Island Cake Tutorial; Breached Whale With Island

So the Island Cake was apparently really popular last year. Which means I only found out about it this year.

When I saw the photos on island cakes online, I really wanted to make one. They were so mesmerizing! I am a sucker for stuff involving water or clear, glass-like sculptures, so this was really awesome to me. When Instructables put up the Edible Art Challenge, I knew I had to go ahead and try to make an Island Cake.

For the cake:

1. Springform pan
2. Cake batter of your choice
3. Aluminum foil (not pictured)

For the gelatin water:

1. Clear gelatin packages
2. Food coloring
3. Flavoring of your choice (I am using lemon juice)
4. Stove top pan
5. Water
6. Medium sized heat proof bowl
7. Spoon for mixing

For the ganache:

1. Cream
2. Chocolate chips
3. White baking chocolate (DON'T use white chocolate chips like I did; it won't set up)
4. Stove top pan
5. Large heat proof bowl
6. Whisk

For the mountain vegetation:

1. Coffee grinder (not necessary, but really useful)
2. Pecans (or whatever kind of nut, crackers, graham crackers, or cookies you can crush and color)
3. Green food coloring
4. Small bowls and spoon for mixing (not pictured)

For the modeling chocolate:

1. Candy melts in white
2. Light corn syrup
3. Large heat proof bowl
4. Spoon
5. Measuring utensils
6. Plastic wrap
7. Food coloring
8. Dental tools for modeling
9. Small knife

Other useful tools not pictured: paper towels, toothpicks, kitchen towels.

The reason I am not going to instruct on how to make the actual "cake" portion is because I think you should use what cake you like best. I am using the Hershey cake recipe - you can find it on the back of the cocoa box or you can find it here. I think it is the best chocolate cake ever.

Wrap the bottom of the springform pan tightly in two layers of aluminum foil to minimize leaking. My cake batter is practically water thin and it didn't hardly leak at all, but it will depend on your pan.

Pour you cake batter in as carefully as you can. Clean up any leaks with a paper towel. Don't pour too much in; this is going to be the base or the underwater surface of the ocean, so you don't want it to be very tall. Our ocean will only go as far up as the sides of the springform pan, so keep that it mind.

Pour the rest of your cake batter into other pans to cook. These portions will be what you use to shape your islands.

I was originally going to make a smaller cake as a test cake, but I ran out of time, so I ended up working on it for no reason.

Cook the cake like normal, just check on your springform pan more often. Since it has less batter in it than normal, it will cook faster. Or theoretically will, because mine actually took longer than my regular cake pan. Just check it often so you don't accidentally burn it.

Remove the cakes and allow to cool COMPLETELY. As in, no heat whatsover, maybe even overnight.

While your cake is cooling, you can make the ganache. The ganache will be what makes our cake "gelatin proof" so the gelatin doesn't just sink into your cake. Think of it as your caulk. I am using Mark Bittman's recipe from his "How to Bake Everything" book.

Measure out 1 cup of cream and 8 oz of the chocolate chips. Put the chocolate chips into the heat proof bowl.

Pour the cream into your pan and place on the stove, turning the burner on medium low. "Heat the cream until it starts to steam" is the original directions, but I didn't really see steam, I just held my hand over top of it and felt the heat with my hand. If you start seeing little bubbles on the sides, you are definitely there.

Once the cream is hot enough, pour it directly on top of the chocolate chips and whisk the cream and chocolate chips together. At first this will be hard, but it won't take too long before all the chocolate chips have melted and you have ganache. Simple.

Set the ganache aside. You can put it in the fridge for the next day if need be. If you are making white chocolate ganache, do that in the same manner, but don't use chocolate chips. I found out that it doesn't set up like it should; it resembled sweetened condensed milk and never hardened.

Technically this is candy clay because it is made with candy melts, not modeling chocolate, but it behaves pretty much the same as far as I can tell.

I am using this recipe by Sugar Geek Show. I have used it three times now with good results. This recipe calls for 16 oz of candy melts to 4 oz corn syrup. Dump your candy melts into your large heat proof bowl. Rip off a large piece of plastic wrap and lay it on your work surface.

Put the corn syrup in a small heat proof bowl. Place this in the microwave and heat for hardly any time at all because you only want it warm, not hot. Set this aside.

