Welcome to How To Cook That: Creating a Best Fiends Slug Cake

In this article, we'll be following along with Ann Reardon as she creates a delicious Best Fiends slug cake inspired by her favorite puzzle-adventure game. If you're new to the show, don't worry – we've got you covered!

First Things First: Making the Chocolate Cake Batter

To start, Ann explains that we need to make the chocolate cake batter. This is a crucial step in creating our Best Fiends slug cake, as it will provide the foundation for our fondant decoration. Ann notes that this recipe makes two large cakes, which are perfect for covering with fondant.

Ann begins by preheating her oven to 350°F (175°C). While the oven is heating up, she mixes together 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder in a large bowl. She then adds 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the dry ingredients before mixing them together.

Next, Ann combines 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, with 4 large eggs and 2 teaspoons of milk in another bowl. She slowly adds the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. The batter is then smooth and creamy, ready for baking.

Baking the Cakes

With the cake batter prepared, Ann carefully pours it into two greased and floured cake pans. She bakes the cakes for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Once the cakes are done, Ann removes them from the oven and allows them to cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cakes are baking, Ann prepares her fondant decorations. In this article, we'll be covering how to make and decorate a Best Fiends slug cake using fondant, so let's dive in!

Covering the Cakes with Fondant

To start, Ann covers the cooled cakes with white fondant. This is a crucial step, as it will provide the smooth surface for our decorations. She applies a thin layer of water to the top of each cake before covering it with fondant, ensuring that it adheres properly.

Once the fondant is on, Ann uses a rolling pin to smooth out any air pockets or wrinkles. This helps create a smooth surface for her decorations. With the fondant in place, Ann moves on to decorating our Best Fiends slug cake.

Decorating the Slug Cake

Now it's time to add some color and personality to our Best Fiends slug cake! For this, we'll be using fondant in various colors to create the slug's skin, eyes, teeth, and other features. Let's take a closer look at how Ann creates these details.

The Slug's Skin

Ann begins by applying a layer of red fondant to the top lip area of the slug. She then uses a small knife or modeling tool to create the illusion of gums under the teeth. To add some texture, she applies a few strips of deep red fondant around the mouth area, creating the appearance of gum stains.

Next, Ann covers the entire cake with black fondant, leaving a small gap at the top for the slug's eyes. She uses a toothpick to create texture on the fondant, giving it a rough, scaly appearance. With the black fondant in place, Ann moves on to adding some final details.

The Eyes

For the eyes, Ann uses white and black fondant to create two small circles with pupils. She adds a few tiny balls of white fondant to each eye for added detail and dimension. To create the eyebrows, Ann flattens two small pieces of black fondant and shapes them into gentle curves. These will add some personality to our Best Fiends slug cake!

Adding the Eyeballs

To create the eyeballs, Ann mixes together a few balls of white fondant with a small piece of black fondant. She then rolls each ball into an egg-like shape and adds a small indentation in the center for the pupil. Once these are ready, Ann places them onto the slug cake, leaning them slightly forward to give the illusion of movement.

The Eyebrow Area

Next, Ann uses white fondant to create two small circles with rounded edges, which will serve as the eyebrow area. She adds a few tiny balls of white fondant to each eye for added detail and dimension.

Adding the Teeth

For the teeth, Ann cuts out small triangles from black fondant using a template or by freehanding them onto the cake. She places these on either side of the mouth, creating the illusion of sharp teeth.

The Tail

Finally, it's time to create the tail! For this, we'll need some green fondant, which will be used to create the grass-like stem on top of the slug cake. Let's take a closer look at how Ann creates these details.

Creating the Stem

To start, Ann rolls out a large piece of green fondant into a tear-drop shape. She then bends it over one side and tucks it under at the back of the slug cake, creating the illusion of a stem.

Adding the Eyeballs to the Tail

Once the tail is in place, Ann carefully places the eyeballs onto the end of the stem, leaning them slightly forward to give the illusion of movement. This adds a fun touch to our Best Fiends slug cake!

Finishing Touches

With all the decorations in place, Ann takes a step back to admire her handiwork. She makes any necessary adjustments to ensure that everything is even and smooth.

