For Avery’s 2nd birthday, because “2” looks kind of like a duck, Alex insisted that we needed to have the Australian Women’s Weekly Rubber Duck cake, popularly known as “Duck Cake” due to the hilarious episode of Bluey about said cake.
Out of a sense of obligation to the classic Birthday Cakes book I used the butter cake recipe included in the book, but next time I would definitely use something else as I found the case dense with an inconsistent texture.
In the Bluey episode, Bandit has difficulty assembling the cake as instructed by the book, particularly the head.
The first hurdle I encountered was that the book wants a deep square pan and a very narrow slice pan, neither of which I own. The deepness of the square pan is important because it wants you to cut the resulting cake in half and then turn it on its end to carve a tall, narrow duck body. The narrowness of the slice pan is important because the resulting cake needs to be tall enough to carve the head out of.
After some deliberation I decided to use:
- 2 x 20cm/8″ round pans for the body
- 1 x 17×25 cm loaf pan for the head
I made a double batch of butter cake and divided amongst the pans, giving slightly more to the round pans than the loaf pan (sorry, I can’t be more specific!). I baked the cakes until a skewer came out clean and the cake edges were pulling away from the pan. I let them cool in the pan for 3 minutes, then turned out onto wire racks to cool completely. I then wrapped them in cling wrap and foil and put it in the fridge overnight.
The next day, I made a batch of the “vienna cream” from the book and used it to sandwich the two round cakes together, flat sides facing each other. I positioned three little rubber ducks nearby to use as models and got to work.
With a bread knife, I carved a tear drop shape out of the sandwiched round cakes. I then used the cut off pieces of cake, turned them cut side down, sandwiched them onto the rest of the body with buttercream and carved the duck’s pointed tail out. I used other cake scraps to fill in the gap to either side of the tail. With more of the cut off cake, I build up the front side of the body to form the duck’s neck.
For the head, I cut the cake in half. I again sandwiched the two pieces together, flat sides facing and carved it into a rough sphere.
Once I was satisfied with the shape, I crumb-coated with the rest of the vienna cream. Then I put the body and head in airtight containers and put it back in the fridge.
The next day was the big day! I made a double batch of my favourite frosting, an ermine/flour buttercream, and left it on an ice brick until I was ready to assemble 4 hours later. This may have been a mistake, as the buttercream separated slightly and I didn’t have a stand mixer to bring it back together.
I attached the head to the body with a skewer and used kitchen scissors to cut off the excess. Then it was time to frost! This part went pretty smoothly, because the final finish of the cake is not supposed to be smooth!
I used Nestle Smarties for the eyes and buttons – no longer available in red so think about M&Ms if you want red instead of pink. I used Fyna brand “2 metre liquorice wheels” to form the outline of the eye, using an oiled knife to cut it along the seem to make a thin strip. I couldn’t get a nice join and ended up having to make do with the resulting teardrop shape.
For the bill, we used ridged salted potato chips, to match the original, but when we served it a second time (minus the rear half) we used Pringles, which I think formed a better shape. We popped some popcorn on the stovetop and pressed it into the frosting for the “hair”.
My mother provided a pink ribbon for the bow, and that was it!
When Avery saw it, she immediately pointed and said “DUCK CAKE!”, so it got the toddler seal of approval!