Mich Turner's Penguin Pudding
This festive chocolate truffle torte is beautifully adorned with a charming penguin made of sugar paste. Topped with holly leaves and red glitter, this dessert is sure to be a showstopper on your holiday table. Follow the detailed instructions to create this delightful and delicious treat!
— Constant Cookbook
Ingredients
- 15cm (6in) quantity of chocolate truffle torte cooked in a 450ml (1 pint) pudding basin, 14cm (51/2in) in diameter
- 1 quantity dark chocolate plastique
- 23cm (9in) round base board
- red sugar paste for the base board
- edible varnish or sugar glue
- red edible glitter
- 80cm (32in) red ribbon, 15mm (3/8in) wide
- 100g (31/2oz) white sugar paste
- icing sugar, for dusting
- 75g (3oz) green sugar paste
- 50g (2oz) red sugar paste
- royal icing, for fixing
- cutter white snowflakes, optional
- For the penguin:
- 20g (3/4oz) light brown petal paste
- 80g (3oz) white petal paste
- 80g (3oz) white sugar paste
- food colourings in black and orange
- stick of spaghetti, broken to give a 6cm (21/2in) piece and a 3cm (1 1/4in) piece
Instructions
- Cover the cake with one coat of dark chocolate plastique. Line the base board with red sugar paste topped with glitter (reserving some for the holly berries). Surround the base board with the red ribbon, fixed with glue. Leave the cake and base board to dry overnight
- Knead the white sugar paste until smooth and pliable and roll out on a worktop dusted with icing sugar to approximately a 20cm (8in) circle, 3mm (1/8in) thick. Cut a scalloped edge all the way around. Brush the top of the cake with cooled boiled water and place the white sugar paste into position over the top of the cake.
- Knead the green sugar paste until smooth and pliable and roll out to a thickness of 3mm (1/8in). Cut out 3 holly leaves, using the holly-leaf cutter.
- Mark the indentations on the leaves with a marking tool or use a sharp knife gently. Brush the underside of the leaves with sugar glue, then fix into position on the top of the pudding
- Roll 6 pea-sized balls of red sugar paste and place in a small dish of the reserved red glitter to cover. Use royal icing to fix these into position on the top of the holly leaves.
- To make the penguin, first shape the wooden spoon from the light brown petal paste, then leave it to set hard. Next, knead the white petal and white sugar pastes together thoroughly, then divide into 3 portions, weighing 90g (31/2oz), 40g (11/2oz) and 30g (1oz). Colour the largest portion black and the smallest portion orange, and leave the middle one white. Now mould the different- coloured pastes into the body parts, as shown: head, body, flippers and eyes in black; beak and feet in orange; hat, eyes and tummy (using the round cutter) in white.
- Place the orange feet together and brush the back of them with a little sugar glue. Press the body down onto the feet to secure. Brush the body with sugar glue and fix the white tummy into position. Insert the 6cm (21/2in) length of spaghetti into the body.
- Fix the penguinâÃÂÃÂs flippers into position from the back of the body, making sure that the flippers are folded gently outwards from the body.
- Fix the head into position on top of the spaghetti. Fix the eyes and beak into position with sugar glue.
- Insert a 3cm (11/4in) length of spaghetti into the top of the penguinâÃÂÃÂs head and fix the chefâÃÂÃÂs hat into position with sugar glue. Finish by inserting the wooden spoon into the penguinâÃÂÃÂs body so it sits by his flipper, as shown. Fix the cake into position offset on the base board with royal icing, and fix the penguin in position at the front. Add some white snowflakes, if using.
Yield
Makes 1 cake
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