And there you have it! A beautifully decorated Best Fiends slug cake using fondant. With its bright colors, fun details, and adorable design, this cake is sure to be a hit with anyone who sees it. We hope you enjoyed following along on this tutorial – happy decorating!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWelcome to How To Cook That, I'm Ann Reardonand today we're making a Slug cake from BestFiends.That's right, there have been so many requestsfor Best Fiends from you guys and Best Fiendsoffered to sponsor a video so here we are.The first thing you'll need to do is makeone and half times of my chocolate cake recipeand there's a video showing how to make thatcake and all the recipe quantities on theHowToCookThat.net website and I'll put a linkto that below for you.So once you have made the batter you wantto pour that into 2 trays and then bake itin the oven for about 15 minutes or untila knife inserted into the centre comes outclean.Then you want to leave those to cool completelybefore going on to the next step.Now while that's cooling, for those who don'tknow what Best Fiends is, 'Hi Mum' it's anapp, it's free you can get it on the app store,I'll put a link below and if you downloadit you'll get $4.99 worth of bonus gold anddiamonds that'll help you in the game.It's basically a puzzle adventure game whereyou join the objects of the same colour togetherto try and defeat the slugs which are theenemies or the fiends up the top.As you progress you collect different charactersand then you can upgrade those charactersto make them more powerful so it makes iteasier to defeat the slugs.Well, technically, the higher the level youget to, the harder it is.I'm on level 127, let me know in the commentsbelow what level you're up to.You can also connect the app to Facebook andthere is a leaderboard there where you cancompete against friends and see what levelthey're up to.And up until February 26 this month there'salso a special Valentines heart challengewhere you can compete to get extra rewardsand rare things that you can't normally get.And there's also going to be a special giftfor you on Valentines Day.Now that our cakes are cooled, what we wantto do is place the template over the top andthe template is also available on the HowToCookThat.netwebsite.And then just cut around each of those sothat we get the different shapes we need foreach layer.For the frosting we're going to use buttercreammade with butter and icing sugar and thenwe are going to add some cream to some whitechocolate just to make a simple ganache tomake the frosting even more creamy and yummy.Pop that in the microwave stirring every 30seconds until the chocolate is melted.Stir that through and once it is combinedwe are going to set it aside to chill in thefridge.I am not going to use this between the layersjust on the outside.Place your butter and icing sugar into a bowland mix until you have a lovely smooth lookingfrosting.Spread a small amount of frosting onto a cakeboard.And you'll notice I've put the support rodto one side, that's because if you look atthe template we want to have the support inthe body and then room for the tail on oneside.Add the first layer of cake into place andspread it with jam, I am using strawberryjam you can use apricot if you prefer.Then smother that in buttercream.Add layer two and with each layer check whereit should sit using the template, becausethe cake swerves in some of the pieces tosit more to one side than the other.Add layers 3, 4 and 5 and then after thatthe cake starts to lean forward again so thispart is going to need some support.Add 3 supports down into the cake at the levelthat the top of the cake is up to.And then add a small round cake board on top.The sticks just stop it from squashing thecake below.Stack up the next two layers of cake and thendouble check with the cake ruler I've givenyou that you are at the right height.Then add the final two layers into place.Place the template on one side and cut aroundthe shape of your slug.Do the same at the front using the front templateso you get the shape of the slug.Now collect up the offcuts and mash them upusing a fork until you get a paste-like consistency.Use that mixture to build up under the cakeboard to make the where the slug slopes outfor his top lip.And add anywhere else on the slug that needsbuilding up if you've cut too much off.Add a couple of lines across the back of thetail, don't make the tip of the tail we willmake that later out of fondant.Then mix the ganache into the rest of thebuttercream and use it to cover the wholeoutside of the cake.Grab some acetate and use it to smooth upand around the frosting.Now take a bit of time here to get it allperfectly smooth because it doesn't changeonce you put the fondant on it, you need yourbuttercream base to be just how you want itto look.Then pop that in the fridge to firm up.Take some more of this cake mixture and rollit into a ball, Cut it in half to get twoeven pieces then roll each of them to makethe two eyeballs.Take cake spike and dip it into chocolateand poke it into the ball.This just glues it onto the stick so it doesn'tfall off in our next step.Once that is set, dip the whole thing intothe white chocolate and then lift it up andtap the stick on your finger or the edge ofthe bowl to let any excess drip off so youend up with two nice smooth eyeballs.Once that is set wrap some black fondant aroundthe bottom half and a bit around the stick.And then add another piece over the top leavinga gap so it looks a bit like a ninja.Roll a thin piece of black and using a strawcut out two circles for the pupils.And then add them into place in the centreof each eye.Cut another ball of black in half and thenflatten and shape it to make two rectangleswith rounded corners.Then take a knife and make two indents acrossthe top of each one.Stand your eyeballs up in the top of a rollof paper towel and then add the eyebrows ontop curving slightly upwards on the edges.Now roll two tiny little balls white and addthem onto each pupil in the top corner.Take some more white fondant and cut aroundeach of the teeth templates so that you havethose and then take the template off and justuse your fingers to smooth around the frontedges so that it looks nice and tooth shapedand then leave those to one side.Now take your cake out of the fridge and coverthe whole thing in black fondant.Now the tricky thing with covering tall cakeslike this is the weight of the fondant canpull down and make it tear up the top.So you need to work fairly quickly to attachit to the cake so that it's not still pulling.I also like to spray it with a little vegetableoil to keep it moist.And then just keep lifting and lowering thefondant smoothing it over the shape of thecake.Lifting and lowering, smoothing out the foldswithout creasing it.Trim the excess off around the base leavinga little bit extra.Then trim it closer with a knife and tuckit under at the base.Use the template to cut a strip of deep redand place that just under the top lip forhis gums.Then make an indent there in the gum wherethe teeth will sit and add each tooth intoplace pushing it up into the gum.Next add some brown fondant onto the cakeboard to cover it.The add some lighter colour strips so it lookslike the rings on the top of a tree stump.In some of the earlier levels the slugs aresitting on a tree stump so we'll make it looka bit like that.Cut some long strips of green fondant thatare pointy at both ends and cross them overeach other.Once you have 3 crossed over, pick it up inthe middle and squeeze to make the stem ofthe grass.Then pop it into place onto the board andsupport it using a tissue or baking paperand leave it to firm up.Now we need to make the tip of the tail.For that roll a large tear drop shape, makeit bend over to one side bit and then tuckit under at the back of your slug.Add the eyeballs into place leaning forwardslightly, that's one ... and that's two andyou have a Best Fiends Slug cake!Despite looking like it belongs in the gardenactually it tastes awesome when it's on yourplate.Let me know what other apps you'd like tosee as cakes.Solve this puzzle to figure out the codedweb address, there are prizes for the firstones there.And don't forget to download the Best Fiendsgame, there's a link below and play on ValentinesDay if you already have it.Subscribe to HowToCookThat for more crazysweet creations.Click here for the latest video, here forthe recipe and here for more cakes.Make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday.\n"