and I have a really exciting surprise for you today.

Not only am going to show you how to make this castle cake.

But I am also going to show you my new app. That's right I made you an app just for you

` What you do is print out your flag and stick

it somewhere on top of your castle. Open up the surprise cakes app, press here, line up

the rectangle with the flag and check this out you have 3D fireworks over the top of

you castle. Wow that's so cool. Once it is locked on you can move back and around as

long as the flag is still in view somewhere on the screen the fireworks show will continue.

You can even take photos with the birthday girl in the background.

You guys were asking for cakes that were simple to make but still impressive, so with this

app you can stick the flag onto just a cupcake and still surprise your friends. Or how about

a chocolate sydney harbour bridge. I will be adding more animations to the app

over time, so go to the app store or google play store and get the Surprise cakes app

while its still at the special launch price. And I'll show you some more footage at the

end

Now onto making the castle itself. You will need to bake double batch of the rich chocolate

cake recipe in four trays. And two quantities of buttercream. Spread the buttercream between

the layers and stack your cakes. Then you want the trim each side to make the edges

nice and straight. The cake and frosting recipes and tin sizes and all of those details are

written up on the website howtocookthat.net, there is a link in the description just below

the video.

Next trim off the corners so we have room for our corner towers to sit. Then cover the

whole thing in a smooth layer of frosting. If you place your cake board onto a plate

you'll find it makes it easier to turn the cake as you are coating it because you can

get your fingers underneath to help turn it around. Once you've covered it place the whole

thing in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up.

Measure the height of the side of the cake, we want the base of the cones on top of our

towers to sit about 2 cm above the height of the cake.

Put your mini ice cream cone onto the chocolate bar and line it up with where you measured

for the base of the cone to be. Then add a second chocolate bar and trim it to make it

the right height. We want four towers this height so cut your other bars to match.

Now warm a saucepan on the stove top and quickly press one end of the chocolate bar onto the

base of the hot pan to melt a little bit of the chocolate. Then push it onto the other

bar to join it together. You can use whatever chocolate bars you like

for this as long as they are firm enough to hold their shape when they are cut. Obviously

if you choose lumpy bars the towers will look lumpy instead of smooth. But that can be a

nice customization Then we also want turrets to go on top of the cake so trim the remaining

chocolate bars to the height you want them, I am making two short ones, two medium ones

and one taller one to go in the middle.

Roll out your fondant fairly thinly, if it is sticking to the rolling pin put some spray

oil onto the rolling pin and rub it on and roll it again. Trim the fondant to match the

height of your chocolate bar. Then wrap it up just like you are making a sausage roll.

Before it rolls all the way around trim the excess fondant off and then roll it up and

gently push down to seal the ends together.

Now find something in your kitchen that has a good skinny rectangle shape and use it to

make an indent for the windows.

Ice-cream cones are perfect for the conical spires on top of the turrets. But if you leave

them plain or just put frosting on them they go stale or soggy. To keep them crispy and

yummy, fill up the cones up with compound chocolate and then immediately tip it out,

this leaves a nice layer all over the inside. Then dip the end into the chocolate and leave

it to set on a piece of baking paper, we need 9 of these.

Compound chocolate is any chocolate or melts that have vegetable oil in them so it sets

firmly at room temperature without needing to be tempered.

Once they are set cover the outside of the cone in chocolate and leave them again to

set.

Once they are dry take some edible purple luster dust and a dry paint brush and dust

it all over the cones to make them shine. Now roll out some dark coloured fondant and

trim it to the size of your windows, you will need 17 of these little rectangles. Then dust

those with the same purple luster that you used on the cones.

Brush a tiny bit of water into the window cavity and add the dark fondant and gently

push it into place.

To make the flag take one of the cones and using a serrated knife cut the very end of

it off it and using the tip of the knife make sure there is a hole through the chocolate

and check your lolli pop stick fits. Print out your flag, cut it out, fold it in half

then open it up and add some glue then glue it onto the stick. You can colour your flag

in and add whatever word you like in the middle, just make sure your colouring is not too dark

or it will make it hard for the app to recognize, so it is probably best just to use pencils.

Place the flag into the top.

To make your castle door roll out some brown fondant, use your ruler to cut straight sides

then about 3/4 of the way up mark each side. Find the middle at the top and mark that then

using your pizza cutter curve around to join the two marks that you just made. Then push

down in the centre to make it two doors. Then use your ruler and a knife to gently indent

straight lines your not trying to cut it through just make an indent to make it look like planks

of wood. Now take you knife and gently draw a shape

for a knot in the wood and then run a long slightly curved line around the knot and up

to the end, then make more lines just following the shape of the first one you did and you

have a wood grain pattern on your door. Now take something small and round and make

indents to look like nail holes the at the top and bottom of each plank of wood.

To make the handles of our door we are going to roll out some black fondant, use a drinking

straw to cut out two circles. Then roll a thin snake, wrap it around the end of the

straw and slide it off, you'll need two of those. Then brush them with silver luster.

Place the circles onto the door just at the right handle height, put a tiny dab of water

onto each and then add the handles on top and leave that aside to firm up.

To make flowers for your cake you can use a flower plunger cutter like this one. All

you do is press the cutter into the fondant and then push on the plunger to get it out

of the cutter, this is nice and quick if you have a lot of flowers to make it is worth

while investing in. Then you can just roll a tiny ball of a contrasting colour and place

it in the middle of each one. If you don't have a cutter or you only want a few flowers

you can cut 5 circles using a drinking straw, place them together in a flower shape and

then add the other colour to the middle. That look just as good it just takes a bit longer

Now for a few leaves cut out a leaf shape from the green fondant place an indent down

the middle and a few little indents along one side.

Measure the top of your cake and roll out some pink fondant to be slightly bigger than

the cake. Put it on top and smooth the edges over the corners. Now measure the front of

the castle. You want the fondant to over lap into the middle of the corner sections and

you also want it to be slightly taller at the top.

Cut the fondant to the right size and then using a small square cutter cut pieces out

of the top, I'm using a ruler to me straight going along so it's not going up and down.

And you can make your own cutters, see the twitter dessert video for instructions on

how to do that. Slide something flexible but firm under your baking paper and use it to

help you place the fondant onto the side of your cake smoothly. Then carefully remove

your baking paper and wrap the fondant around on the corners of the cake. It does not matter

if they do not join because our towers are going to cover that up anyway. To support

the top of the walls while they are setting and keep them nice and straight wrap some

baking paper around some cardboard and support it in place using some toothpicks.

Once you've added all of your walls put a small amount of water onto the corners and

add your corner towers. Gently put the door into place and make two more indents for windows

on the front and side and the back walls then add the darker fondant just like we did on

the towers to make the windows stand out.

Add some of your cake off cuts around the tower and spread some frosting onto the board

and over that cake that you've just added. Then you can roll out some green fondant and

place it over the top, tucking it around the cake bits that you added on.

Now take some grey fondant and add a pathway coming out from the front door. If you want

it to look like stones just roll some balls of fondant and squash them onto the path.

Then trim off the excess path wrapping it around under the board. Add a few more fondant

rocks around the grass and on the edge of the path, then add your flowers and leaves

to make it look pretty. Remove your toothpicks and cardboard supports

from the top of the cake.

Add the cones to the top of each tower and the turrets. Then add the turrets onto the

top pushing them down slightly into the top of the cake. And your cake is ready. Open

up the surprise cakes app and let the magic begin.

Thanks for sharing the video and clicking like, you can put all your cake and 3D app

requests in the comments section and subscribe to see al the latest how to cook that cakes,

desserts and chcoolate creations. I'll see you on Friday.