My dear friend gave me shark sweets as a present, a combination of two of the best things in life! :D
And while I hate sharing sweets (even non-shark-shaped ones!), I couldn’t resist setting aside a few of them for my lemon shark squares. Our horror film group is watching a shark film tonight. It’s like fate is tempting me! Or my horror film mates are. Hard to tell, sometimes… ;)
I baked a small* lemon tray bake and topped it with coloured (surprise!) lemon fromage frais topping.
I realise I haven’t posted a recipe in a while; shame on me! Unfortunately I have to continue this trend, however, as once again I can’t give exact quantities. Or a method. This be madness, and there is no method in it.
But it’s the result that counts, right? I think the lemon shark squares are really nice and not overly sweet with a good measure of lemoniness. :) And they look better in real life than they do in the pictures.
Yes, my squares aren't really squares at all. But then again, neither are the sharks real sharks. All a pack of lies!
* Small tray bake equals fewer squares. Fewer squares equal fewer shark sweets to give away. Have I mentioned that I am greedy!?
You should know by now that I am a woman of refined taste. Especially, might I say, when it comes to cinema. I only watch really artistic films; life’s too short for anything less than … say …
LAKE PLACID!
For the uninitiated: shame on you. Watch this trailer and then go and buy the DVD so you can watch the whole film. Do it. Now.
So yes, this year’s feature cakes for our birthdays were actual feature cakes: creature feature cakes. :D I had more fun making them than should be allowed to have! :)
This cake’s a courgette cake, a family recipe and one of my all-time favourites. It’s very moist and lovely and slightly cinnamony. Yum. The croc is a toy, lazy me did not carve one out of marzipan or so … And the lake is made from water, sugar, food colouring and lots of gelatine. Not an easy feat for somebody with my capacity for patience but I pulled myself together and everything worked out nicely in the end!
However! Crocs are obviously not the only creatures who eat humans on the big screen.
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, behold
SHARKTOPUS
Again, if you don’t know Sharktopus, your life is not as cool as it ought to be. Trust me. You know that you want to watch it.
The sharktopus is a vanilla biscuit rather than a cake but it looks cool and it’s yummy, AND it’s deadly on both ends! :D
I used my shark biscuit cutter and my octopus biscuit cutter for these cool little creatures, then cut off the biscuit dough shark tails and octopus heads and stuck the rest together before baking. A slightly tedious job, but it helps if you giggle maniacally.
You and whose army? – Me and my sharktopus army!
The third creature feature baking project was actually where the original idea for this theme came from. Last year I baked a snake cake together with a friend, so the only logical next step was …
Snakes on a Plane!
It’s actually called “Enough is enough cake” because I’m cool like that, dropping famous film quotes and all. :)
The plane is a lemon tray bake with LOTS of lemon sugar icing and seriously unyummy rice paper for the windows – but it was the right colour, and I think the taste is not strong enough to spoil the cake.
I baked a cocoa and coconut cake for the snakes and covered them in white chocolate cream cheese icing with lots and lots of added food colouring.
Right, that’s it for today. I’m off to plan next year’s birthday cakes… ;) All that’s left to say is:
This could have been a shark attack cake. But it’s not. It’s a Happy Sea Life cake.
Are you worried I am getting soft? That my age is finally catching up with me? That I am becoming … *shudder* sensible and adapted?
Sorry for scaring you like that. Rest assured, I’m not growing up. I’m just acknowledging that I am married to a grown-up, and it was his family’s reunion thing that I baked the cake for. So I did without the blood and guts this time. The things you do when you’re in love!
The base and the shark are lemon cakes; the sea is a mixture of blueberries, cream and some icing sugar. For the octopuses and fishies I baked simple biscuits and iced them with coloured sugar icing.
The children at the family reunion LOVED the cake, which was the desired result, so I am really quite satisfied. Still feels weird to use my beloved shark cake mould without the usual large quantities of red food colouring for the mayhem though …
For our birthday party in 2010, I baked a shark attack.
The shark is another lemon shark; the swimmer is a cherry sponge cake (which also explains the slight acne on his back…), and the guts are cherries too – with a bit of food colouring to make it look more fun! :) The swimming trunks are made from sugar icing and green food colouring and the sea is sugar icing with blue colouring; the hair is milk chocolate with a lot of love and care and patience to make it look like hair. I loved making this one!
Back in 2009, I baked my first shark cake. I had bought the baking mould and just had to try it out immediately. It’s a lemon sponge cake, which, as the educated among you (I’m *not* looking at you!) will know, is a good cake to use because there is a species called lemon sharks. Yes, I felt very clever that day.
You can tell I was still struggling with the fin and the icing face. But! From this cake, the idea for our birthday cakes in February 2010 was born…
Monsterbake 
