Have Your Frog and Eat it Too!

Next week my Biology class will dissect our first specimen.  The worm. To celebrate the much anticipated event, I made another dissected frog cake.

Once again, the body out of Rice Krispies, using red food coloring in the marshmallows.

It kind of gives an authentic look when slicing in to the body. The students are always surprised when they see the colored krispies and usually say ewww…..  lol

It was covered in fondant from head to toe.  All of the guts are made from fondant.  Please do not make fun of my lack of artistic abilities when it comes to making innards. 😀

As an extra bonus, I added the frog’s last meal request.  It’s a shame he wasn’t alive long enough to eat it.  One of my students decided to have the fly for a mid-morning snack.   I don’t think it was very filling.

The blue things you see in the photo below are the livers.

Please enjoy the slide show of the Biology students eating the frog.  Not one of them said it tastes like chicken.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next year I think I’ll do something completely different. 🙂

Consuming the frog

Dissected Frog Cake

The students seemed to like the frog, but not as much as I thought they would. 🙂

The legs were removed first.  Below you can see what the inside looked like.

Each student picked the body part they wanted. This young man insisted on the head.

And this young lady wanted the middle, plus all the organs. She is eating the stomach and the intestines here. lol

Most of the fondant was peeled off and thrown away.  Most of the rice krispies were consumed. Anything left over (very little) went home with one of the students.

It was a fun start to a boring science day. 😀

Part 1:  Working with fondant.

Part 2: Making the frog cake.

Dissected Frog Cake

Let us eat frog.

To celebrate the Biology class upcoming dissecting experiments, I decided to make this.

This is what I needed the fondant help for.  It was easier than I thought.  The frog did not come out as well as it did in my head, but it isn’t too bad for a beginner. 🙂

Some of you are probably thinking, “that is really disgusting”.  I want to remind you that I lost 1st place in disgusting blog photos after Melanie revealed her real kids.   Yep, you won’t complain about my photos again. 😀

Cindy suggested I use Rice Krispies instead of a cake mix and I am so glad she did.  It was easy to mold and I dyed it pink for an extra touch. 🙂

I let the krispie frog set for an hour or so and then put a thin layer of white store-bought icing, dyed pink.   Hmmm, this dead pink frog is reminding me of Chocolatechic.  Is this happening to anyone else?

When I had the time (LOL), I got out the Fondant to work with it.  I added extra green dye, to get a nice dark green frog.  For a while I thought I added too much and the frog would be black.   I know dead dried up frogs turn black (I know this because I took a picture of one), but juicy dissectable frogs are still green.  Yes, you needed to know that.

It all worked out and I had no problem transferring the fondant on top of the krispie frog.  The powdery white stuff is powdered sugar.

I gently mold the fondant around the krispies, pulling here, tucking here, gasping there, saying NO DON”T DO THAT in another area.  All in all, it turned out well.

Here I have taken a small amount of water on a brush, per Cindy’s instructions, and brushed over the fondant.  It got rid of the powder and gave it a nice shinny look.  I was pleased with it.   Don’t look too closely at the feet, ok? I’m not an artist.

The frog needed to dry out some, so I left it for a couple of hours.  I went back to the fondant and started making pieces-parts.   I know it isn’t  to scale, it is what it is.    I have four very clean unused T-pins to place on the four corners of the skin that is cut open, but they are at the co-op.  I’ll have to add those later.

I think the kids will like it.

Does anyone want a piece of this krispie frog?  I hear frogs taste just like chickens. 😛

Part one:  Learning to work with Fondant.

Part Three:  Eating the frog.

2011 Frog Cake

Idea came from here and here.

Working with Fondant

Last week it came to my attention (from my own mind) that I needed to learn how to color and use Fondant.  What is Fondant?

Well it is:

Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (palm and rape seed), Water, Glycerin, Tapioca Starch, Gum Tragacanth (emulsifier), Carboxymethyl Cellulose (thickening agent), Artificial Flavor (vanillin), Sodium Acetate (perservative), Acetic Acid ( perservative).

Got that?  Great. If you still don’t know what it is, it is made-up icing for fancy cakes like these.

I have never been able to decorate a cake that was worth seeing. So, I call for help.  My friend, Cindy, from church came to my rescue.  She sent me to Hobby Lobby to get Fondant.  It comes in huge boxes that cover an entire wedding cake, boxes that cover 8″ cakes, and several smaller boxes with different colors in it.  After breaking out in hives about what to get, I got the white that covers 8″ cake and some green food dye.  Thankfully, Cindy didn’t have to smack me and send me back to Hobby Lobby, because I made the right choice.

Here is my friend, Cindy, opening the box.  If it doesn’t dry out, it is good until Jesus returns.

This is what it looks like when you take it out of the foil.  According to Cindy, if you find any hard spots, just throw them away.  There is  nothing you can do with them.

Next just fold it over a few times, to soften it up, then add food coloring.

Then fold over again and again until you have incorporated all the food coloring and it is the consistency you want.  We didn’t have time to sit there long enough to get it a solid color, so she stopped after a few minutes.

See Cindy’s green thumb above?  That is a sign of true friendship.  A true friend will turn green just for you.

Cindy is so nice.  She gave me a small rolling-pin to help me roll the fondant.  She says you need a small roller to get the feel of the fondant and get it to the size you need, about 1/8″ of an inch.   Before rolling, place powdered sugar on the counter.  Just like using flour when you kneading bread.  Roll the fondant, then turn…

I love this rolling-pin because it is a tool not a gadget.  The difference is a gadget is used for only one thing.  A tool is used for many things.  This rolling-pin is great to use as a weapon to protect yourself, or to use as a disciplinary device, but we won’t get into that.

Roll the fondant, then turn a quarter around, then roll, then turn, then roll, then turn, then….never mind, you get the idea.

This is where I started to really watch and pay attention, which is why I forgot to take any picture of her rolling the fondant on the rolling-pin.

Once you have the desired thickness, gently roll the fondant on the rolling-pin.  Then gently place it on the cake you are decorating.   We she used the bottle of food coloring.  😀

If you end up with a big hole in the middle, you’ll have to just start all over.  So, do it right the first time.  Pray beforehand if necessary.

After this, we played with the fondant to make some shapes.  I can’t show you any pictures of what we made, because you will guess what I am doing.   If any of you know what is happening here, please don’t mention it.  It is a surprise and some of the people who this is for have access to my blog. 🙂

Part 2 of  Dissected Frog Cake.

Part 3:  Eating the frog.