August 6, 2010

Super Mario Bros Cake (and Oreo IMBC Recipe)


This was a cake I designed to pull together all the birthday boy's requested characters: Bowser, Mario, Luigi, and Goomba's.  The storyline was laid out around the cake: Bowser chased Mario and Luigi out of Bowser's Castle, and while the brothers ran, they caught super stars and a mega mushroom, as they aimed toward the warp pipe to escape from Bowser.


Bowser was the hardest and most time consuming of the characters to make.  He had so much detail that had to be individually sculpted and assembled together!  It was all cut out by and and pieced together  piece by piece, layer by layer.  He took 2 hours but I loved how he turned out...grrrr! 



Mario's and Luigi's outline was cut out of fondant, then I lightly scored/engraved in all the details into the fondant panel then painted in their features with gel colors diluted with almond extract (vodka would work too).


The Goomba's were put together from 3 separate pieces (feet, legs, head).  Each piece was left to dry for a day before assembling it together.


I made the bricks by using an impression mat which made it easy to create the tile effect of the castle perfectly.


Rowen's name was made using the an alphabet cutter which fit perfectly over the brick blocks.  I also placed 6 gold coins around sides of the cake since he was turning 6 (I used a flower tip impressed in the middle of each coin to give it some dimension).


Rowen loved his cake and so did I!  I hope you do too :)

Lesson learned:  Make extra Goomba's, at least one per guest - the kids each wanted to eat one and I only made 4...ay yay yay!

8" round Chocolate Sour Cream Cake filled with Oreo IMBC.  Covered and decorated in MMF.

Oreo IMBCMake your usual IMBC (get recipe here) or Buttercream.  Take Oreo Cookies, break them apart, scrape off the cream centers and set it aside.  Crush the oreo cookies (without the cream center) in a food chopper until finely ground. Take about a third* of your buttercream (enough to fill and thinly crumb coat the cake with) and fold the crushed cookie pieces into the buttercream. As or the creme centers, and so it doesn't go to waste, I like to add it only to the filling layers of the cake - take about a cup of the oreo buttercream and blend the cream into it, spread it across the cake and top with additional crushed cookies for that added crunch.  Once you have the cakes filled, crumb coat the cake with the remainder of the oreo buttercream.

*Here is a tip, only add a thin layer of the cookie filled buttercream to the outside of the cake.  Then, finish crumb coating the cake with a thick layer of plain, buttercream.  This way, any lumpy bits and pieces of the cookie, won't show through and leave lumps under your fondant .  I use the same technique with fresh strawberries blended into the buttercream/IMBC. You can pretty much add anything to your buttercream, just be sure to save some aside that is plain so that you can use it as a final, smooth coating over the cake.

23 comments:

  1. This cake is amazing!!! :) Alot of work but great!! You do an amazing job on the characters!!

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  2. Thanks Tanisha! Yeah, I do love recreating characters, they're so much fun to make.

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  3. I have a question for you, i'd love to try and make the filling for this cake, so is it just IMBC with crushed OREOs in it? Or how is it made? It sounds very delish and i'd love to make it for my son's b-day which is around the corner. Thanks.

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  4. I added the Oreo IMBC recipe to the bottom of the post. I just eye the amount of oreo cookies. For this particular cake, an 8" round, I used 1/4 bag of Oreo Cookies.

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  5. Do you paint fondant with regular gel colors mixed with alcohol?

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  6. Yes, I paint with gel colors mixed with either almond extract, lemon extract or Vodka. As long as what your'e using dries dry, you can use it to paint with - just don't use water, it dries sticky/tacky. You can also paint with straight gel colors but I find it easier to thin them out a bit first.

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  7. hi i love your cakes and i'm new in decorating cakes i would like to know what is IMBC please i really apresiate it. thank you

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  8. Hi Monica, IMBC is Italian Meringue Buttercream. It's made with egg whites, sugar and butter. Very light and not too sweet.

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  9. Hi Monica could you tell me how much of everything we need to try your IMBC recipe I would love to try it thanks Martha my email is mvfranco2317@hotmail.com

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  10. @ Martha - here is the link to where the IMBC recipe can be found:
    http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/06/music-themed-80th-birthday-cake.html

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  11. How did you make the little goombas???

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    1. They're like a mushroom. I rolled out their heads into a hershey kiss shape, added the eyes and eyebrows with fondant, slit their mouth using the edge of a piping tip and added little teeth to it. For the body, rolled out a short cylinder in a lighter color and for the feet, made 2 rounded ovals and flatten half of it to stick under the cylinder. Used piping gel to get everything to glue together. HTH.

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  12. AnonymousJune 09, 2012

    LOL Amazing Cake and high five for the coupomn!!

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  13. AnonymousJuly 06, 2012

    Great work! I have to make a Mario Brothers cake and want to try the 2D type technique. Do you make them ahead of time or right before you are ready for them to go on the cake? I was worried that it would be hard to put the figures on a round cake if I pre-make them.

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    1. It depends on the timing. If you do make them ahead of time and want them to remain soft and pliable, store the letters over a piece of parchment or wax paper and slide them into either a sheet protector or a zip lock bag and keep them flat in the freezer. When you're ready to use them, pull them out and pop them on the cake, they'll feel just like they did when you made them - works like a charm!

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  14. Wow, this cake is so awesome! :)

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  15. Wow, this cake is so awesome! :)

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  16. Taylor CrawfordNovember 11, 2012

    I love this! I generally spend days sculpting figures for my kids' cakes but decided to consider flat cut outs to save some time. I think I'll be stealing your bowser method!! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. OMG.......this cake is beautiful! Love....love...love.......Do you sell your cakes?
    Have you done a LEGO theme cake or cake pops? would love to see them?

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    1. I make cakes as a hobby and my friends and family have been keeping me plenty busy =D. I've done 1 Lego Star Wars cake for my son a few years ago when I had first started decorating cakes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sugarsweetcakes/5190300784/in/photostream

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  18. do you happen to know if fondant and modeling chocolate is a good idea to decorate a ice cream cake?

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    1. I'm not sure - never tried it. Sorry I couldn't be of any help here.

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