Heat the candy melts in the microwave, stirring every ten seconds or so. Don't heat until literally all the candy melts are melted; you will burn them and cry. Just heat until almost all the candy melts are melted, then simply stir until the heat of the melts causes the remaining solids to melt.

Now the fun part. Add the corn syrup to the melted candies, and fold in. Don't stir vigorously; you'll make it separate. The description everyone uses for what you are going for is "soft serve ice cream". You are not literally going to completely mix it. You will notice as you mix that the melted candy kinda seizes as you mix in the corn syrup.

Once you hit soft serve stage, dump the candy mix onto the plastic wrap. Cover with a second piece of plastic wrap and smoosh the candy flat and out so it is flattened. Now leave it alone. It will be fine.

So, this was the hardest part for me when making this cake. I haven't played with gelatin a whole lot, so I wasn't sure about flavorings. Someone I know who had made an island cake told me "any powdered flavoring should work". Well, I had to work with what I had around the house, so the first thing that came to mind was a Kool-Aid packet.

Disaster. One, it didn't really impart the flavor that I expected, and Two, it colored the gelatin SO MUCH. Just don't use Kool-Aid packets.

I finally decided to just add lemon juice and sugar for my flavoring and food coloring for my color.

You will need to follow the instructions on your specific gelatin packet, but mine was as follows according to the Knox box. Please note that you have to get jiggler consistency with your gelatin so that the water will set up on its own.

Knox Blox (as it calls them on the packege) jigglers call for 4 Knox gelatin packets and 4 cups of fruit juice. I am not gonna use fruit juice, so I am just using water. Since that is true, I need to add sugar and flavoring because both of those would have come from the fruit juice.

I used about 1 cup of sugar for the 4 packets. I put 3 cups of water and the 1 cup of sugar into my pan on the stove and heated it to boiling. Meanwhile, I poured the remaining 1 cup of water into a medium sized heat proof bowl and sprinkled my gelatin packets over the water. They should sit like that for one minute. This is called "blooming" the gelatin and will make it do what we want.

While all that is going on, it is time to color. I used just regular blue food coloring (water-based), and I just dropped in one drop at a time. Don't dump it in; you can also go darker in color, but you can't go lighter. Trust me.

Now you can add your flavoring. I added lemon juice (which I forgot to take a photo of), and I honestly can't say how much. This part will all depend on what you decide to do for flavoring.

Once the colored water is boiling, pour it over the bloomed gelatin. Stir for about 5 minutes or until all the gelatin is dissolved.

Cover and put in the fridge.

Once the cake is completely cooled off, you can make your islands.

Using the cake that was cooked separate from the springform pan, break it off in chunks and literally mold it into mountains with your hands, pressing and squeezing the cake together. You could also simply cut off pieces and just set them on the cake. Keep in mind the level of your springform pan because that is how high the water can go. You don't want to suddenly realize that all you have is underwater volcanoes instead of island peaks because you made them all too short.

I would advise popping the cake in the fridge after molding the islands. Let it firm up before adding the ganache.

Once the cake has firmed, get out the ganache. If it is too firm to spread, pop it in the microwave for just a few seconds and then stir it. Spread the ganache all over the cake, making sure that you cover EVERYTHING. Go all the way to the edge of the pan. The ganache is your caulk- it will prevent the gelatin from leaking into or under your cake. MAKE SURE YOU MEET THE SIDES!!!

Now I added white chocolate ganache because I wanted to give a "sandy" floor to my ocean and I thought it would add more depth to my water. You don't have to, that was my preference. If you do, just add it on top of the chocolate ganache or just leave some spots blank of chocolate and put white instead.

Pop the cake bake in the fridge for several hours until the ganache as set up.

Now to the fun part!

Our cake has been ganached, it is in the fridge, our gelatin water has been made and is in the fridge, now we need to make our whale.

Roll out a piece of plastic wrap. Always work on top of the plastic wrap. It makes the chocolate easy to move and it doesn't stick as much.

Get out the modeling chocolate. Break off a small piece and begin kneading it in your hands. It will be hard, but don't worry. It will work out.

