AT Finn Cakes

I saw the new episode ("In your footsteps") of Adventure Time last Monday night when it premiered. FINN CAKES. There were cupcakes with little Finn frosting heads and I instantly knew that I had to make some.

For a while now I have found myself in a most uncanny state of fandom--which I almost never partake of--so I have wanted to make something similar to the layer cakes I have seen online. But, making cakes as depicted on, and (presumably) dreamed up by, the show is ten times better. (By the way, there are some great AT-themed desserts out there, so do yourself a favor and search for them. I, for one, was greatly amused with a literal cake made to look like Cake the Cat.)

Anywho, despite the fact that the cupcakes in the show were chocolate colored, the ones I made are strawberry flavored. This is mostly because I think Finn is one of the most adorable characters ever written and that he should be flavored with my favorite sweet berry. (It is for these moments that one keeps fresh strawberry compote in one's freezer.) And, I don't usually get all "squee!" over things, but this show inexplicably cheers my spirit. For example, I may sing the little opening song to myself whenever I need to be reminded of good things in life.

All that being said, I used the phrase "son of a bitch" so many times while making cupcakes that they were surely weeping at my belligerence towards their cupcake goddess mother. The people of Candy Kingdom would not be delighted. 

The cake

I used this recipe from foodista.com to make my strawberry cupcakes, but I also recommend this brownie recipe to make yourself a rich, moist, chocolate cupcake.

Decoration

Decorating Finn Cakes, without the use of marzipan or other fancy ingredients/implements, merely requires: patience, free space in your freezer, cooled frosting spread/shaped with chilled butter knives, and a sanitized ice pick. (Hey, who knows what you've been using it for besides cracking ice.) If you do want to bother with homemade vegan fondant, I suggest this recipe, which I have never tested--i.e. you are on your own.

If you start with some white frosting and a standard set of food dye (i.e. yellow, red, blue, green), then you can pretty much decorate these cakes with about five tablespoons of 'Finn flesh' colored frosting and one tablespoon of black for the lines of his face. A recipe for black/dark colored frosting can be found at hurryupcakes.com. Flesh tone frosting color charts can be found all over the Internet, but basically what you're going for is drops of red/yellow + a drop of green. I followed the directions at WikiAnswers, and was pleased:

Start with a very light orange, 1 drop red, 1 drop yellow and mix well. This is most likely going to be way too pale, but as you can add colour but not remove it and you have not given me any idea how big a batch of icing you are working on...better safe than sorry. Next add 1 drop green (yeah, I know, sounds weird, I swear it works), mix well.
Then one drop at a time add red and if needed a bit more yellow. Mix thoroughly after each drop, remember it will dry down a bit darker so keep it pale.

Also, in my searching I can across a website called Sweet Sugar Belle, whereupon I exclaimed: "This lady seriously likes decorating cookies. I mean, DAMN!" But, as impressive as they are, I still can't be bothered to put that much effort into something I just want to stuff in my face during rapid consumption...This is clearly demonstrated by the messiness, one might even say sloppiness, of my cupcake decorating. Ah well.

The approximate method I employed, in detail

1. Mix up your black and Finn flesh colors in separate bowls from your white frosting, letting their consistency stiffen back up in the refrigerator.
2. Next, coat the cooled cupcakes in white frosting, leaving a high mound in the middle. Pop these in the freezer, perhaps working in small batches, for a few minutes until the frosting mounds are stiff. (It's much easier if the cupcakes rose in such a manner so that they already have high centers.)
3. While waiting for the mounds to firm, use two spoons or the tips of two butterknives to make little spheres of white frosting. When ready, remove the cupcakes from the fridge and work quickly to plop a little ball of frosting on each side of the mound. These will become the ears of Finn’s hat, which will be easier to shape if you chill them in the freezer for another few minutes, along with your (metal) shaping utensil.
4. After the spheres have firmed up in the freezer, use the chilled utensil to drag some frosting down from the sphere towards the head mound, trying to make the veneer as smooth as possible. Again, work quickly before the frosting can reach room temperature.  
5. Yet again, put the Finn hatted-cakes into the freezer, fetching the Finn flesh tone from the fridge so that it can come to room temperature. (Swirl it around to help it become a bit drippy.) Once the Finn hats are stiffened, take them out and use whatever utensil that works best for you to gently drip an outline of Finn’s face shape (i.e. oval) on the side of the face mound. 
6. Once the outline is in satisfactory shape, fill it in and place the cupcakes in the freezer to stiffen the frosting again before moving on to drawing the facial expression. 
7. Finally--thank goodness--the last step is to use a toothpick or ice pick to make dots for eyes and draw whatever facial expression you think you can bear to repeat 12 or 18 times (depending on how many cupcakes are rendered from your cake recipe).

By the time I got done with the eyes, I was like "WTF possessed me to do this?" Next time, if any, there will be tiny chocolate chips for eyes!