Narwhal cake recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1½ cups sour cream (or milk)

• 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
• 5 cups confectioner’s sugar
• Blue food coloring
• Black food coloring
• 1/3 cup white fondant
• 1 disposable chopstick
• 2 pink candy melts

Bake the Cake
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 3 (6-inch) round cake pans.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and smooth. Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing with each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the batter in 2 additions, alternating with the sour cream.
4. Spoon the batter into your prepared baking pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centers comes out clean. Cool completely.
Make the Buttercream
5. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, beating with each addition.
6. Dye the buttercream pale blue. Remove about ¼ cup of the buttercream and dye it black. Place the black buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small, round piping tip.
Assembly
7. First, make the horn. Divide the fondant in half and roll it into long sausages. Place the sausages next to each other and wrap them together around the chopstick. Pinch them together at the top and gently squeeze to secure them to the chopstick. Place the horn on a plate lined with plastic wrap and allow it to dry out while you decorate the cake.
8. Slice the bottoms off all cakes, removing any excess browning. Slice the tops off 2 of the cakes, leaving one cake rounded on top. Stack all layers, with the round layer on top. Carve the cake into a tall oval shape with a serrated knife. Spread some blue buttercream between each layer.
9. Coat the entire cake in a thin layer of buttercream. This is called a crumb coat and will help to trap any excess cake crumbs in this thin buttercream layer. Place the cake in the fridge for 20 minutes, to allow the crumb coat to stiffen.
10. Coat the cake in a thick, generous layer of blue buttercream. Draw the narwhal’s eyes and mouth with the black buttercream. Stick the pink candy melts onto the cake as blushing cheeks.
11. Place the remaining blue buttercream into a piping bag and snip off the end to create a large, round tip. Create the fins by piping a large dollop on either side of the cake, then dragging the downwards in a flicking motion. Repeat for the tail at the back of the cake.
12. Stick the horn into the forehead area and you’re done!