Very quickly the chocolate becomes soft. Don't knead it too much! Modeling chocolate reacts to heat like crazy, and just holding it in your hand will cause it to melt. As you model things, you will periodically need to pop them in the fridge and let them reharden and then begin to model on them again. Otherwise you will just end up with a candy puddle.

My whale is a humpback whale. It is very useful to look up photos of whatever you are trying to sculpt, so I googled humpback whales and found plenty to work from. You can make whatever you want.

Roll the chocolate into a log shape. With your fingers, pinch on end into a tapered, flattened point. Humpbacks have very interesting heads.

Keep elongating the shape until you have about twice the length of the head. Taper for the tail by making the roll a bit smaller.

Now take the knife and cut it in the middle, past the taper, separating the tail into the two flukes (tail fins, if you don't know). Flatten the two flukes by pressing down with your fingers. Use your knife to cut the flukes into the appropriate shape. Use the knife also to make notches in the edges of the tail away from the body.

Now time to sculpt the flippers. Press out some of the chocolate with your fingers until you have a flat piece (or you can use a roller if you have one). With the knife, looking at your reference photos, cut out a shape that resembles the whale's flipper. They kinda look like cartoon bird wings. Notch the bottom sides of them as well.

Attach them to the whale body by using the heat of your fingers. Hold the two pieces together and they will start to melt, then smooth them together. Very simple.

IF EVER YOUR CHOCOLATE STARTS TO GET HARD TO HANDLE, PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE!

Once you have a second flipper, put the whale to rest in the fridge.

The whale needs to be grey and I wanted some coloring marine life as well.

For grey, get out red, blue, and yellow. Mix a tiny dot of all three of the colors into the modeling chocolate. The color I got at first was a brown, so I added one more dot of blue. Then I got a nice grey. It is very simple, but if you are confused, I am sure you can find a tutorial on the internet of how to mix the primary colors to get grey.

Since I mixed the chocolate together with my hands, it was now very sticky. I wrapped it in plastic wrap and set it in the fridge.

Next I made a pink color by adding a little red to the white modeling chocolate, then I made yellow by using the yellow food coloring. Colors are totally up to you. I also made a green to be my reef bed.

For the pink coral, I simply rolled out little balls of pink chocolate and then used my dental tools to poke little holes all over them. Put in the fridge to harden.

For the yellow coral I flattened my yellow chocolate and then just freeformed a branching design with the knife. I just cut it out and then put it in the fridge to harden.

For the reef bed, I just flattened the green chocolate and tore it into pieces and laid them on the cake where I wanted the reef to go.

Get the whale back out of the fridge.

All I did was look at photos of Humpback whales and decide where to put my grey coloring. Some Humpbacks are more grey, some less, some practically all grey. I did half-n-half. I just took little pieces of grey chocolate and smoothed it onto the whale model where I wanted it to go. You can use tools to help you navigate the little pieces. Don't forget the underside. You can also see where I made a little ridge down it's back by pinching the chocolate with my fingers.

Now use the stylus dental tool and draw lines in the skin. Humpback whales have a lot of lines. Add the eye, noticing that it is way farther back from the tip of the head than you think it is. Don't forget the lines on the chin/throat.

We are getting close! Are you nervous? I sure was!

Get the gelatin you made earlier out of the fridge and reheat it on the stove. Just melt it back down. You can't use solid gelatin for the cake. Set it aside.

Get out the cake. The ganache should have hardened. With a paper towel, wipe the inside of the springform pan to clean up any ganache that got on the sides. We don't want to have that all over our water.

Place your coral where you want it to go. I used my stylus tool thing again to scratch the "reef bed" to give it some texture. Put the cake back in the fridge.

Next is the mountain vegetation. Get out a coffee grinder and the pecans. You can just put them in a plastic bag and smash them with the bag of a spoon, but this is much faster. Put only about 1/4 cup of pecans in the grinder. How many will all depend on how big your islands are and how much vegetation you want. Grind the pecans to powder.

If you want different colors, you will need to separate the pecan powder into bowls. I have a neon green food coloring, so I am doing both neon and regular green. Mix food coloring in drop by drop until you get the color you want.

Get your cake back out and begin patting the pecan mixtures on the islands. Do as much or as little as you want. Keep your waterline in mind. I did a little bit below the waterline and it actually turned out really cool looking, so that is up to you.

