I used a Maderia cake for my first two carved cakes. They both came out super cute and I had no problems with the maderia cake breaking up as I was carving. I didn't even need to dowel the layers (although, they weren't that big).
From the sounds of things I have learned, from studying cake books, and CC this is a very popular cake in Great Britian, but my North American family thought the texture resembled sweet cornbread.
Anyway, I have been asked to make a chef's hat for a retirement party and would like to know if an American pound cake would work as well as the maderia cake? Should I freeze it before I start to carve? Will I need to dowel the bottom half of the cake and support the top half? I am planning on the cake looking like the ones on these little guys 
, a straight bottom and a top that looks like a cloud. Any thoughts?
Anybody have any ideas? I have read some of the previous posts and a mud cake is mentioned. I tried finding some different recipes for this type of cake and could not find them. I am wanting something light in color as it will be under white fondant.
I have read about people who prefer to use pound cake or frozen cake for their carved cakes, so why not try the best of both?
Theresa
Well, time is running out, I think I will forge a pound cake into a chef's hat. Thanks for the advice Theresa.
MUD CAKE
Printed from COOKS.COM
1 (20 oz.) pkg. Oreo cookies, crushed
3 (3 1/2 oz.) pkgs. instant chocolate pudding
2 (8 oz.) or 1 (16 oz.) Cool Whip
Gummy worms
Need a clay flower pot (10" or large) and garden spade and aluminum foil.
Make pudding following directions on box. Use clay pot, line with aluminum foil. Start layering, first third of pudding, then 1/3 Cool Whip. Last layer Oreo crumbs. Make several layers. Top layer is Oreo crumbs. Add a few gummy worms in each layer. Add silk flowers for effect.
Heres one I have...Regards Sugarcreations go to www.cooks.com for more I think they have some different ones.
Sugarcreations, lol, thanks so much for the thought, but I don't think I can carve a bowl of pudding, but that is a super cute idea for a school party. I think the kids would really "dig" it.
Maybe I read the previous posts wrong when I said mud cake, but I was under the impression that they had a brownie like texture and would hold up to carving. I am still looking for input.
nati has a recipe for mudcake. it is supposed to be a very dense cake. there could be a recipe for it if u look in the recipe section on here,
there is also a reipe in the cake mix recipe section durable cake for 3d cakes
there is also a reipe in the cake mix recipe section durable cake for 3d cakes
I just used the 'Super Enhanced Cake Formula' recipe from this site last weekend to do a Thomas the Train 3D cake and it worked really well for carving (when it was right out of the fridge). I did use a 3D train pan, but I carved out a bunch of the sections to look more like Thomas and it carved really nicely. I also got a lot of compliments from the customers about the taste of the cake.
`Hi All!
I use a pound cake, each time that I have to carve a cake. I would like to give a little tip for the chefs had. At a competition that I was once in, one of the entered cakes was a chefs head and wearing a hat. The hat was made our of rice paper. It looked just like the real ones. I thought that you could use strips of fondant or the rice paper to get the real effect. Please post your photo once you are done.
Bestest,
Dawn
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2107-Dark-Chocolate-Mudcake.html
This is Nati's dark chocolate mud recipe, it's very dense and yummy, will carve well. You don't need to worry about the colour of the cake under fondant, the fondant will cover it, you shouldn't see any cake colour through it.
Cheers,
Fran
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