How to make The Raw Turkey Cake
Serve raw turkey (cake!) this Thanksgiving
This hyper realistic cake looks like a raw turkey with its plucked ‘skin’ and dripping in ‘juices’ it is going to create quite a reaction at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
I originally created this design for my family for Christmas after I had made one too many beautiful wedding cakes and needed a change. He has international fans now and has been copied all over the world – so try it yourself and let me know the reaction you get.
See the Raw Turkey Tutorial VIDEO here
POINTS BEFORE WE START
- This tutorial is for those with some previous experience of baking and covering cakes but if you’re a beginner with a give-it-a-go attitude you should have some fun too.
- These quantities make a cake roughly 32cm (13”) long by 22cm (9”) wide and 22cms (9”) high which fits the average turkey roasting tray.
- Scale the template up or down to your needs and alter the quantities to suit.
- When making a carved cake always use a sponge with decently strong, even texture – (see the recipes I use here)
- A large roasting tin makes a good pan for baking your sheet cakes in.
- Print out a really good quality photograph of a raw turkey taken from the side and another one taken from the front and back if you want to do a really good job – you can keep using these references alongside my pictures and instructions
YOU WILL NEED
- Cake board or work board for building your cake on – at least as big as size of your final cake
- Roasting tin or disposable foil turkey tray – remember this is ‘raw’ so it wouldn’t be seen on a fancy serving plate
- Rolling pin
- Sharp paring knife
- Serrated bread knife for carving
- Palette knife for applying buttercream/frosting
- Dresden tool or blunt knife for tooling details
- A wooden skewer
- Little piece of baker’s string for tying legs together
Ingredients
| Materials required | Quantities |
| Buttercream / Frosting | 1.5 kg / 3.3lb (1 butter: 2 icing sugar/powdered sugar)
Dye it red using paste colours (Optional: take a small quantity of the red, add blue dye to give purple for added yuk factor later) |
| Sponge cake | 3 x sheets of cake each 3cm deep and the size of the roasting tin that you are serving your final cake in – Just bake your cakes in the same tin you will serve it in and you’ll be sure it fits. I have a recipe suggestion here
Brush the cooled sheet cakes with syrup before starting to stack them (but don’t drown them) |
| Syrup | 140g/5oz sugar dissolved in 225ml/1 cup water or flavoured to suit your cake |
| Marzipan | 1.5kg/3.3lb (use white and not golden marzipan) |
| Rice Krispies treats or white modelling chocolate | 60g/2oz |