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+ servings
A round cake with a lion and number 2 cake topper.
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5 from 1 vote

Lion Cake

Here's a cute lion cake with edible fondant lion cake topper for a 2 year old boy. Learn how to make this birthday cake with this easy tutorial.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time50 minutes
Decorating time3 hours
Total Time4 hours 20 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 1 Seven inches round cake
Calories: 5713.1kcal
Author: Priya Maha

Equipment

  • CMC Powder
  • Black edible marker
  • Fondant shaping tools
  • Round scalloped cutter set
  • Needle scriber tool
  • Alphabet cutter
  • Flower plunger cutters
  • Floral wire
  • Pizza cutting wheel
  • Lollipop sticks
  • Shortening

Ingredients

Cake

  • 360 g self-raising flour
  • 360 g granulated sugar
  • 360 g butter at room temperature
  • 6 eggs at room temperature
  • 90 ml milk
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

Instructions

Baking the cakes

  • Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius.
  • Beat butter and sugar till soft and creamy for about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  • In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.
  • Finally, add in vanilla extract and combine well. Pour batter into two 7-inches greased and floured cake pans and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the top of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. The cakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out without any wet batter.
  • Remove cakes from oven and let them cool completely before icing and decorating.

Making the fondant lion cake topper

  • To make the edible lion, use orange fondant and add some CMC powder to it. Start by shaping the body, followed by its legs before making the head and adding all the facial features. For the mane, use a scalloped round cutter and cut out a round piece of chocolate fondant. Then, use a scriber needle tool and draw lines on the fondant piece on both sides, starting from the center of the piece to its outer edges.
  • As for the paws and the whiskers, use the edible food marker in black and simply draw the black paw design and whiskers dots. The lion’s eyes are made of fondant except for the tiny white dot on them which is basically a dot of white food color with a fine-tipped brush.
  • In attaching the fondant lion toppers body parts together, use the fondant glue to secure them in place.
  • Once done, leave the topper aside to firm up and set completely.

The number '2' cake topper

  • Add some CMC powder to some red fondant and knead well. To make the number topper, draw the number on a piece of paper as a guide. And then shape a floral wire following the shape of the number.
  • Next, roll the red fondant into a long thin roll and carefully insert the wire into the roll. Inserting a shaped wire is a little tricky especially at the bottom part of the number and once the wire has been inserted, you may have to spend some time smoothing out the fondant roll to make sure there are no creases and it has consistent thickness all over. Also, make sure that there is excess wire at the base of the number so that it the number topper can be poked into the cake while allowing it to remain in an upright standing position.
  • Once the number topper is done, let it set and firm up in a horizontally lying position until it is ready to be put on the cake.

Preparing the cake

  • As for the rest of the decoration, you can make them all directly on the cake. Once the cake is baked and has completely cooled down, level the tops. Fill and crumb coat them with buttercream before covering the entire cake with a layer of light blue fondant.

The alphabets on the cake

  • Next is the birthday message on the cake. Cut out a rectangle piece of fondant and use a pizza cutting wheel to slightly round the sides. Cut out random triangle cutouts at the sides to give the fondant piece a wooden plank look and feel. And then, using the needle scriber tool, mark the wood grain patterns on it.
  • Next, cut out the letters using the FMM block letters Tappit cutter. Use yellow-tinted gum paste for the lettering. Attach the letters to the fondant wooden plank with shortening before attaching the plank to the side of the cake, also with shortening.

The fondant trees on the side of the lion cake

  • As for the 3 large trees on the sides of the cake, use green and chocolate fondant. Cut the tree trunks in chocolate fondant and draw wood grain patterns on them with the needle scriber tool.
  • As for the leaves, use the scalloped end of a pizza cutting wheel and cut out a long strip of green fondant. Twist the strip in a circular motion, forming the outer edges and gradually moving to the center of the circle. Use shortening to hold the strips in place and carefully lift and attach them on the tree trunks on both sides of the lion cake.

The green fondant grass

  • Using the same green fondant, cut out grass patterns with the pizza cutting wheel. Add the fondant grass to the base of the cake on the opposite side of the wooden name plank. And then shape some fondant rocks with marbled grey fondant. Make these in random sizes and place them in random positions on the cake. Secure these to the cake with shortening.
  • And finally, add some tiny red and yellow flowers on the cake before adding on the lion topper and the number topper. Since the number topper is wired, insert the excess wire into a lollipop stick before inserting into the cake. As for the lion topper, apply some fondant glue on its base before placing it on the cake. That way, you can be rest assured that the cute lion cake topper would stay in place securely.

Nutrition

Calories: 5713.1kcal | Carbohydrates: 627.5g | Protein: 82.5g | Fat: 327.2g | Saturated Fat: 195.9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 18.7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 86.4g | Trans Fat: 11.9g | Cholesterol: 1767.2mg | Sodium: 3635.5mg | Potassium: 963.8mg | Fiber: 8.7g | Sugar: 366.6g | Vitamin A: 10579.6IU | Calcium: 583.1mg | Iron: 8.4mg