The famous cat and mouse both have good, solid shapes, without fiddly bits, that are easy to cut from a cake. To achieve a furry effect, use a fork or flat knife to peak the royal icing - but work fast, it dries out surprisingly quickly. It's simple, just follow our Tom And Jerry Cake Recipe and you will be soon receiving lots of love from your kids :)

Image by ex.libris

Ingredients for Tom

1 12in x 10in (30cm x 25cm) cake
apricot glaze
1lb 8oz (680g) royal icing (later on this page)
1lb (450g) fondant: 7oz (200g) white; 4oz (115g) black;
4oz (115g) pink; pinch of red
a few strands of spaghetti food-colouring pastes: black, pink, red, and (optional) violet

Method

1. Level off cake if necessary and turn upside down.
2. Using a traced template, cut round Tom's outline and place the cake on a board.
3. Brush the cake with apricot glaze.Cut out separate templates of his face and ear. It is a good idea to cut out two of each - one set to be positioned on top of the cake and kept in place with pins (Pic. 1) and the other to be kept for cutting out fondant.
4. Colour the royal icing grey with some black food colour. (Try adding a little violet as well to give it more depth of colour.) Spread it on to the sides and top of the cake, right up to the edges of the templates.
5. Use a fork or knife to give the icing a round, furry finish while still wet.
6. Roll out the white fondant and cut out Tom's face from the second template.
7. Remove the template on the cake and replace it with the fondant face. Knead together any surplus white fondant and mould a round white nose (see photograph).
8. Stick it on top of the face with a little water.
9. Cut out an ear from pink fondant and, again, position it in place of traced template.
10. Roll a blob of black fondant into a small ball to finish off the tip of the nose.
11. Roll out some more black fondant and cut out two eyes, two eyebrows, and a mouth.
12. Stick in position.
13. Make some tiny strips of fondant to indicate a cheek and shoulder.
14. Make a pinch of red fondant into a tongue and stick it on the mouth. Make some highlights for his eyes and nose from white fondant.
15. Paint on the outline of the eyes in black (see photograph).
16. Finally, break off some strands of spaghetti, paint them black, and push them into Tom's cheeks. 

Ingredients for Jerry

1 9in (22.5cm) square cake
apricot glaze
1 lb (450g) royal icing
15oz (425g) fondant: 6oz (170g) white; 4oz (115g) black; 4oz (115g) pink; pinch of red
a few strands of spaghetti food-colouring pastes: black, pink, red, and chestnut brown

Method

1. Proceed in exactly the same way as for Tom, but colour the royal icing chestnut brown instead of grey. 

Royal Icing:
1 Ib icing sugar
2 egg whites

Method

1. Finely sift the icing sugar.
2. Whisk the egg whites until frothy and add the icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition.
3. Continue this beating until the mixture will stand in peaks.
4. Add flavouring and color if wished.
5. Keep the bowl covered with a damp cloth when piping.