is inspired by Max from the Secret Life of Pets, but you can customize it to make it

look more like your own dog if you like.

The first thing we need is some yummy strawberry ganache frosting. To make that, hull your

strawberries and wash them really well. I like to make the frosting and the cakes they

day before I am decorating the cake.

Place the strawberries in a blender and puree them, I'll put all the recipe quantities on

the howtocookthat.net website for you and I'll link to that below.

Pour the puree into a fine sieve and push it through using the back of your spoon, now

this will take about 5 minutes so be patient. Keep going until you have just the seeds left

and that lovely juice is in the bowl.

Now we are going to mix HALF of that strawberry juice with some melted white chocolate. I

am making more than you need for this cake so I can use it for another recipe. I'll decrease

the quantity online to just the amount that you'll require. Once that is combined place

it in the fridge to thicken up.

Put the other half of your juice in a pan with some sugar and you want to heat it until

the sugar is dissolved so what we are making here is like a really thin jam that we can

use on the layers of the cake just to give it a bit more of a strawberry flavour.

Bake one and a half times my chocolate cake recipe in two trays. And the recipe video

for how to make this cake and the dog template are all on the website for you.

Now because this cake is tall and skinny it is going to need support or it will just topple

over. I'm using a cake spike down the middle and we'll use two small cake boards about

half way and 3/4 of the way up and some cake pop sticks too.

Now on day two ... trim the top of your cakes to level them out. And then place your template

piece over the top and cut out the circles. Use a spatula to just to ease it off the paper

so that you can lift it off. Now continue to cut out more circles from

your first tray of cake. Then repeat that with your second tray, cutting

out the ones that you have left.

Place your cake on some baking paper. Usually we'd stack it straight on the cake board but

because the spike is not centered in the cake. If we do it over here we can shift the first

layers around until they're just right and then pick it up and put them over on the spike.

Add some of your thin fresh strawberry jam followed by some strawberry ganache. And I've

warmed this a little just to make it easier to get a thin layer between the layers of

cake. Continue to stack up your first 4 layers.

And that takes us to where the first cake board needs to be, you can see on the template

just there.

You can see the cake is not straight and that's how it needs to be, it needs to be a bit further

forward at the front.

And the cake spike is also not central on the cake so line the cake up with the spike

and place it over the top.

Check that the cake is sticking out at the back and going in at the front.

Once you've got that right. Push a cake pop stick down to the base, and take note of where

it comes to. Pull it out again and cut it and another stick to the same height - we

need those to support it at the front because the dog is coming forward at the front because

of his head.

Add the mini cake board on top, and the cake pop sticks are just stopping it going down

too far, cover it in ganache then check where your next layer sits and place it on top.

Add more jam and continue to stack up three more layers. Now again to support his head

we need to add two more cake pop sticks just going down to where the previous cake board

is. Then add the next little board on top.

Cover that in ganache, add the next layer of cake on that. Then if you look at the template

you can see the last layer sits towards the back for the top of his head there, so just

pop that into place.

That looks like a leaning tower of cake, now if we didn't have the supports in here it

would not stand up like this, it would just topple over. Good doggie!

Place your template in front of the cake and cut away the pieces of cake that you can see.

Once you've cut those out, now it looks dog shaped already.

Turn it to the back and put the back template over the top and trim off the sides. Now MAX

is quite a skinny dog, if you have a broader breed of dog then you don't need to trim the

sides like this.

From those two cuts you end up with the right shape but the corners are still a little bit

box like. Just take your knife and trim off a tiny slice so that it becomes rounded.

Now we want to cover the whole thing in ganache, and again I have warmed it up a little to

make it runnier. With a fresh carved cake like this it is quite crumbly which means

it is yummy and moist but it also makes it a little hard to cover. So by warming the

ganache that just makes it easy.

Once it is covered take some acetate or bendy plastic and run it up the sides to smooth

out the ganache. Then put it that in the fridge for about and hour for the ganache to set

firmly.

Now at this point you need to decide if you want to make a dog or a dinosaur. What's your

favourite pet? Do you prefer dogs /cakes or would you like a dinosaur? Let me know in

the comments below.

To make a dog, wrap some white fondant around the front of the cake and then at the back

just squeeze it together to make a join. Cut off the bulk of the excess so that the weight

doesn't drag it down then continue to smooth it and shape it and once you're happy trim

off the rest of the fondant closer to the back. Now we have the join at the back because

he has a spot here that will cover it, so we won't see it anyway.

Trim the excess from around the base using a knife and just tuck it in underneath. Now

take some more fondant and drape it over his head. Squeeze it up and the back to give him

a mohawk, now he does look like a dinosaur. Trim that off roughly, then smooth and shape

the fondant around his face, Now if you don't want to use fondant you could

watch the teddy bear cake video for how to pipe fur on a cake using buttercream and that

would work really well for this dog too.

Trim it off more neatly and then using a knife cut it at neck at level where the other fondant

came to. And we'll cover this with his collar in a little while so don't worry about making

it perfectly neat.

