Making a Doctor Who TARDIS Cake with Jelly Babies

Last Saturday marked the finale of the third season of the new Doctor Who. To celebrate, Amanda and I made a cake–a TARDIS cake, with Jelly Babies.

I had an easier time than I expected finding Jelly Babies. Our local grocery store had them in their tiny British section.

We used Betty Crocker “Party Rainbow Chip” cake mix. This is the Betty Crocker version of Funfetti, the best cake in the universe.

Amanda cut the Jelly Babies up in to little pieces, and we mixed them into the batter.

When the cake finished, we flipped it over. The Jelly Babies had melted, coloring the cake. The melted Jelly Babies kept the cake moist, and when they crystallized, the cake was almost crispy. Yum!

We cut the cake into the shape of the TARDIS, using some reference photos from the Internet.

Because we haven’t had a lot of cake decorating experience, I wanted to minimize the amount of detail work we’d have to perform upon the cake itself. We melted almond bark to make the letters and the windows. For the letters, I put the almond bark in a plastic bag and pierced a corner to make a piping bag. For the windows, I lined the bottom of some tin tea canisters with aluminum foil, and filled them with almond bark.

Although we weren’t able to match the blue of the TARDIS perfectly, we did as well as we could with a lot of blue and a few drops of red food coloring.

After spreading the frosting on the cake, we piped lines for the doors and other details.

We then added the white windows made of almond bark, the letters, and outlined the panels.

It was delicious. The melted Jelly Babies really added something special to the cake. A little Huon energy or something.

Next year, or perhaps for the Christmas special, we’ll have to do a few things differently. I’d like to match the blue better. I’d also like to use dark chocolate and white chocolate to make a proper “Police Box” panel. Maybe we’ll get fancy and use fondant and gum paste.

I have more pictures (and a slideshow) on Flickr.