Ann Reardon

Doctor Who Dalek Cake Dr Who

dalek cake doctor who

Lets celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with a Dalek cake.  As a child watching the world famous sci-fi series, the Daleks were quite terrifying with their harsh electro war-cry ‘exterminate, exterminate’.  Over the past 50 years, Daleks have appeared in all seasons of Doctor Who, with a number of variations to their appearance and colour.  This cake is modelled on the Supreme Council Dalek from 1973.  Check out this website for other Dalek models and colour schemes.  Enough Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff …let’s make the cake.

For this Dalek Cake you will need:

Cake:
10 quantities of the rich chocolate cake recipe baked onto 12 trays – 11inch (27.94 centimetres) x 15inch (38.1 centimetres), plus one bowl.

Template:
for cutting the cake, chocolate and fondant pieces

 

Frosting:
7 x my chocolate buttercream recipe made with orange juice instead of milk
3 x ganache recipe cooled in the fridge (add orange zest to cream as it boils and strain before pouring over the chocolate if you would like an orange flavor like I used.)

Fondant:
1 kg (2.2 pounds) brown fondant or modelling chocolate
20g (0.71 ounces) white fondant
750g (26.46 ounces) black fondant

Chocolate
1.5kg (3.31 pounds) chocolate for sides and truffles
filling for truffles – I used dulce de leche recipe, you can use any of the fillings in the truffle recipes or make up your own.

Other
silver luster dust
gold luster dust
2 lollipop or cake pop sticks
4 cake spikes
cake board for centre of cake (you can use cardboard and cover in alfoil)
mdf cake board for base (see cutting templates for indication of cake size)
piping tip for making rivet marks – you can use something else round in a similar size
small paintbrush
pizza cutter for cutting fondant
palette knife and spatula for spreading chocolate and frosting

 

Step 1. Do ahead of time for your dalek cake.
Print and cut out cake cutting templates
Cut cardboard cake board to size of template d1
Make the fondant details for the dalek that can be made ahead. See video for detailed instructions on how to make them:

IMG_6636 gold rectangles and square
housing front x2 and eye housing
manipulator arm
blast gun
eye with eye stalk and insulators
lights

Some chocolate details can be made ahead:dalek doctor who cake56 sensor domes
protective armour pieces
housing

 

Step 2: Making the Cake & Frosting
Bake your chocolate cake x 10 this will make twelve sheet cakes and one bowl. In the trays this cake takes 15 minutes to bake (swap top tray to bottom and bottom to top half way through cooking). My cake tray is 26cm (10.24 inches) x 39cm (15.35 inches)

To make your frosting: Make the buttercream. Cool the ganache in the fridge until firm and then whip into the buttercream.

Step 3: Assembling Carving your doctor who dalek cake

Watch the video to see this demonstrated.

Lay out the template that gives a side view of the dalek so that you can follow which section we are doing.

DALEK SECTION A-B
Use the template labelled as A to cut out one of the tray cakes.
Place a smear of butter cream onto the cake board to hold the cake in place and then add your first layer.
Cover that first layer in frosting on the top and sides and that is the base of the dalek done.

DALEK SECTION B-C
The next section if you look at the cut out of the dalek, section B-C is where all the sensor globes are.
Cut around the template labelled B and add it to the cake, lining up the back of the cake with the back of the base and smother that with another layer of frosting and add another layer. You need to continue doing that until you get to the height of the b-c template.

Once you’ve got to that height you need to cut one more piece of cake in the of template c, add that to the top of the cake. Then carve this section of the cake, cutting in a straight line from c down to b.

DALEK SECTION C-D
Take three cake spikes and push them into your cake. And mark the height on each one. Remove them from the cake and cut them all to the match the length of the shortest one. By doing that you will make sure that the cake is level.

Put the spikes back in, add a little bit of frosting on your cake and then put your cake board in place, add a little bit more frosting and now the next layer of cake in the shape of template C.

Add more layers until you reach the height indicated by the template.

SECTION D-E
Then move on to template D1 cut more layers until you’ve added enough to make the height of piece d-e, this is the part where the rings go on the cake. Then put the circle template d2 on the top and carve down so that it has a slight outward slope. Get your chocolate rings out and check that they are going to fit if they are not quite fitting just trim a bit more cake off this section so that the circles will fit.
Decorate this part before we add the top of the cake otherwise the rings aren’t going to go on. To do that cover it in a thin layer of frosting. Then roll out some black fondant thinly and cut the top and the bottom of it in a straight line and wrap it around the ring section. You can use scissors to trim off any excess and a tiny bit of water on your finger to make the fondant stick to itself at the back.
Get your chocolate rings and dust with edible gold luster dust them with edible gold luster dust using a dry paintbrush. And then put them into place, use the one that has the bigger hole in the middle first and then the smaller one on top of that. Then use the back of a sharp knife to indent lines around the black fondant so it looks like the recording screens on the dalek.

