Cuckoo Clock Cake

When I was doing my study abroad in college, I bought myself my first cuckoo clock. I loved it. I eventually ended up giving it to some friends when I moved to Europe, but I've always loved cuckoo clocks. How they look, the little cuckoo sound they make, even the ticking when it's not on the hour. I just love it. Cuckoo clocks traditionally come from the black forest area in southern Germany. Cuckoo clocks are really a tie for me to my love of Germany itself.

I made some pieces ahead of time. Just ones I wanted to stick off the side a bit, so the fondant had to be dry. I used my wood texture mat, my bird cut outs, and three different leaf cut outs.

Then I rolled out some chocolate fondant and textured it with my texture mat. Then I used my cut outs to cut out two birds and several different leaves. I freehanded the branches. I did see the little gaps in the texture, but I wasn't worried because I knew I would eventually cover them with the other decorations.

 I also modeled a small, simple bird with the chocolate fondant.

I made one 8-inch square vegan chocolate cake and cut it in half and the bottom third off. The white flecks in the cake are because I mixed it by hand instead of using a mixer.

 Then I stacked the two largest pieces on top of each other. And I cut the other two pieces into triangles to form the roof. Then I used the scraps to make the roof overhang. I filled and frosted the cake with dark chocolate ganache.

 Then I spent some time icing the funny-shaped cake really smoothly with my dark chocolate ganache.

 Then I rolled out a piece of chocolate fondant, textured it with my wood grain texture mat, and drew lines with a fondant tool just a ruler's width apart. I cut it the size of the main part of the clock and placed it on the front.

 Then I cut the panels for the sides after texturing them with wood grain.

 Don't forget the bottom!

 The roof and the sides of the roof I didn't bother to texture because I knew I would just be covering them up again.

 Then I rolled out more chocolate fondant, textured it and cut out circles with the back of a 1M piping tip and then cut them in half, using them to make the shingles for the roof.

 I loved how the shingles looked on the clock.

 Then I cut a hole out of the top of the front.

 And placed the simple cuckoo bird in it.

 Then I rolled a couple pieces of chocolate fondant into two rounded logs.

 I textured them with the sharp edges of the 1M star tip to make them look a little like pine cones because cuckoo clocks often have weights that look like pine cones on them.

 I rolled out a piece of marzipan (another German tribute!), cut it into a circle using a circle cutter, and placed it in the center of the front. I used my fondant press form to create the numbers and placed them around the clock face. Then I freehand cut out the hands of the clock, trimming them until they were just the right length, and placed them in the position of 5 o'clock.

 Then I placed the rest of my dried decorations around the clock. First I placed the branches on the sides, the top and bottom, then the birds on the top and the leaves around the sides.

 I absolutely loved how it turned out. It was just like I pictured it!

 It even bore a pretty close resemblance to my cuckoo clock I bought in college.

 Cuckoo!

 My girls enjoyed the cake as well.

Watch the whole process on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Ua6rEhZFd5A
Schaut das ganze Prozess auf unsere YouTube Sendung an: https://youtu.be/zumGthk4goY