Cousin Itt Cake

I love the Addams Family, and was inspired by it to create this instructable. Here, I have made Cousin Itt with a browned butter cake at the center and coffee buttercream for his hair. Browning the butter imparts a delicious nutty flavour to it, and it goes great with coffee. Not only does this look cute, it tastes divine!

Step 1: Make Coffee Buttercream

Ingredients:

Egg yolks - 2

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Butter, softened - 1 cup

Instant coffee - 1 teaspoon

Method:

1. Lightly whisk the egg yolks.
2. Combine sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil. Cook it till it reaches soft ball stage. You can test by dropping one drop of syrup into cold water, and if it forms a soft ball when you roll it between your thumb and index, it is ready.
3. Now while whisking, add the sugar syrup to the egg yolks in a trickle. Make sure to whisk constantly or else you will curdle your egg. Once you have added all the sugar syrup, whisk till the mixture gets cooled down. At this point, the mixture will have thickened too.
4. Add small pieces of butter to this mixture and beat well till combined, then add another piece and so on till all of it is added.
5. Add 1/2 teaspoon warm water to the instant coffee and mix well. Add this to the buttercream and mix well. Store in a cool place (not the refrigerator) till needed.

Step 2: Make Browned Butter

Butter

Method:

1. Place the butter on medium high heat. Let it melt, then cook till it is golden brown in colour. Be careful not to burn it. Transfer to your mixing bowl and refrigerate till lightly firm.

Tip: can be made 2-3 days in advance

Step 3: Make Browned Butter Cake

Ingredients:

Browned butter - 3 ounces

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Egg - 1

Egg yolk - 1

Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon

All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup

Baking Powder - 3/4 teaspoon

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Milk - 1/3 cup

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Beat the butter till light and fluffy. Add sugar and beat till well combined.
3. Add the eggs and beat till well combined. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together so that it is well mixed.
5. Now fold in 1/3 of the flour till well incorporated. Mix in half of the milk. Then add 1/3 flour, then the remaining milk, then finish with the flour. This is done so that the cake batter is perfectly smooth.
6. Pour the cake into the moulds. For the moulds, I used aluminium foil shaped into a cone, with more foil acting as a base. I leaned it against a tall cake tin. If you have conical moulds, use those.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, till a skewer when inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely in the mould before removing.

Step 4: Make Accessories

You Need:

Black fondant

Method:

1. For the sunglasses, make two equal sized balls and flatten them slightly on wax paper or clingfilm. Attach them with a small line of fondant.
2. For the hat, roll out fondant thinly, and cut out a circle. Make a ball of fondant and flatten it slightly. Place it on top of the flat circle and use water to stick them together. Smooth out the edges.

Step 5: Assembly:

1. Trim the top and bottom of the cake cones. Place them upright.
2. Cover the cake with a thin layer of buttercream. Let it firm up in the fridge.
3. Meanwhile, spoon buttercream into a piping bag. If you have a multi opening piping tip (lucky you!) use that. I didn't, so I had to make the tiniest hole in the piping bag.
4. Take the cake out of the fridge, and make buttercream hair all over the cake. I must admit, without a multi opening piping tip, this wasn't easy!
5. Once all the hair has been piped, attach the fondant hat and sunglasses. Place in the fridge to firm up.