Barney and Friends Cake (and Modeling Chocolate & RKT Recipes)

A Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop cake for little Evan who turned 1.  Although I find Barney quite annoying, after playing a couple episodes to get an idea of what the dinosaurs looked like and to capture all their little details, my own 3 year old now loves Barney too, and requests to watch it EVERY day...oh well!  He does have very catchy songs that kids love singing along.

The figures were sculpted with Rice Krispy Treats (RKT) cereal then covered with modeling chocolate.  I made the RKT without butter, just a tiny bit of vegetable oil, so they would be firm and last a bit longer.  Butter would have made them go stale quickly and I made these figurines 3 days before the party.

Below is the recipe I used for the RKT.  Measurements are approximate since I basically eyed it until I got the right texture and was able to sculpt with.
 
RKT Recipe (with vegetable oil):
16oz Bag of Mini Marshmallows
12 Cups Rice Crispy Cereal (I crushed them a little bit)
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 Teaspoon Water

Coat a microwave bowl really well with shortening or vegetable oil.  Add marshmallows, drizzle with water and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until the marshmallows are all melted.  Add veg oil and stir well.  Add cereal and stir again until well incorporated.  Cover in an airtight container so it stays soft as you make your figures.  If it hardens, just put the amount needed into the microwave for about 5 seconds to soften it back up again.

This batch was enough to make the 3 dinosaurs, a number 1 cake topper and a 6" round "cake" that was 4" high.  I had about a cup left over.

Once the figurines are done being sculpted, cover them in modeling chocolate.  You can roll out modeling chocolate like fondant, then apply them in pieces over the sculptures.  The great thing in working with modeling chocolate, seams blend away easily and smoothly no matter how lumpy the underside is.

For this batch of modeling chocolate, I used white candy melts and tinted them with a combination of Chef Master Candy Colors and AmeriColor Gel colors.  Instead of using toothpicks, I use dry spaghetti as skewers to assemble the bodies together.  From experience, with kids, they love to bit down into figurines so I avoid using toothpicks to assemble things that could be eaten.

Updated March 2011:  See step by step photo's on my post, How to Make Modeling Chocolate

Here are the dinosaurs all decorated and waiting patiently to get on the cake.

For BJ (yellow dino), I stuck his shoes into the sides of the cake, spread piping gel over the tops, then lay his knees up over it.  All the the dino's are attached to the cake with piping gel.

They look so adorably happy...and cute =)

The top, 6" tier is actually all RKT rather than a cake.  I just filled 2, 6" round pans with the RKT, let it cool, then assembled it like a cake and covered it in buttercream and MMF.

The bottom, 9" tier is Chocolate Chiffon Cake filled with Strawberry Buttercream and Fresh Strawberries.