Owl cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 8 eggs
• 12 tbsp sugar
• 12 tbsp oil
• 12 tbsp flour
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 4 bars of dark chocolate
• 300 ml cream
• 200 g butter, soft
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 2 packets of vanilla sugar
• 6 tbsp cocoa powder, or baking cocoa
• Milk
• Fondant (white, black, pink, yellow/orange, brownish shades)

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan-assisted oven or 200°C conventional oven. Line springform pans with baking paper. First, prepare the batter. Beat the eggs with a mixer, then beat them with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the oil and mix briefly again. Now add the flour and baking powder and mix everything into a smooth batter. Divide the batter between 4 equal springform pans with a diameter of approximately 17.5 cm and bake for about 15 minutes each. Do the skewer test. If you don’t have 4 equal-sized springform pans, bake in batches if necessary so that you end up with 4 equal layers. Set these aside to cool and in the meantime, prepare the cream. For the cream, roughly chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl. Bring the cream to a boil and add it to the chocolate while it’s still boiling. Let everything stand for 5 minutes, then whisk from the inside out until smooth. Let cool for about 20 minutes. First, mix the butter with the powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, and cocoa powder on a low speed, then beat until creamy. Now add the chocolate-cream mixture, stirring constantly, and then beat for another 3-4 minutes. If the cream is too thick, add a little milk if necessary. Remove the cake layers from the tins and place a cake ring around the first layer. Spread a very thin layer of cream on this. Cut a circle out of the second layer, leaving a border of about 1.5 cm. Place this border in the cake ring and fill with the cream. Now stack another complete layer, then another border, and fill it. Finally, place one of the cut-out circles on top in the center. Remove the cake ring, then cover the entire cake with the cream and place it in the refrigerator to chill. Now shape the eyes, ears, beak, feet, and bow out of the fondant. For the belly feathers, cut out circles from rolled-out, brownish fondant and arrange them in a scale-like pattern on the front of the cake. These could also be replaced with cream. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and attach the eyes, belly feathers (if applicable), and nose with a little cream. Fill the remaining cream into a piping bag and decorate the entire cake with small piping nozzles to create the appearance of a feathered costume. Now firmly press the ears, bow, and feet into the cream. Please refrigerate until shortly before serving.