The Modest Medusa Cake

Before you look at any pictures, I should tell you about Modest Medusa. Modest Medusa is a webcomic written and drawn by Jake Richmond, that features mostly about people in his real life, aside from Medusa, who is of course, NOT real, seeing as how she’s a sea monster type thing. Whatever, she’s adorable.

To explain properly, so that you understand the cake, Medusa is from a magical realm that doesn’t really exist, and she came into Jake’s world (our world) through a toilet. Medusa’s bed is a toilet and she loves Chocodiles – for those of you who don’t know what a chocodile is, it’s a chocolate covered twinkie, and apparently they do (did) exist. They stopped making them when they stopped making twinkies (duh!), so I will hopefully get to try one in my lifetime when they start producing twinkies again. The joke about chocodiles and Medusa are that, she LOVES them, and she lives in a toilet, and that chocodiles apparently look like a piece of crap. So when you see the picture below, it’s a CHOCODILE – not a piece of s**t.

Amy’s Birthday Cake, Modest Medusa

I made this cake for my sister Amy’s birthday, because she loves Modest Medusa, and now so do I. So thank you for that, Amy, thank you.

Now, the only part of this cake that is cake is the toilet bowl itself and the chocodile, the back and Medusa herself are actually made from rice krispies. I should have taken a photo showing you the inside of the cake, because it’s purple funfettied, because that’s Amy’s favorite kind of cake and her favorite color is purple.

The cake I used this time, I searched the internet long and hard to find just the right one, and let me tell you – this cake is PERFECT. At least for me. I don’t remember the name of the cake before I renamed it for my cookbook – just that I didn’t come up with the recipe.

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The Chocodile (chocolate covered twinkie) and Sneaky Snake

Jessi’s Favorite Cake

Ingredients:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour (do not sift the flour)
1½ cups granulated sugar
3½ teaspoons baking powder
1-teaspoon salt
1¼ cups milk
Vegetable oil*
1 stick butter (not margarine), softened
1-tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

*Important Note: Measure the 1-1/4 cups of milk in a 2 cup measuring cup… then add enough vegetable oil to bring the liquid up to 1 1/3  cups.

Preheat oven to 350°

Process:
Preparation: Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of (3) 9 x 1 1/2-inch round pans. Spray the pans with cooking spray, place the wax paper in the pans and spray the paper.

1) In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, mixing well.

2) Add the milk/vegetable oil mixture, butter and vanilla to the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium to medium-high speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

3) Add the eggs and continue beating an additional 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans.

4) Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near center of cake comes out clean, or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center.

Cool cakes on wire racks for 15 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.

Frost as desired.

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Now, this version already has all my notes that I’ve made that I would change. Or that needed to be added. It’s important to note however, that this batter will not be as thick as some other cake batters you may be used to.  In fact, sometimes, it may look like the batter is trying to separate itself, don’t worry this is normal. Just go ahead and pour it into your prepared pans and bake.  The bake time may vary, though, but don’t go by me, my oven is a nightmare to work with.

I covered the whole thing in fondant, which this time I made myself.  I used Marshmallow fondant though, and I’ve had really good feedback with it. That it tastes more like actual frosting and less like fondant. People tend to dislike the taste of traditional fondant, so I like to use marshmallow.

The most important thing to remember is to have SPACE when working with fondant. And that’s my biggest issue in my kitchen. Which if you’ve ever seen my kitchen, you understand why it’s a chore. Also, if you’re going to roll out fondant for anything, you should have a long rolling pin or stick. Standard rolling pin length will only lead to trouble for you. They sell “special” fondant rolling pins or whatever… I went to my local “Hobby Lobby” and bought a  2″ thick dual, cut off some of the excess  length and it works perfect.

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Marshmallow Fondant

Medusa and her bed, the toilet with her Chocodile.

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter

1 (16ounce) package miniature marshmallows

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, divided.

Directions

1. Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2. Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners’ sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3. Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners’ sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

Medusa

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Also, important to remember, always keep your fondant moving when rolling it out. ALWAYS. Roll it out, move it, roll a little more, move it, and keep your confectioner’s sugar handy. While kneading it, you’ll come across a lot of wet spots, frequently, just add more powder sugar until it comes to the right consistency to roll out. You’ll know when you get there. You color fondant by adding color and kneading until it’s a uniform color, this could take more time than you anticipate, but it’s worth it.

For Medusa, she’s all one color, and I painted her hair, although originally, it was supposed to rise, but I ran out of time and resources. Had to improvise. But she turned out alright and I’m happy with her. Mostly.

Until next time –

Jessi

If you would like to read the webcomic “Modest Medusa Webcomic” click here, and it will start you from the first comic. Be warned, there are three seasons currently as of May 1, 2013.