Tinkerzombie Cake

I had a wonderful, awful idea...

Brain

• 2 cups frozen raspberries
• 2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup whole milk

Lightly coat mold with a thin coat of cooking spray and set aside.

Puree the thawed raspberries and juice in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the pureed raspberries and let stand until softened, about 10 minutes.

Mix milk and cream in a heavy, medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Stir in sugar and cook until it completely dissolves, about 30 seconds. Stir in raspberry/gelatin mixture and simmer until gelatin dissolves, about 1-2 minutes.

Remove from heat, and pour the mixture into the prepared mold and chill for at least 6 hours or overnight. (Mine was filled just slightly over halfway, which is enough for use in the Tink cake. I might try adding a box of red Jell-O mixed at Jiggler strength to this recipe to make a full brain.)

Unmold by gently shaking mold to loosen gelatin. I found it helped to tip the mold slightly to the side while shaking. Hold piece of plastic wrap against bottom of gelatin and carefully invert mold. Gently shake mold to completely release brain. Use plastic wrap to transfer brain from hand to plate. Cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate until ready to decorate Tink.

Cake

• 1 pkg yellow cake mix
• 1 pkg instant pistachio pudding
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 c oil
• 1 c club soda
• 1 tsp almond extract

Mix all ingredients & pour into greased, floured character pan. Use rubber scraper to spread batter evenly in pan. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until done. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Slice off raised center of cake so it will sit flat when removed from pan. Loosen cake from pan by running spatula around edges. Place cooling rack on cake, hold together tightly, and turn over. Remove pan slowly. Let cake cool at least an hour before continuing.

Filling

• 1 c milk
• 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 pkg instant pistachio pudding
• seedless red raspberry preserves (I used about 1/3 of an 18oz jar)
• 1/4 c chopped nuts (optional)

Beat first 4 ingredients together until smooth spreading consistency.

Slice cake into 2 equal layers. Frost bottom layer of cake with thin layer of frosting. Spoon preserves into small bowl & mix to soften. Cover frosting with thin layer of preserves. I was able to drizzle the softened preserves over the frosting with a spoon, making it easy to smooth preserves on the soft frosting. Don't spread frosting or preserves right to the edge of the cake; once the top layer is in place, it could make the filling ooze out onto the edge of the cake. While this is a tempting, gruesome effect, it'll make frosting the sides of the cake difficult. If using nuts, sprinkle nuts over the gorey sweetness. (Alternately, you can mix nuts into cake batter instead of adding them here. Confession: I added them here because I didn't think of adding them to the batter until I was putting the cake into the oven. Nuts in cake = crunchy bones! Duh!)

Cover with top layer of cake. Reserve remaining frosting for decorating (see below).

Decorating (the fun part!)

• wax paper
• icing bags & deco tips (small round for piping, flat, star)
• chocolate frosting
• decorating cupcake icing bottle (with deco tips): yellow
• decorating gel (tube): red & black (I used a tube of black decorating icing instead of gel, which ended up weeping on the puddingy frosting while the red gel remained intact. Tink looks a little unexpectedly decayed in my photos beacuse of this, which isn't really a bad thing, but it's something to keep in mind when purchasing your decorations.)
• gummy candies: worms, slugs, etc.
• 2 gummy eye candies

Cut 2 ovals out of a double thickness of wax paper to use as cutting patterns for the cake and the brain. Using one wax paper oval pattern as a guide, cut a chunk of gelatin brain as thick as the cake. Depending on the style of brain mold you are using (whole brain or single hemisphere), you may choose to slice a piece off of one side or a chunk off of the top.

Using the second wax paper oval pattern as a guide, cut a hole in the top cake layer of Tink's head to fit the piece of brain; you may need to do a little carving to make it fit. Start small & work your way up! Insert brain into Tink's cake hole (ha!) when you are satisfied with the size of the hole & the brain. If, like me, you cut a cake hole too big for your brain, cut some scraps from the removed piece of cake to fill in the big gaps.

Brush crumbs from cake & plate.

Frost sides of cake with chocolate frosting. Tidy up any frosting messes on your plate using a wet paper towel.

Frost face with remaining green filling/frosting, filling in any gaps between cake & brain.

Add gummy eyes. Frost eyelids over candy. Use black & red as desired to outline, add lashes, veins, blood.

Use black gel to pipe inside of mouth, add eyebrows, and outline face, nose, ear. Pipe lips with red gel.

Use black gel & yellow for hair (can fill in area with star tip as suggested in pan instructions or make long strands of hair with flat or star tip).

Use black & red as desired to add gore to face. Drizzle on some more raspberry preserves, if you feel like it. Add gummy worms at mouth, eye(s), ear, and/or around base of cake.

If desired, pipe star border around bottom of cake with chocolate frosting (or whatever you've got left).