Roll a ball of white to the size of his hind leg, flatten it using the palm of your hand.

Now, using a knife trim it off on an angle so we can join it to the cake. Make a cut

at the lower front and then use your fingers to smooth and shape it so that you make a

little leg and the cute little foot.

Rub a little water on the side of his body to make it stick and add the leg into place.

Now at this point I realize there is a problem ... he should be facing the other way on the

cake board so that there is room behind him for his tail. So when you make your cake make

sure he is facing the other direction.

I am going to take the very risky move of moving him which means his central support

is no longer going to be connected to the cake board. I'm a little worries, he might

fall over and collapse altogether ... OK so he seems to have survived but I might have

mishappened him a little bit in the move but hopefully we will survive. Add his other leg

and then add some fondant around the base. Speaking of moving our house is currently

for sale so after making this cake I have to completely clean the kitchen and get it

ready for a home open tomorrow which is probably why I'm not thinking clearly. Use your knife

just to trim off the fondant around the board so it looks like the mat that he sits on when

he's sitting at the door waiting for his owner to come home.

We are moving to Melbourne at the end of this year which is very exciting for us. (Just

run your knife along the mat there to give it more of a fabric texture so it looks like

a mat). Now before we leave Sydney I thought it would

be nice to catch up. So Dave & I will be at Berkelouw Books in Cronulla on Saturday Oct

22. And you can get The Deep Enders book there or if you've already got it, bring it along

and we'll sign it for you and I might even make some macarons and bring those too. I'll

put all the details of times and everything below.

Now to make Max's front legs roll a snake of fondant and make it narrower at the ankle.

And then curl around some to make his foot or you could just roll a ball and add it on

top. Trim it off at the right height and place

it on the front of the cake.

Using a knife add indents into the paws for his toes.

Cut patches in the sizes shown on your print out and add them into place on the cake, now

if you dampen the back of the patch it will just stick right on. Don't make it too wet

or you're going to get drips of that different colour going down on your white.

Now the biggest patch on Max is around his back so add that piece on and wrap it around

like a cape.

He has another patch on his shoulder and a big one across one half of his face that makes

him super-cute!

For his eyes roll two balls of white and squash them to make them the shape of the template.

If you rub a tiny bit of cooking oil on your fingers it will stop it from sticking to the

fondant. Now roll two balls of brown and flatten them

in the same way and shape then just right and then add them to the eye. Repeat that

with tiny balls of black. Dogs don't really have eyes that look like this, they have hardly

any white visible - but this style makes it look more human like so we can relate to them

in the movie.

Then add a really tiny ball of white on one side of the pupil to make it look alive.

Add those into place quite close to the line of the patch in the centre of his face.

And then add an eyebrow, now you can cut those out using the guide on the template. The other

eyebrow needs to be a darker brown so that it shows up on his patch. Eyebrows are very

important for expression so choose the expression you want the dog to have and position your

brows accordingly.

Add a little bit of water around the eye and then roll a tiny snake of black, just use

your fingers and roll it and get it even and really skinny. And then carefully wrap that

around his eye. This give us that typical cartoony look and it also helps the white

eye stand out against the dog's fur. You don't need it as much on the other one but we'll

add it to even it up.

Now to cover the join on his neck, wrap a strip of blue around for his collar.

Take a rectangle of black and cut out a littl echunk from each side. Then place that over

the bone template and squash it to make it the right shape. Then indent each side to

make it like the bone. You can add MAX onto this or the name of your dog if you want or

just leave it plain. Brush that with gold luster dust then add

it into place on his chest, just below the collar. Add a snake of black running up from

the bone and over the collar. Use your knife to poke it around the collar and trim it off

to just the right length.

Then using some luster dust mixed with lemon juice or a little bit of alcohol just paint

the black bit so that it becomes gold and it matches his little bone.

Roll another snake and bend it around, sort of squaristh, then trim off one end. Add this

around the collar on one side and then paint that gold too. Now these little details make

the difference between the cake looking okay and it looking really good.

Poke a hole in the centre and add a short bit of fondant. Use your skewer to position

it correctly and then paint it gold.

Cut a thin strip of blue and wrap it around his collar closer so that's the bit that holds

it in place. Trim that off with your knife. Then poke a couple of holes through the collar.

For his tail roll together some brown and some white so that they join together, it

doesn't really matter what that join looks like. Place it over the template and shape

to make the tip of his tail. Trim that to size and then add some indents

running down to make it look like scruffy fur.

Add his tail into place at the back of the cake, position it how you want it.

And now for his ears. Add some tylose powder to some brown fondant. Now the tylose just

makes the fondant set quickly because you want his ears to sit up.

Roll a reasonably thick layer and cut around the template for his ears. Use your finger

to smooth down the edges especially on the bottom side where it joins the head as a spot,

really flatten out those ones.

Now you can see one splotch comes down lower than the other, so make sure you get them

on the right side.

Add a little water to the back of his head and add one ear into place. And allow the