Cookie Monster Cake

The fact my cousin was turning two was more than enough reason to bake another cake, and more importantly, this cake. Despite the fact she's too young to say much more than "dada", let alone understand what the cake was supposed to be, I regarded it the perfect oppurtunity to try a cake which I had wanted to for a while. I'd always had intentions of trying out the Cookie Monster Cupcakes I saw somewhere, but decided I'd attempt those another time, as a cake was much more suitable for a birthday. 

Google Images shows up elaborate creations when "Cookie Monster cake" is searched, but I figured a simple cake covered in blue icing with Cookie Monster's eyes and mouth made out of fondant would suffice.
A difficulty I encountered with this particular cake was trying to figure out how to colour the fondant black; i've never seen black food colouring at the supermarket, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on some "proper" gel/paste food colouring which I'd hardly ever use. The only solution was trial and error, which luckily, worked out on the first run. Trialling it out first on some buttercream, a few massive tablespoons of cocoa got the icing to a very dark colour, but, as expected, not completely black. I hoped for the best as I poured in some red and blue food colouring, and the result was an unmistakable black. Success! Transferring it into fondant was easy enough, and made an excellent mouth for my cake. I also made a fondant cookie, experimenting with cocoa and colouring the cookie as well as the fondant chcolate chips. Of course a real cookie would be fine to use, but I didn't have any on hand and I think the fondant cookie suits the rest of the cake better.I used marshmallow fondant for my cake, but I see no reason that store-bought, ready-made icing would not work.

The cake itself was made from a recipe from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook and was incredibly easy to make as well as delicious. I was actually quite skeptical that a cake with little more direction than to put everything in a bowl and mix it for a few minutes with an electric mixer would yield anything extraordinary, so I was incredibly impressed with the result. You could substitute the cake for any other chocolate cake recipe, or indeed, any other type of cake, but hey, who doesn't love chocolate cake?
Below is the recipe for just the cake I used on the inside. I will also attach how I created all the other parts of the face, but be aware that I tend to do things in strange ways and they may not be the best instructions to follow. However I'm sure the photo is pretty self explanatory anyway, so...sweet as.

(Adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly) 

Rich Chocolate Cake

For the cake:

• 200g (1 1/3 cups) self-raising flour
• 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
• 125g soft butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 275g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 160mL (2/3 cup) water

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 20cm baking pan.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
4. Raise mixer speed to medium and beat for a further three minutes (the mixture should be smooth and creamy, and the colour should lighten slightly)
5. Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the face:

1. Cut out two uniform circles from white fondant icing using the rim of a stainless steel cup (or circle cookie cutter or what have you)
2.  Colour a small amount of fondant black, then roll it out on a flat surface before using a sharp knife to cut out the mouth shape.
3. With the remaining black fondant, roll into two equal sized balls, flattening them slightly to form the eyeballs.

I don't really now how to explain how I made the cookie (sorry!), so either develop your own method, use an actual chocolate-chip cookie, or just omit it completely; it's not entirely necessarry. 

Then just cover your cake in some blue buttercream and position the eyes, eyeballs, mouth and cookie (if using one) on the cake, as shown in the photo.