As you may remember, just before Christmas, my youngest daughter turned 8. She wanted an Indian themed birthday party, so she and her sister could wear the beautiful Indian outfits their grandma got for them from India.

You probably remember the Mehndi Cupcakes I already shared with you. And now here I am with the party showstopper: a beautiful Indian Cake! It’s a yogurt cake covered with fondant and decorated Indian style with mehndi toppers, lotus flowers and… even a little elephant.

Needless to say, all the kids loved it and my daughter particularly liked the baby fondant elephant.

Have you ever made a fondant cake?

Indian Cake

Indian Cake – a tutorial on how to make an Indian style cake decorated with fondant for your kid's birthday party!

Course Cake

Cuisine International

Servings 15

Author Manuela Zangara

Ingredients

2 Yogurt Cakes baked in 1x23 cm – 9 inches and 2x10 cm – 4 inches round pans
Coloured Fondant
Edible glue
Sugar pearls
Gel colours
Edible glitter
Icing for crumb coating
Icing Sugar/cornstarch

Instructions

Cake

Start by baking the cake. I made 2 yogurt cakes and froze them.
Then colour all the fondant you are going to need. Dip a toothpick in the gel colour and then rub it onto the piece of fondant you want to colour. Then knead until uniformly combined. Alternatively, you can purchase coloured fondant and just use what you need.

Decorations

Make the lotus flowers using a cookie cutter. Use a toothpick to make them look more real and add a sugar pearl in the centre. Use a cookie cutter for the leaves. Attach the flowers on the leaves using edible glue. Keep aside to dry.
Make the Indian flags buy rolling 3 ropes of coloured fondant. Stick them together with edible glue, then flatten them with a fondant smoother. Make the Ashoka Chakra with a very thin rope of blue fondant and glue it to the flag. Insert a toothpick in one of the flags and keep aside to dry.
Cut out 8 rounds of pink fondant. You can make them as thin or thick as you like, I made mine as thick as cookies. Let them dry overnight before decorating them.
To make mehndi patterns on the fondant rounds, use a small 1.5 tip and coloured royal icing. Decorate with golden pearls and some edible glitter.
To make the elephant, I followed this method.

Assembling

The day before the party I assembled the cake. I made some icing for the crumb coating (you can use your favourite icing recipe, just make sure that it is a little less dense as it needs to be smooth and you should be able to apply it easily). I took the 2 yogurt cakes out of the freezer and levelled them while still frozen with a sharp serrated knife.
I covered a cake board with green fondant and I kept it to dry/harden (it’s best to do this the previous day, so when you put the cake on the board, it will not sink in).
To crumb coat the cake, I put a layer of icing on top of one cake and topped it with the other cake. Make sure to choose the smoothest and flattest of the cake surfaces for the cake top (it is very likely going to be the bottom of one of the cakes), this will make it easier to ice and decorate the cake. Then I crumb coated it with icing. Start from the top, then do the sides. Use a cake spatula to make sure the surface of the cake is as smooth as possible. Then put it in the fridge to harden. This coating will make the fondant top look smooth and it will ensure that no crumbs will be visible through it.
When hard, I put some icing in the centre of the cake board and put the crumb coated cake on it.
Then roll out the orange fondant and cover the cake with it. Smooth it with a fondant smoother and cut out the excess. To cover up any imperfection, roll out a rope of orange fondant and cover the base of the cake with it.
With edible glue, attach the lotus flowers, the Mehndi rounds and the flags on the cake.
Put the elephant in the center of the cake and make sure he holds the flag with the toothpick.
And there you have your Indian Cake!