Get the whale out of the fridge. Find a little bowl or a cup that you can safely anchor on its side, or some other curved food safe object.

Hold the whale in your hand until it warms up enough that you can safely bend him over backwards, laying him on the bowl/cup side for support. With him laying on the surface, put him back in the fridge to harden.

Now the nerve-racking part: the first bit of gelatin is gonna get added to the cake. Go get your gelatin. You want it to be thickened, but not actually starting to set. It should be cool. With a spoon, carefully spread a thin layer of gelatin all over the bottom of the cake. Anywhere that there is gonna be "water". Put the cake back in the fridge.

When the gelatin has hardened sufficiently that it will bounce back from your finger if touched, get the cake back out. Now you are gonna to carefully pour the final bit of gelatin. Carefully pour (or use a spoon/ladle) the remaining gelatin onto the cake, until you almost touch the top edge of the springform pan. Don't hit any mountains, just the water areas.

VERY CAREFULLY put the cake back in the fridge.

Set a timer for about 30 minutes. You need the gelatin to harden a bit before placing the whale. Check on the cake when the timer goes off. It should be semi-hard, not completely set. If it isn't, set another timer. Mine took about 45 minutes to an hour before I put the whale.

Decide where you are going to place your whale. Get out a toothpick (or maybe two). Place him within a toothpick's length from an island (why? You'll see). Since he is jumping out of the water, he is on his tail.

Now, he isn't just going to stand there just yet. The gelatin isn't hard enough. Take a toothpick and poke it into the near island and then balance him on the toothpick. It will act as a prop until the gelatin is completely solid. If using only one makes you nervous, use two. Don't worry about the ganache, you can simply scoot it around to cover the hole later.

VERY CAREFULLY put the cake back in the fridge.

The gelatin should be hard and it is time to take off the pan!

First, I went and made some foaming water around the base of the whale by breaking off little chunks of hardened gelatin and placing them at the water's surface using a toothpick. I thought that looked pretty nice; better than just the still water.

Now to get the cake out of the pan...

What I decided to do was get some kitchen towels damp, heat them in the microwave, and then wrap them around the pan. Hot water is what is generally used to demold gelatin, but I couldn't exactly run this cake under the faucet....

And it worked! Take kitchen towels, get them damp, warm them in the microwave (watch them carefully) and then wrap them around the springform pan. This will literally only take minutes. To check if it worked, take your finger and gently pull at the edge of the gelatin. If it pops away cleanly and you can see down to the actual cake layer, it is ready. I did that all the way around, then I unlocked the pan.

TIP: The pan popped away cleanly, but the bottom may be slightly stuck. Lift the cake up (get help if you need it) and carefully push up on the bottom. Do this carefully so that it doesn't suddenly pop off and make you lose the cake.

You can now scream "I did it!"

From detaching the springform pan, you will have a little bit of ganache smears on the edge of the water. Use your finger to wipe these off. Don't use a paper towel; it doesn't work, I tried it.

Now take the toothpick prop away. He should stand on his own.

Good job!

Wow, what a cake to make!

That has to be the longest I have ever worked on a single cake. That being said, I have some tips to help you not make the mistakes that I did.

1. Grease your springform pan to where you cake batter will be. I should have, but I decided it would be fine, but I think it would help in getting the cake out.
2. Put less cake in the pan than you think you want. Keep the fact that the cake will rise in mind.
3. Don't use white chocolate chips to make your white chocolate ganache......
4. Be careful when coloring your gelatin. A little goes a long way.
5. You can reheat and resolidify your gelatin as much as you want.
6. Saying number 5, don't add too much sugar at first. If you don't like the way it tastes, just reheat it and add more sugar/flavoring.
7. Cutting the cake to make the islands might work better than squishing it. Not sure on that.
8. Make sure to chill your cake before putting the ganache. It helps contain crumbs.
9. Check the size of your coral with your cake. I accidentally made my yellow coral too tall and ended up breaking it into little pieces.
10. BE PATIENT. This cake is kinda nerve-wracking and it is a long process, but you will be able to do it. I actually thought that I would mess it up because people talked about how hard it was, but I didn't. I got it right the first time. You can, too.

I hope that you make an island cake and that this tutorial helps you if you are wanting to make one but are nervous about it. Have a great day!