Ann Reardon

Secret Life of Pets dog Cake

the secret life of pets cake ann reardon
 

We have a 5 year old in the house so when we go to the movies as a family we tend to all go to something suitable for the youngest. The latest trip was to see the Secret Life of Pets. I must admit the dim lighting plus the comfy chairs was quite conducive to sleep. I’m sure I nodded off for just a moment, but the kids tell me that the sewers scene was not near the start of the movie.

Life goes in seasons and at our place at the moment it’s a little on the crazy side. Our house is for sale which means twice a week it has to be in pristine condition for home opens. Given that we have three kids and we not only live here, I also film videos in the kitchen and work here, that is quite hard to achieve.

On top of all of that this week was Brandcast, a huge event put on by google for brands and advertising agencies. This year I had the privilege of having a How To Cook That dessert stand with dessert tubes for guests and resin models of some of my creations.

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ann reardon how to cook that

Moments before the dessert tubes were added and 1,700 people came through

To make this Secret Life of Pet cake you will need:

(serves 8-10)

Dog Cake Template

Buy$5.99

Cake spike and cake pop sticks, two small cake boards (see template)
One and half times my chocolate cake recipe baked in two 38cm (14.96 inches) x 25cm (9.84 inches) trays.

Strawberry puree
600g (21.16 ounces) strawberries
Puree the strawberries in blender. Pour the puree into a fine sieve and push it through with a spoon, until you have just the seeds left in the sieve and the juice is all in the bowl. You should end up with about 470g (16.58 ounces) or 1 3/4 cups plus 2Tb of juice. Split this into two bowls.

Strawberry ganache
235g (8.29 ounces) fresh strawberry puree, see above
1150g (40.57 ounces) white chocolate, melted
Mix the strawberry puree with the melted white chocolate. Place in the fridge to thicken.

Thin strawberry Jam / Syrup
235g (8.29 ounces) or 3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp fresh strawberry puree
1/2 cup or 109g (3.84 ounces) sugar
Place the puree and sugar in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool.

Fondant
750g (26.46 ounces) White fondant
250g (8.82 ounces) orange fondant to cover the cake board (optional)
50g (1.76 ounces) green fondant for the ball
250g (8.82 ounces) brown fondant for the patches and ears
50g (1.76 ounces) black fondant for eyes and nose
50g (1.76 ounces) blue fondant for the colour

Other
edible gold lustre dust
tylose powder for the ears
A square cake board 25cm (9.84 inches) x 25cm (9.84 inches)

Trim the top of your cakes to level them. Cut out the circles of cake as shown on the template.

the secret life of pets cake

Stack the cakes layering them with strawberry jam and ganache. Add the cake pop sticks and cake boards for support as you stack. See the video for a detailed demonstration.

Place your side template in front of the cake and cut away the pieces of cake that you can see.

Repeat with the back template then round off any corners, just take off a tiny amount.

Cover the whole cake in ganache. I like to warm up the ganache a little to make it easy to spread on a fresh cake.

Once it is covered take some acetate or bendy plastic and run it up the sides to smooth out the ganache. Then put it in the fridge for about an hour for the ganache to set firmly.

Wrap some white fondant around the front of the cake and at the back squeeze it together to make a join. Cut off the bulk of the excess so the weight doesn’t drag it down then continue to smooth it and shape it and once you’re happy, trim off the rest of the fondant. Trim the excess from around the base and tuck it in.

Take some more fondant and drape it over his head. Squeeze it up and the back.
Trim it off roughly, then smooth and shape the fondant around his face,
If you don’t want to use fondant watch the teddy bear cake video for how to pipe fur on a cake.

Trim it off neatly and using a knife cut it at neck level where the other fondant came to.

Follow the directions in the video to make the collar, eyes, nose, eyebrows and legs.

Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

dog cake pets ann reardon
Copyright © 2016 Reardon Media Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. How To Cook That

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.

60 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 3

    Help! I am making this cake today and I bought your template. But there are no measurements listed on the templates. Are they sized for 8.5”x11” copier paper????

  2. Rating: 5

    Hi I’m interested in purchasing this template. It’s been a few years now, are you still selling it?

    • yes Jo it’s still in the shop 🙂

  3. Rating: 5

    Hi what does the back of this dog look like?

  4. Rating: 4.5

    I’ve just made the cake for my niece’s birthday. It came out great. Thank you so much all the way from Portugal.

    • Wow that looks great Hugo!

    • exelent

  5. This is another pic. So happy as this was the first time I had worked with fondant. Made my own marshmallow fondant also.

    • Hi Klaudija, This is a brilliant first effort with fondant. Well done!

      • Rating: 5

        This is my first time making a 3d cake or any ‘real’ cake. I’ve only ever made Betty Crocker packet cakes lol. Super happy with my new skill. Thank you once again for the easy instructions and templates.

  6. Rating: 4.5

    Loved making this. Easy instructions and video. Templates were great. Made it with a rainbow vanillla cake for my daughter’s 4th Birthday.

  7. Hi there,

    I was wondering how tall he sits / wide he is? Just so I have some kind of idea how much he would feed. 🙂

    • Hi Chantelle, The finishecake is around 30-35cm high. It will depend on the size of your serves how many people it will feed.. I would estimate that this cake would serve 20.

  8. Hi how long does it take to get your template? id it emailed or mailed?

    • it is emailed Lynn. it should arrive immediately 🙂

  9. Rating: 4

    Hi, I am making this cake tomorrow for a very excited soon to be 3 year old!! I have already purchased the template but have one question, do you have to refrigerate the cake for health and safety reasons? Can i make it tomorrow(Friday) for Saturday and leave it out in a cool room? have found in the past that fondant refrigerated can become slimy, slippy and loose its firmness. Sorry for the short notice, only noticed that step now !!! This is our second pattern to use… he loved his dumper truck last year 🙂 Thanks a million

    • Hi, no you don’t have to refridgerate your cake for one day as long as it’s in a cool room. Have a lovely party!

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