Interesting Facts About Armadillo Groom's Cake

During the Great Depression, the owner of the Adams Extract Company, John Adams, came up with a way of selling more extract and dyes in the form of a Adam's Red Velvet cake. It was invented to attract many customers to his products.

Undoubtedly, the groom's cake is the best known tradition of Southern America (now, popularized everywhere), thanks to the famous classic, Steel Magnolias! The Armadillo cake with gray icing or the Armadillo bleeding cake adds a humorous side to the wedding. After all, it's a celebration, and not any sad or boring event! Take a look at the tradition of groom's cake, history of the armadillo cake, and its recipe in the upcoming sections.

You must have come across a charming and funny tradition of the groom's cake. In fact, it is a very old concept, which dates back to the 17th century. Traditionally, the groom's cake is a gift to the groom from the bride or the bride's family at the wedding reception or the rehearsal dinner.

It began in the Southern States, and was originally a dark chocolate fruitcake. The slices of the cake were packaged and taken home by the single ladies at the wedding, especially the bridesmaids. It is said that if they placed the slice of the groom's cake under their pillow, they would dream of their future husbands.

The Armadillo cake was popularized by the classic movie in the year 1989, Steel Magnolias. It was originally an off-Broadway play that was made into a movie. It went on to become a great hit.

The movie's popularity and the plot surrounding the cake have made armadillo cakes popular over the years. The movie's star cast is incredible, including Julia Roberts (Shelby), Sally Field (Mary Lynn), Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis (Clairee), Dylan McDermott (Jackson), and Dolly Parton (Truvy).

In the movie, Shelby gets a red velvet cake made in the shape of an armadillo to gift her soon-to-be-husband, Jackson. Why armadillo cake? Because Jackson asked for it; he was from Texas.

Here is a sneak peek of the conversation involving the armadillo cake.

Shelby: The wedding cake will be by the pool. The groom's cake will be hidden in the carport.
M'Lynn: Shelby and I, we agree on one thing.
M'Lynn and Shelby: The groom's cake!!

Shelby: It's awful! It's in the shape of a giant armadillo.
Truvy: An armadillo?! You're jokin' right?
Shelby: No. Jackson wanted a cake in the shape of an armadillo. He's got an aunt that makes them.
Clairee: It's unusual.
M'Lynn: It's repulsive! It's got gray icing! I can't even begin to think how you make gray icing!

Baking an armadillo blood cake can be a time-consuming and an arduous task, but definitely worth the effort. The idea is to make the cake look like it's 'bleeding' when cut into slices. It will surely get everyone's eyes rolling in amazement. Want to make the cake on your own? Here's a recipe for you to make the cake from scratch.

• Butter, 25 oz.
• White chocolate pieces, 17 oz.
• Castor sugar, 4 cups
• Red Velvet coloring, 4 tablespoons
• Plain flour, 4 cups
• Cornflour, 1 cup
• Baking powder, 2 teaspoons
• Cocoa powder, 4 tablespoons
• Eggs, 4
• White chocolate, 10 oz.
• Cream, ½ cup
• Red Velvet food coloring gel, 1 tablespoon

• White fondant, 27 oz.
• Black fondant for eyes, as required
• Black food coloring, as required
• Rice paper sheets, 2
• Toothpicks, 2
• Cherry jam, ⅔ cup
• Red food coloring, 1 tablespoon
• Dark chocolate, 4 oz.
• Pebble shaped candy for dirt, as required

Preheat the oven to 150°C or 300°F.
Melt and combine butter, chocolate, sugar, and water in a large pan on low heat. Let it cool for about 15 minutes.
Put in both the red food colors. Add flour, cornflour, cocoa, baking powder, and eggs, and mix well using a spatula. Make sure not to leave any lumps.

Pour the batter in a football-shaped cake tin, or any other tin.
Bake for about 1 hour and then cover it with a foil. Bake for another 30 minutes. Let it cool down. Once cooled, cover it with a cling film.
Melt the white chocolate, and add red food coloring gel to it. Whisk it until it becomes uniform red in color.

Cut the cake evenly into two equal parts, and remove the excess cake.
Put a little chocolate mix on the cake board so that the cake sticks to it. Then, put the chocolate mix on one half, and place the second half over it.

Roll out the fondant gently on the cake by forming armored stripes, and cut off any excess fondant.
Cut out the rice paper sheets to form the shape of a ear.
Cover the ears with fondant, and make a tail by rolling a sausage of fondant. The tail should be at least 7 inches long.
Using scissors, carve out the hands and legs.

Draw armor scales using the piping tip.
Add a little black color to the fondant to make eyes.
Once the fondant on the ear is set, stick them on the head vertically.
Your Armadillo cake is ready!
It will yield about 20 - 25 servings.

To give it a bleeding effect, cut a one-inch slice in the middle and spread the two halves slightly apart. Fill it with cherry jam and string candies to make it look wounded and bleeding. Make it look as ghastly as you can!

• Bake the cake one day before so that you can decorate it easily on the present day.
• Avoid using the cake mix from the store, as the cake might not be that dense enough to cut and shape it up.
• For a healthier choice, you can also add beet juice to give a red coloring instead of food colors.

Crazy and scary, isn't it? You'll need lots and lots of guts to eat this! Well, you can make this cake for sure to give it a scary effect to your meals. It will increase the "wow" factor of your party. Use your gruesome and devilish imaginations. What part of the cake will you gorge onto first? Leave your comments below.