Trim the head section that you baked in a bowl to match the shape on the template and then smother the whole thing in frosting. Roll out some brown fondant and drape it over the top of the head. Gently smooth that down by just lifting and smoothing it and lifting and smoothing it to avoid any folds in the fondant.
Trim it with about 3cm (1.18 inches) or a bit more than an inch of extra fondant the whole way around. Then make cuts in the fondant but do not cut it right the way to the base or you will be able to see gaps in it. Turn the head upside down and tuck the fondant edges onto the base the whole way around. The cuts that you have made will make it easier to get this smooth.
Then add the head on top of your dalek checking that it is on straight.

Cover the rest of the dalek in a thin layer of butter cream. Try to get it as smooth as you can. Then clean up all the crumbs from the cake board and the bench and get ready to decorate the cake.

Step 4. Decorating your dalek cake

dalek cake doctor who dr
Roll out the brown fondant and then cut it in a straight line on two edges and then carefully wrap that around the whole base of the dalek just folding it over the curve. Roll out another strip of brown fondant, use your finger and just moisten the fondant and then add that strip over the top. Try and line up that bottom line so that it is nice and straight going around.
Lay out all of your chocolate pieces with the templates on top so you know which is which.
Starting with the two pieces that are labelled number one add them together at the front of the Dalek.
Then add pieces 2 through to 5 and then the back of the dalek.

Roll out some more brown fondant and trim it straight at the top and the bottom. Make it wider than you think you need and we can trim off the extra from the top in a minute.
Drape the fondant around the middle section trying to keep the base line of it straight. Then use scissors to trim the top leaving enough to poke it in and meet up with the black fondant that we have already got in place.
Using your template cut an extra strip of brown fondant and add it around the base of this section on both sides.
Add the housing for the blaster gun and manipulator arm.
Roll a small ball of black fondant and put it inside the housing.
Take the blast gun and then push the stick into the centre of the black fondant ball and then into the cake. After adding the blast gun you need to add on the fourth little prong that we have sticking out there. So just use a little bit of your paste that we made before using the black fondant and then that will just dry up and firm up while it is sitting there.
Roll another ball of black fondant, trim it and put in the housing for the manipulator arm. Now add the front piece to the housing and then the arm into place through the ball of black fondant and into the cake.
Add the gold square onto the centre of the cake and then add the short rectangles over the housing for the blast gun and the manipulator arm. Then our longer rectangles around each side of the cake.

Cut a piece of brown fondant to go in the front just below the gold square. And then use a tiny bit of water on the fondant on the cake to make it stick and gently put it into place.
Dust the sensor globes with gold luster dust and add to the cake.
Roll a small piece of white fondant into a cylinder and using a small amount of water put it into place on the cake. Then add the black cage that you made earlier over the top. support with a toothpick until dried then remove toothpick.

For the housing around the eye, join the top to the sides using a little bit of melted chocolate from your tray, let that set and then fix that into place in the centre or to one side of your cake depending which way you want the dalek to be looking. Roll a ball of black fondant cut the back off it and put it into place in the housing. Use a skewer to make a hole in the black fondant and then add the eye on a slight upwards angle.

Roll some brown fondant out and cut into a thin strip and place it along both sides of the housing and a piece across the top. Using a piping tip just gently press on each corner to make the rivet holes.

Step 5. Party Time
Well done you just made a dalek cake! Don’t forget to take a photo, you can post it in the comments section below.

dalek cake

Special thanks Gary Wright of sketchbook media who filmed and edited this weeks video for me and made the cool intro.  

And to Jon Bruno who composed the Dr Who Tribute Music for this video you can hear more of his work here

Special edition for Dr Who Week, as seen on BBC America:

This huge dalek cake was given away via facebook & instagram so make sure you are following howtocookthat…

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
2013

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

48 Comments View Comments

  1. I loved whatching this video.
    I am a huge Dr Who fan.
    Just wondering could i use gum paist or mashmellow fondent insted of noramal fondent because my cake decorating store donent have any at the moment and wont be getting any til May and i realy need to make this cake for a friends birthday and she is a Dr Who fan too.

    • Hi Dada, You could use Marshmallow fondant. Gum paste is also an option though it tends to be more expensive and it will very quickly, so you will need to work fast. The other option is to source you fondant online.

  2. I’d really love to make this cake for my husbands birthday however he is allergic to cocoa so cannot have chocolate.

    Would it work if I used white chocolate that has no cocoa and coloured it? if so how do I do that?
    Thanks

    • Hi Leah, Ann suggests maybe choosing one of the other model Daleks. There is a link in the blog that will show you some pictures of these. You can use the same template and if you chose the white and blue Dalek, you could use white chocolate and colour the bolts blue. If you wanted to stick with a brown Dalek, you could use white chocolate and colour it with brown food colouring. You would need a lot of colour though to achieve the dark brown.

  3. For the frosting, do you have you use ganache in the frosting or could you just make a larger batch of the buttercream?

    • Hi HudsonMcKee, Ann likes to use both mixed together as it tastes better and sets nicely. You could adjust the frosting to suit your preference.

  4. hi I’ve tried 2 web browsers and there is no link for the temple.

  5. If I buy the template, can I print a scaled down version? I need to make a much smaller cake. I have made my own version of dalek cupcakes before but I thought a single cake to feed 8-10 would be a lot easier.

