Pablo, a blue penguin, is Blake’s favorite character in the cartoon series, The Backyardigans. Several months ago, Katie found a recipe for making a Pablo Cake and asked if Jack and I would make it for Blake’s party. We, of course, told Katie we would be happy to make any special birthday cake for Blake— and this one looked like it would be really easy to make because it’s just one decorated 9-inch round cake layer. I told Jack that I would bake the cake layer and dye the frosting if he would do the decorating.
I must warn you before going any further that unless you are a food professional, married to an architect (who started out with an art major in college) do not attempt to make this cake. Seriously!! By the time I dyed some frosting black for the eyebrows, red for the mouth, yellow for the hat and a dark blue for the face, there was bright colored frosting all over our kitchen, including on the outside of the resealable plastic bags, on our countertops, on the table where Jack was working and on my fingers—which are still a bit red today and the party was on Saturday. I ordered five jars of paste food coloring, necessary to color the frosting the right colors, from Sugarcraft.
Pablo's beeny and mouth gave Jack some problems. You have to follow the directions exactly for microwaving the candies for Pablo's mouth and the propeller for the beeny or they will be too hard to form or too soft to hold their shape.
In step 2 of the recipe, the directions are to heat the blue frosting and pour it over the cake and then let it stand for 30 minutes to dry. I simplified this step by frosting the cake and then smoothing it with a metal spatula dipped in warm water, which worked very well. After I finished with blue background frosting for Pablo's face, Jack added the eyes and mouth.
Here is the final cake with Pablo's beeny at the top of his head (made with an upside down cupcake).
On our way over to Jason's and Katie's house we stopped to buy a Pablo balloon. Jack strapped it in the child seat that Blake ususally sits in.
Blake took one look at the cake and said, "Pablo Cake!" Jason helped him blow out the candles.
A happy two-year old. Can you see Pablo on his shirt?
