Have you ever held a baby, and had the urge to hold that baby high above your head and sing, “Circle of Life?” Well, this cake is for those of you who’ve definitely thought about it, because this is my Lion King Cake! If you love animal print cakes, check out my Rainbow Zebra Cake and my Safari Surprise Inside Cupcakes.

For this recipe, you’ll need my perfectly pipeable buttercream frosting in red, orange, and yellow. You can find my buttercream frosting recipe here. You’ll also be using black fondant. You can find my fondant recipe here. I love so many parts of this recipe, but one of my favorite are the different animal print layers inside. They are a little tricky to make, but the finished product is so worth it!

Instructions:

1. Preheat a moderate oven (175C/350F)
2. Spoon in a few tablespoons of vanilla cake mix and place them in a snap seal bag. Set aside.
3. Add 3 tablespoons into 2 bowls. Add cocoa or brown food colouring to one of the bowls and mix it well. Add black food colouring to the other, and mix it well. Place the cake batters into their own separate snap seal bags.
4. Spray a generous amount of nonstick spray onto 2 cake tins.
5. Cut a generous tip from the snap seal bag with plain vanilla cake mix. Cut a fine tip off the snap seal bag with brown and black mix.
6. Pipe a thick circle around the outside of both of the pans, and work your way towards the center. Use the back of the spoon to smooth out that bottom layer of cake. Make sure it’s not too thick!
7. Make a target design into each of the cake tins with the black cake batter.
8. Pipe the brown cake batter directly over the black target.
9. Use the plain cake batter and pipe in the empty spaces. Don’t spread any of it out with a knife. Make sure you pipe all the way to the edges.
10. With the black cake batter, make a few half circles around the outside of the cake. Add brown cake batter over those half circles.
11. Cook in a moderate oven for 10-15 minutes.
12. Add bright white food colouring to your cake batter.
13. Transfer it to a snap seal bag, and cut off a generous corner tip.
14. Grease another cooking tray with nonstick spray.
15. Pipe a circle of nonstick spray around the outside edge of the cake. Then, make a large blob of in the middle.
16. Then, pipe a black blog directly onto your white blob. Then, go for black again, then white. Tap on the bench to help spread out the batter. Keep alternating in between, and tapping on the bench every so often. Do this until your black batter reaches the outermost layer.
17. Bake in a moderate oven for 10-15 minutes
18. Add your brown cake batter with the rest of your white cake batter. Add orange food dye and stir in well.
19. Scoop the orange batter into a snap seal bag. Then, cut a generous corner tip.
20. Grease 2 more cake pans.
21. Repeat the process for making the zebra pattern but with the orange and black cake batter.
22. Bake your 2 tiger layers in a moderate oven for 10-15 minutes.
23. Sprinkle corn flour onto your bench and roll out your fondant.
24. Use an exacto knife to trace around your safari animal template.
25. Store those in between a folded piece of plastic wrap.
26. Once all your layers are baked and cooled, you have to carve them up. Use a serrated edge knife to cut to trim the top mound of the cake off so that it’s mostly flat. Also, trim away any golden brown edges. Do this for all of your cake layers.
27. Smear buttercream onto your cake board. Place one of your tiger layers onto the cake board.
28. Add a crumb coat of frosting to the bottom layer. Then, wipe off your offset spatula and add another layer.
29. Repeat this with a cheetah layer, a zebra, another cheetah, and finally another tiger.
30. Add a crumb coat of orange frosting over the entire outside of the cake.
31. Transfer to the freezer for 30 minutes to let it set.
32. Once set, add yellow frosting to the bottom third of the cake. Then, add a layer of orange so that it overlaps with the yellow. Add the red frosting to the top section of the cake, including the flat top at the top.
33. Use your spatula to blend the three layers together to create a watercolor effect.
34. Use a ruler to scrape back any excess frosting. Use an offset spatula to clean off the top.
35. Add your fondant animals and trees to the buttercream frosting on the outside of the cake.

Hold this cake high above your head and sing, “Circle of Life.” You won’t be embarrassed, I promise 🦁🐯🐵🐘

For the printable recipe click here: http://bit.ly/2ihW5AG

What You’ll Need:

• Double batch of vanilla cake mix (enough for 2 x 9″ cakes or 24 cupcakes)
• Food colour paste – black, white, orange, yellow and red
• Cocoa powder (just a pinch)
• Buttercream frosting
• Black fondant (I use pre-coloured for dark colours, rather than trying to colour it myself)

• Offset spatula
• Ruler
• Scalpel / super sharp knife
• Serrated knife
• Scissors
• Fondant rolling pin
• Sharp knife
• 5 x snap seal bags or piping bags
• 6″ round cake tins
• Spoons
• Non stick spray
• Cornflour
• Cake board
• Safari animal template

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