Tiger King Cake

Fondant Prep!

1. For the ears, roll the orange fondant into a big "C" shape. Make the inner ear by using the light brown fondant and making a smaller "C" shape. Make a thin a strip from dark brown fondant and place it on the outer edge of the ear. Add some toothpicks on the bottom and let it air dry for 24 hours or more.
2. For the eyes, use the white fondant as a base for the eyes. Take the black fondant to make a circle with “C” shapes connecting on the sides . Add a thin strip of yellow fondant on the bottom of the black circle and a white dot for the highlights.
3. For the nose, roll the pink fondant and make a bean shape. Use two dark pink circles for the nostrils and two small triangles on the top edge of the nose.
4. For the mouth, use the white fondant to make the base of and outline it using strips of black fondant. Add three thin strips on each side for the whiskers.
5. Cut out the shape of the nose from the mouth base and attach the nose with a bit of water.
6. For the tiger stripes, roll out a 10” square using the black fondant and cut strips about ½” thick. Trim the edges using a knife to make the ends pointy.

Let's get started!

1. Preheat the oven to 340F degrees.
2. Line and grease three 6” pans.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. Using a knife, roughly chop the whole oranges.
5. Add the chopped oranges, eggs, oil, sugar, almond milk and vanilla in the blender and blend until smooth.
6. Pour the mixture into the stand mixer bowl and slowly add the dry ingredients on low speed. Do not overmix.
7. Divide the batter equally into two bowls.
8. Tint one bowl orange.
9. Add the cocoa powder in the untinted batter.
10. Place one scoop of orange batter in the center of all the prepared pans.
11. Add one scoop of chocolate batter on top of the orange batter. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until all the batter is used.
12. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
13. Let it cool in the pans for 10 minutes then place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
14. Level the cakes using a serrated knife.

Time to decorate!

1. Tint the buttercream frosting orange then scoop into a decorating bag.
2. Stack the cakes with a thin layer of frosting in between the layers. Frost the entire cake with the orange frosting.
3. Attach the ears to the sides of the cake and stick the face details using a little bit of frosting.
4. Add three stripes on top of the head and three more stripes on each side.