Unify - Save the Bees

I am new to Instructables and while i was going through the website and reading about "Made by bees contest", i realized for the first time that bees are getting harmed for the benefit of human beings. Hence i wanted to make something that would bring this thought out for everyone to see. I was not sure as to what to make and since i am new to baking, i thought i should give cake making a try. Hence after lots and lots of research and lots of thought i finally decided to go with "Orange hazelnut honey cake" with "honey and butter frosting", "marshmallow fondant" and to give a grassy finish i have used shredded sweetened coconut. I have enjoyed the entire process of learning, making mistakes, giving up and somehow finishing the cake. I feel so proud and i believe my cake has come out pretty good and tasted really nice. I hope i am able to put out my message via my cake. Thank you.

Ingredients :

Icing Sugar - 2 pounds + 1 cup

Big Marshmallows - 2 pounds

Butter flavored syrup - 3 tablespoons

Water - 3 tablespoons

Vegetable shortening - 3 tablespoons

Artificial colors - Green, Yellow, Black and Brown

Materials :

Large microwave safe bowl - 1

Rubber spatula -1

Measuring cups

Kitchen top/Table top/ large flat base bowl for kneading the fondant

• In a large microwavable bowl, add the marshmallows and water as mentioned in the ingredients
• Mix with spatula and place the bowl in microwave for 45 seconds and mix and again place in microwave for 45 seconds and continue this process till all the lumps are dissolved. Remember to mix after removing from microwave each time.
• Add the butter flavored syrup and mix well
• Add 3/4th of icing sugar mentioned in the ingredients and mix well with the spatula
• Keep adding icing sugar to thicken the consistency
• Once you are unable to stir using spatula, move the contents to either your greased table top/kitchen top/ flat base bowl and kneed the dough to get a stiff dough. Keep adding icing sugar as required. Note grease your
  

  table top/kitchen top/ flat based bowl with vegetable shortening.

• Spread vegetable shortening on the completed dough and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest overnight or for a minimum of 12 hours.
• After the fondant has rested, divide the dough into 5 portions. Since i needed more of green and yellow, i took out 2 large portions from the fondant and added green to one large portion and kneaded till the color was incorporated evenly into the fondant and repeated the same process for yellow. Wrap the colored fondant tightly with plastic wraps separately.
• Make 2 smaller portions from the uncolored fondant and color them black and brown. I left the 5th portion as white, just in case i would need it later while decorating. Wrap them in plastic wrap and keep them aside till needed.

Ingredients :

Instant Coffee - 2 teaspoons

Hot Water - Little more than 1/2 cup

All purpose Flour - 3 cups

Baking Powder - 2 teaspoons

Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon

Ground Cinnamon - 1 teaspoon

Eggs - 4

Sugar - 1 cup

Honey - 1 cup

Vegetable Oil - Little more than 1/2 cup

Grated Orange Zest (Orange Part Only) - 1 tablespoon

Hazelnuts, Coarsely Chopped - 1 cup

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Materials :

Round/Square cake pans - 2 (I did not have square pans, so i used round pans and cut the cakes into square)

Large mixing bowl - 2

Rubber spatula

Electric Beater ( if available or wooden spatula could be used)

Measuring cups ( I missed to add the picture of measuring cups above, apologies)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
• Mix together hot water and instant coffee powder and keep aside
• In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon, mix well and keep aside
• In another large bowl, add eggs, sugar and beat till light and frothy
• Add vegetable oil, honey, coffee mix(mentioned in second step), orange zest and beat well
• Add dry ingredients(mentioned in third step) and mix with rubber spatula only till incorporated. Please do not over mix.
• In a pan add the hazelnuts and roast for 5 minutes on medium heat, let it cool, transfer onto a clean kitchen towel and rub nicely to remove the skin from the hazelnuts and chop them coarsely
• Add the hazelnuts into the cake batter and mix with rubber spatula only till incorporated
• Grease 2 cake molds with vegetable shortening and transfer the cake batter equally into both the molds and place in oven
• Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Once cakes are completely cool, wrap them tightly in foil and keep in room temperature until needed

• Cut the edges of both the cakes to form squares
• For the base where the cake will be placed, take a cardboard box and cut it 1.5 inches bigger than the cake on all four sides
• Cover the base tightly with foil and since we will be performing lots of activity after cake is placed on the base and it might get dirty, I cut parchment paper and placed only on the edges of the base, so that once cake is completed, I can pull out the parchment paper and the base will look neat in the end.
• Place the cake on the base and cover lightly with foil and keep in room temperature until needed

Ingredients :

Unsalted butter(Room temperature) - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 3 cup

Honey - 3 tablespoon

Pure Vanilla extract - 2 teaspoon

Materials :

Large mixing bowl

Silicon spatula

Measurement cups

Electric Beater

• In a large mixing bowl add room temperature butter, powdered sugar, honey and vanilla extract
• With a electric beater mix the ingredients till very soft and fluffy
• With the help of silicon spatula keep cleaning the edges of the bowl so all ingredients get mixed properly
• Spread the mixture evenly on the cake and to stick both the cakes well, spread icing on the edges and join the cake
• Since I wanted very little elevated area on the cake, representing stage, I added a very thin piece of cake on top of cake and iced the same too

• Spread generous amount of icing sugar on a clean kitchen top/table top so that the fondant does not stick and place the green colored fondant and kneed till soft

• Roll out the fondant with the help of rolling pin into 1/4th inch width sheet

• Carefully take the fondant sheet and place on top of the cake and cut the excess edges of the fondant to give a clean finish

• For the body of the bee, take the yellow fondant and make 2 balls and shape them as shown in the picture and then stick both the balls by applying little pressure

• For the legs, stomach, eyes , eyebrows, nose and lines across the body, I used black colored fondant and rolled it with my hand as shown in the picture

• I wanted to give the bees a professional look, hence I made them wear ties and spectacles, which I make using white fondant

• I rolled out very small pieces of white fondant to give them smiles

• And all these small parts were placed on the bees body by applying little pressure

• I spread powdered sugar on 2 plates and placed the completed bees and kept them in fridge for 30 minutes to harden up a bit, so they will be easy to manage

• I rolled out the white fondant into two ovals with 1/2 inch width for the hoardings

• Then i took the left over honey butter frosting that I had made in step 6 and 7 and added black and brown color

• With the help of beater I mixed the ingredients till the color was completely incorporated into the frosting

• I then transferred the mixture into a zip-lock bag, made a very tiny hole and wrote my messages

• I wanted to give a grassy finish, hence I took sweetened shredded coconut and added 1/2 teaspoon green color

• Massaged the coconut with green color very very well with hand and let it dry for 30 minutes

• Then i sprayed very little water on the cake so that the coconut sticks well to the cake and spread the colored coconut on the complete cake

• Now that the base was ready, I tried various permutations and combinations to place the bees and hoardings and the best fit is what I have presented to you. Hope you like it :)