass”.   Reserve about 1/2 cup of buttercream for decoration.

4.  Slice each cake loaf into 4 sections.  Use a ruler or cut one loaf in half, then each half into halves.

5.  You should now have 8 sections.  Take one of the sections and cut in the middle halfway through the cake and then out.  This should make an “L” shape and create the cake piece on the left side of the photo.

4.  Now frost all of the sections with chocolate buttercream.

5.   Place each section carefully onto the “grass” as viewed in the photo.  I would suggest some sort of support for the bottom 3 pieces of cake.  If I were to make this again, I would cut 6 dowel rods as tall as the cake pieces.  Then, cut 6 small pieces of cardboard small enough to hide under each section of cake, and cover those with foil.  After placing the 3 pieces of cake on the bottom, insert dowel rods and place the foil pieces on the ends to hide under the top 2 pieces of cake.  Repeat for the top layer.

6.  Use gray icing or in my case I used Hershey Drops (new m&ms without a shell) for the stones.

7.  Use a star tip, I used tip#32, to add grass around the edges.

8.  Place angry birds and piggies on the cake.  I purchased mine at Amazon here.  Saving me TONS of time in making them out of fondant.

9.  Add chocolate buttercream icing to the ends of the mini Twix bars to add to the top of the cake.  Place very carefully.  We tried using toothpicks to secure them, but the Twix bars were too dense and broke the toothpicks.  If one of them is about to fall over, I would lean it against the side of the cake to hold it up.

10.  Stack mini Snickers on the plain cake, the second from the left, as shown.