Albert the Rooster was entered into the Denver County Fair in the Cake Decorating competition.
I thought about creating a rooster cake the instant I saw the Fair flier with the little rooster head on it. A second reason I wanted to do a rooster was that Denver recently changed their ruling about allowing chickens in the backyards (turned out roosters are NOT allowed).
I started by finding a picture of a rooster that was really pretty.
I thought the photo was of a Black Copper Maran. In planning the size of the cake, I realized I didn’t know how big a rooster really is. I googled dimensions or size of black copper marans and couldn’t find any information. I did come across the West Knoll Farm website. They raise Black and Blue Copper Marans. With nothing to lose, I emailed the farm, explained what I was doing, and asked how big their rooster, Albert, is. Within 2 hours I had a response from Amy. She had actually gone out and measured Albert and sent me the measurements, some being estimates because “he kept turning around to see what I was checking out behind him”. Reading Amy’s email I was in disbelief that someone in South Carolina would go out and measure Albert for a cake decorator in Denver!! Thank you Amy!!!! I would’ve underestimated the size of a rooster.
Based on the size of the real Albert, Randy helped me scale Cake Albert to fit on the size of materials we had. We decided on a 3/4 size Albert. Here’s Randy’s “whiteboard” sketch of the rooster!
Of course, I wanted my Cake Albert to be standing up, a chicken laying on a nest would’ve been a lot easier. Randy helped me build Albert’s stand with 2 boards, and threaded rods.
The start of the standing rooster. Board with two threaded rods to build off of.
To that we secured a block of styrofoam for the thighs and for the bottom of the body section.
Base for the cake. Carved styrofoam body and legs with board to hold it all up.
I used a styrofoam carver (heated metal wand) to cut a 4 inch tall styrofoam round into a 2 inch tall, and shape the thighs and body.
For the edible part, I used pound cake for the remainder of the body and neck.
1lb sugar, flour, eggs, and butter, and 1 tsp of banana extract (why banana extract? It smelled good!). Baked until done. Cake Albert required to batches of pound cake.
Pound cake holds up really well for doing sculpted cakes and holds up well for competitions. there’s minimal shrinking and settling from pound cake, it’s not as crumby as box mixes, and carves easily!
*****Keep in mind this cake was made for a competition that had no mention of eating the cake in the rules! If this cake was going to made for eating, I would’ve made it differently!
Rice cereal treats were used to form the neck and head. A wooden dowel was used to secure the head and neck to the body. The dowel was sharpened and pushed through the cake, through the cardboard cake board and into the styrofoam body.
Pound cake and rice cereal treats added for body, neck, and head.
Cake Albert was then covered in buttercream.
For the legs, I wrapped the threaded rods in gum paste and imprinted them with a mat to look scaly. I added toes to the legs and used a knife to add lines and toenail, but at first I made them too spindly, maybe chicken sized but not Albert sized. After a two days of working on him, looking at place mats, mugs, towels, and other images of roosters, I tried his toes again, bigger and beefier…..
Now, how to give him a feathered look. I had seen other bird cakes where they had covered the whole cake in fondant then etched or impressioned feathers on the body. I didn’t think it looked feathery enough. Each feather was individually cut from white fondant or gum paste, impressioned with a leaf veiner, and most were cut along the edge for featheriness….
Individual feathers, legs, and toes added to the cake.
In looking at pictures of roosters, it appeared that there are 3-4 types of feathers on the bird (I’m no chicken expert, I’m sure they have technical names, but shape, color, and size-wise there are at least 4 types visible on the outside of the bird). The bottom of the body and leg feathers, the shoulder feathers, tail feathers, and head/neck feathers. Each with their own shape, veining, and other challenges. My mom was here visiting when we started Albert. For several hours I put her to work. We set up an assembly line of rolling, cookie cutting, veining, snipping, and putting on cake. Everyone’s dream vacation to Colorado, holed up in the basement, unable to see the gorgeous mountains, playing with the equivalent of play-doh! Thanks Mom for being such a trooper!
Airbrushed feet, legs, and bottom feathers.
Shoulder feathers
Different shapes and colorations for different feathers....Head/neck, tail, shoulder, and body feathers.
All feathers were put on white and airbrushed the colors. The feather colors were usually a blend of colors layered on top of each other to get the appropriate final color combination, highlight veining, etc. Air brushing the feathers allowed for easily changing and match the colors, adding darker highlights, or accenting with shimmer.
The head and the “gobble” (yes, I know it the comb and waddle, but “gobble” is how I think of it!) were where it really started to look like a rooster for me. I had left the tail and the head
Close up of
for last because they were the most complicated parts in my opinion, plus the other feathers would layer up to those points. I put in the eyes and beak, then gave him a mask to build the “gobble” on. I airbrushed the eyes with a golden brownish color to start and black in the iris. (I’m notorious for making “crazy eyes” on my characters and didn’t want Albert to look crazy!). It started to look like an eye but not quite there yet. Randy suggested that the rooster pictures had a coppery color around the eye and to try to bring that out. Using gold shimmer air brush color, I hand painted the coloring in his eyes. Once dry, I air brushed vodka on the eyes to give them a shiny surface.
For the comb, I took a wad of fondant and formed it to fit his head. I cut portions out and formed the spiky parts then air brushed it red and highlighted with dark brown. The waddle part was odd to made. I rolled a piece of fondant out and cut out a notch for his beak them folded and squished it into shape (squish being the technical term for moving fondant around with your thumbs!). Once in place, it was air brushed red with dark brown highlights.
I iced the board with buttercream and covered with ground up graham crackers with an Oreo thrown in to look like dirt. I wrapped the board in black ribbon. And to finish I created a chicken footprint stamp and put in footprints in the dirt behind him.
Delivering Albert. I think I was a little freaked out!
We still had to survive the harrowing 12 minute ride to the county fair grounds! Denver roads are notoriously bumpy, potholed, and uneven! Being on two legs Cake Albert didn’t have much support front to back and “bobbled” if you just looked at him funny. Randy drove and I held Cake Albert on my lap. Randy decided to stunt drive….no hands, turned sideways, taking pictures of my freaked out expression! I don’t think I breathed for the 12 minute drive!
What a relief to have him delivered and in one piece!
Putting finishing touches on Cake Albert. Oh, and that
There were just a few little touch ups to be made once we got there. Considering I was wearing 1/2 of the graham cracker crumbs for the base on the my arms and lap, I had to add more to the base, add the chicken tracks, and touch up where one little part of one feather broke during the drive.
After about 45 hours, a very bored puppy, husband, and mother, Albert was complete!
Cake Albert Stats:
14.5 lbs
21 inches tall
?? Feathers
45 hours to complete
Good luck Albert! Bring home a ribbon!!!
****July 29 update: Albert won the blue ribbon, but there weren’t enough entries to qualify for a cash prize. 
A judge offered to give me the $20 in her pocket. Hopefully, Albert will pay off with future cake requests!
****love people watching. We moved Albert to the top of the baked goods case and his blue ribbon tied to his leg. People look in the case and usually miss the 2′ tall rooster sitting on top of the case!! Some people see the ribbon, then read the little card and finally get that’s it cake! Fun to watch!
****July 31 update: Albert won Best In Show!!!! Of the 375 entries in the Kitchen Pavilion, they said Albert was the most photographed and drew the most attention
