Super Mario Bros Cake (and Oreo IMBC Recipe)

This was a cake I designed to pull together all the birthday boy's requested characters: Bowser, Mario, Luigi, and Goomba's.  The storyline was laid out around the cake: Bowser chased Mario and Luigi out of Bowser's Castle, and while the brothers ran, they caught super stars and a mega mushroom, as they aimed toward the warp pipe to escape from Bowser.

Bowser was the hardest and most time consuming of the characters to make.  He had so much detail that had to be individually sculpted and assembled together!  It was all cut out by and and pieced together  piece by piece, layer by layer.  He took 2 hours but I loved how he turned out...grrrr! 

Mario's and Luigi's outline was cut out of fondant, then I lightly scored/engraved in all the details into the fondant panel then painted in their features with gel colors diluted with almond extract (vodka would work too).

The Goomba's were put together from 3 separate pieces (feet, legs, head).  Each piece was left to dry for a day before assembling it together.

I made the bricks by using an impression mat which made it easy to create the tile effect of the castle perfectly.

Rowen's name was made using the an alphabet cutter which fit perfectly over the brick blocks.  I also placed 6 gold coins around sides of the cake since he was turning 6 (I used a flower tip impressed in the middle of each coin to give it some dimension).

Rowen loved his cake and so did I!  I hope you do too :)

Lesson learned:  Make extra Goomba's, at least one per guest - the kids each wanted to eat one and I only made 4...ay yay yay!

8" round Chocolate Sour Cream Cake filled with Oreo IMBC.  Covered and decorated in MMF.

Oreo IMBC:  Make your usual IMBC (get recipe here) or Buttercream.  Take Oreo Cookies, break them apart, scrape off the cream centers and set it aside.  Crush the oreo cookies (without the cream center) in a food chopper until finely ground. Take about a third* of your buttercream (enough to fill and thinly crumb coat the cake with) and fold the crushed cookie pieces into the buttercream. As or the creme centers, and so it doesn't go to waste, I like to add it only to the filling layers of the cake - take about a cup of the oreo buttercream and blend the cream into it, spread it across the cake and top with additional crushed cookies for that added crunch.  Once you have the cakes filled, crumb coat the cake with the remainder of the oreo buttercream.

*Here is a tip, only add a thin layer of the cookie filled buttercream to the outside of the cake.  Then, finish crumb coating the cake with a thick layer of plain, buttercream.  This way, any lumpy bits and pieces of the cookie, won't show through and leave lumps under your fondant .  I use the same technique with fresh strawberries blended into the buttercream/IMBC. You can pretty much add anything to your buttercream, just be sure to save some aside that is plain so that you can use it as a final, smooth coating over the cake.