Creating Joe’s Exotic Tiger King Cake

The Coronavirus has people watching much more TV than normal with social isolation and the stay at home order. For many, they are tuning into shows that normally they would not. Feeling caged up with limited outings.

 This is a fun cake representing the Netflix documentary series- Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness that is winning Joe Exotic fans nationwide. 

Provided below are the steps for you to make your own Tiger King cake.

White Cake:

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour

3 cups sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1-teaspoon salt

 2 sticks room temperature butter

2-teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons lemon extract

6 large egg whites

1-cup buttermilk

½ cup sour cream

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

White food coloring

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 3 round baking pans with parchment paper and grease the sides with non-stick spray 

Use the reverse cream technique to mix the ingredients.  This is the preferred method for a flatter top and a crumb that is fine.  The reverse cream method coats the butter with flour, which acts like a shield limiting the gluten development because only some of the flour proteins are hydrated. 

So, what does that mean- Reverse cream method???

– Mix together all of the dry ingredients until combined

– Cut the 2 sticks of butter into small cubes and add to dry ingredients. Mix until the mixture becomes a crumb.

– Add egg whites to a separate bowl and beat for 2-3 minutes- just to breaking up the whites. 

– Alternating, add egg whites and buttermilk to the mixture. Mix until Just mixed together

– Add sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon extract, and vegetable oil. Again mix just until incorporated 

– Divide batter into two bowls. In one, add white food coloring to give the cake a pure white color. In the other bowl, add black food coloring. Pour a little from each bowl into the baking pans for a marble appearance.

This is a 3 layered cake.

– Apply baking strips around the baking pans to prevent the caramelized edges, and a domed top. 

– Bake the cakes for 30 -35 minutes. Check at 30 minutes and check every few minutes for doneness. 

– Allow the pans to cool for approximately 15 -20 minutes before removing them from the baking pans. Cool cakes completely before frosting.

Frost Cake with a Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

3 cups room temperature unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon Lemon extract

1 Teaspoon salt

10 cups powered sugar

1/3 heavy cream

Instructions:

– Beat butter with mixer until creamy

– Add both vanilla and lemon extract and salt

– Add powder sugar one cup at a time

-Add drizzles of cream as needed until desired consistency 

Assembling Joe’s Exotic Tiger King Cake

Assemble the cake by placing the first layer on a cake board. Add buttercream frosting and smooth out followed by adding the second layer and frosting. Apply the top layer and crumb coat the whole cake. Place the cake in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. When the crumb coat has set, frost the cake all over with buttercream frosting.

Decorating the Cake:

Now for the Fun Part !!

Store purchased or homemade Fondant can be used. 

How to Make the Tiger:

Taking a couple pieces of fondant, roll the pieces in the palm of your hands forming a couple of tubular shapes. Place the pieces on a mat dusted with powered sugar.

Start building the shape of the tiger body by adding additional pieces of fondant shaping and molding the fondant to form a body, front legs, back legs and the tail.

Molding the Tiger Head

Using a pinch of white fondant about the size of a small meatball, begin the flatten the ball into a disk

Shape the nose of the lion by pinching up the fondant and working it between your fingers

A ball tool works well to form the eye sockets. Pull up gently to form the ears

Continue working on the characteristics of the face. Add an indention for the mouth

Place the head onto the body of the tiger with a dab of water. When the fondant is still pliable, gravity can cause it to loose the shape. As it begins to dry out some, it can be reshaped if needed. Another option is to wait and apply the head when the fondant drys out some.

Making the Tiger’s body

Having the head in place makes it is easier to assess the size of the body. Is the girth to small or to large? As a result with this tiger, additional fondant was added to plumb him up some. The fondant was smoothed out using dab of water to blend the added piece to the body.

Adding Details to the Tiger

Once happy with the form and shape of your tiger ( will be able to make a few adjustments ), use an edible marker and begin to color in eyes and add stripes.

Making the Tree for the Tiger Sanctuary

Tools Needed:

• Floral wire
• Wire cutters
• Brown fondant
• fondant roller
• Fresh Dill
• Tree fondant stencil

Creating the Tree

Start out with 5 floral wires about a foot long each. Twist them together in the center and then fan out the bottom wires and top wires. 

Beginning with a small amount of brown colored fondant, cover the base of the tree and what will be the roots. 

Using a tree fondant stencil, I rolled out a small piece of brown fondant and added it to the tree base and worked up the tree trunk.  The lines in the tree truck could also be achieved with just carving with a blunt knife. The stencil can be seen in the 2nd picture below. 

I decided to use fresh Dill for the branches and leaves on the tree instead of using fondant. Making this decision, I did not need the wire branches. 

The wire branches were cut off.

Fresh Dill was used to create the canopy. Separating the wires at the top of the tree the dill stems were slid in 

With the cake frosted, the tiger made and the tree complete, the next step was to fence in the sanctuary. Pepperidge Farm cookies were added around the cake to give a bamboo fenced in look.

The Tree was placed on the cake, and the tiger added. Lady finger cookies were crumbled and placed as dirt on the ground

The Completed Cake- Joe’s Exotic Tiger King Cake

 Here is a peak inside the cake showing the yummy layers.

Hope you enjoyed this Tiger King Cake. Please comment and share your version/interruption of the Netflix show.  

So for the big question: Who do you think will play Joe when the movie version of the documentary comes out?