    • Hi Laurie, Yes you can. Most print programs will allow you to print at a percentage of the original size. Just select the percentage that suits your plans. It would be around 30% to make it the size you have in mind. The chocolate truffles would not fit. Perhaps you could consider making a version of the the mini-daleks in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56yiUt36YOs
      It would be much easier to construct given the size you are looking at.

  6. Help – I can’t seem to access the website to purchase the template

    • hi Susie, can you try again, I’m sure it must have been a glitch.

  7. Hi, we bought your templates to make this cake, but it seems that a couple of parts of section ‘A’ don’t line up with the other parts of section ‘A’. I’ve checked printer settings and printed again but the joining crosses on sections 1A and 3A seem to be out. Not sure if anyone else has had this problem or you’re aware of it.
    Thanks 🙂

    • Awesome thanks Jon, I have moved the cross on the template a back to the right spot thanks for letting me know 😀

  8. Hi Mrs. Reardon,
    I was wondering what the best brand of chocolate to use for decorations on this cake would be. I am from the US and I have tried using Hershey’s for the chocolate book recipe and it did not work. I checked and it said that it was real chocolate, but when I went to fold my book cover it was hard. I did not temper it either. So for this project I would like to know what chocolate is best to use. I do know how to temper so that is why I was confused about my results on the previous project. I just would like to know either what brand you used or the American equivalent is. Thank you for your time, and I am so excited to try this project!

    • Also do you think Nutella would work well for the spheres? And if so how much do you think I would need?

      • yes you could use nutella in the spheres, not sure how much you’d need though

    • Hi Maggie, I used cadburies and tempered it. That is unusual that your untempered chocolate set firm, was the weather cold?

  9. I am making this for my sisters birthday tomorrow. Chocolate and fondant done, making cakes today and assembling & decorating tomorrow 🙂 will post a picture to show you how it went, so hoping it goes right ;D

  10. Hi Ann,
    I was thinking about making this but using madeira sponge cakes and fondant/modelling icing as I don’t generally work with chocolate. do you think using your templates/instructions would still work? I didn’t want to pay for the download to find that some parts might not work in icing.
    Thanks
    Sarah

    • Hi Sarah yes it should all still work the same, except for the chocolate parts you’d need to add tylose to the fondant to make it set firmer

  11. I’m thinking of making a dalek head for my grandson’s birthday and I was wondering about the chocolate rings that are on the “neck” of the dalek. I have never decorated with chocolate before so I’m wondering how difficult this will be? Any suggestions or can you give me instructions on tempering chocolate?

    • She did do a video on tempering chocolate and different kinds of chocolate. 🙂

  12. I was curious as to how to make a Dalek cake just like this one, only with a red velvet cake. I’m making it for my fiance who loves Dr Who and Red Velvet, and I’d love to make this birthday special for him. Thanks Ann! I love everything you’ve done!

    • Hi ShayD you can use the same technique but swap the chocolate cake for red velvet cake. To give you an idea of quantities a single amount of the chocolate cake makes 24 cupcakes, so if your red velvet recipe makes 12, you’d need to make 20 batches. My red velvet recipe is here : https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/red-velvet-cake-recipe/

  13. hi ann i am going to try this cake can i use choclate round molds and cover them with yellow fondant for the down section of the dalek cake because i tried tofind th golden dust that you have used in the video and i couldnot find it

  14. Hi, Ann! I’m not sure how well this will work, because I tried yesterday, but I was curious as to how to make a Dalek cake just like this one, only with a red velvet cake. I’m making it for my fiance who loves Dr Who and Red Velvet, and I’d love to make this birthday special for him. Thanks Ann! I love everything you’ve done!

  15. hi danielle, There are a couple of ways… get three piping bags, put a star tip on one. Put cream frosting in the second bag and deep reddy purple in the other. Put both of these bags into the first one so that when you squeeze it you get both colours coming out at once.
    Or put a smear of the darker colour up one side of a piping bag and then fill with cream coloured frosting and pipe.

  16. Hi,

    This looks totally amazing and completely out of my skill set, but I’m going to try it! Can you point me in the direction of the butter cream frosting recipe?

    Thanks!

    • Hi Dans yes the buttercream recipe is here: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/buttercream-cupcake-frosting-recipes/ have fun baking 😀

      • Hi ann, is there a way i can make gluten free butter cream?

        • hi grant, yes most buttercream is gluten free just butter and icing sugar (check the ingredients ont eh icing sugar, you can get pure icing sugar that is just sugar)

  17. How long did it take you to make this cake from start to finish and how much would you be charging if you were making it to sell . Great cake looks awesome.

    • Hi sandra it took around 15 hours, I gave it away through the howtocookthat facebook and instagram. For pricing you’d need to calculate out your time plus ingredients and compare to what cake decorators in your area are charging for large 3D cakes.

  18. Forgot to ask earlier, if you were making this to sell, what would be a ballpark figure for a cake of this magnitude?

  19. Awesome! You should make a Harry Potter, or The Hunger Games one next! 🙂

  20. Wow!
    Really amazing!
    I’m curious: can you give us an idea of how much time it took you to actually make it ?
    Thank you!

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