Leaves are turning green, mushrooms are popping out from the ground and cute little animals are jumping around – that’s the theme of this squirrel fall cake. This is a delicious cake that has design perfect for fall. I made this to my mother in law’s birthday but you can use that kind of cake for almost any celebration during the fall season.

 

 

Fall Cake Inspiration – Squirrel Cake

 

* To make the video work, you might need to click the HD button at the downright

 

 

Base

 

 

The base of this fall cake is a simple sponge cake with part of the flour change to raw cocoa powder to give this some nice flavor and color. You can do the base with any recipe you wish and in any size that’s proper for your event. One example of chocolate flavored sponge cake can be found here .

 

 

Filling

 

 

I used raspberry jam, fresh raspberries, dark chocolate crunch and almond slices to fill the fall cake. This would definitely also work perfectly with blackberry jam or apricot marmalade. I recommend you to add some cream or fresh berries inside too because otherwise, this might turn pretty sweet.

 

 

Frosting

 

 

Frosting of this fall cake is made with buttercream to which I’ve added some chocolate taste and color with cocoa powder and brown food coloring. I first did the buttercream and then smoothed the surface and the edges. After that, I piped some decorations to the top edges and the text in the middle. And btw, in case you wonder ”Onnea” means congrats in Finnish. 🙂

 

 

Decorations

 

I think this fall cake is all about decorations. These are all done with plain marzipan and colored with powdered food colors using little brushes. These are all done without any moulds – you only need regular tableware knife, toothpick and some time.

 

 

Leaves

 

 

Doing leaves is super easy! Just do a little ball from the marzipan, make it flat and shape it with your hands to look like a leaf. Then let them dry for a couple of hours, add some color with powdered colors and press them with a knife to make them look like actual leaves. If you want, you can dry these on or in a spoon to make them slightly curly.

 

 

Mushrooms

 

 

To do 2 mushrooms do 3 equal sized balls. Shape on of them oval and cut it in half. That will be the mushroom stalks for both of the mushrooms. The create the caps use the 2 balls left. Put them on the table and use your fingers to press the edges towards so that they’ll become thinner than the middle. The optimum shape is a slightly flat hemisphere. Then simply put the caps on the stalks, let them dry a bit and then color with powdered colors.

 

 

Flowers

 

 

The flowers I made for this cake are super simple to do. They’re made with 6 evenly sized balls of marzipan that form the shape of the flower. After drying these for a couple hours you can color the flowers with powder colors.

 

 

Squirrels

 

 

To form a squirrel you need:

• 1 big oval to create the body of a squirrel
• 1 slightly smaller oval to create the tail
• 1 medium sized ball to create the head
• 2 small ovals for the legs
• 2 a bit smaller ovals for the hands
• 1 mini oval to create the pine

 

I did not, unfortunately, take photos or video of making the squirrels but I basically started with forming all the body parts needed for them. Then I first attached legs and tail to the body, then shaped the head and attached it, and finally, I attached the hands and the pine. Everything else is shaped by using hands only, but I used a toothpick to make the eyes and ears, and scissors to make the pine.

 

Then just let the squirrels dry for a couple of hours and give them some color with powdered food coloring and a brush. I think leaving the bellies white made them cuter but it’s up to you how you prefer them. 🙂

 

 

Final Touches

 

 

When you have all the decorations done. Put them on the cake the day you prefer them. If you want, you can also add some ”ground” made of either sponge cake crumbs or cookie crumbs – whichever you prefer.

 

Note: the later you put the decorations on the better! Marzipan and the colors are not getting any better in the fridge so if you, for example, do the cake day before, I recommend adding the decoration on the day of serving if possible.

 

Happy baking!

 

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More cake inspiration for the cake lovers available in my previous posts and on Pinterest!

 

Have you guys done any fall cakes? Share links if yes! Also, what kind of cake a fall cake should be in your opinion?