baking is easy...

3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter
6 eggs
6 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups flour
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk

(this is a tripled recipe for the bidoof cake, if you want a regular cake you'll have to divide everything by 3)

preheat oven to 350 f. Line two pans with waxed paper, a round one for the head and a larger rectangular one for the body.

In a big bowl,cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Mix together the flour and baking powder, then mix it all together. Finally, add the milk and stir until the batter is smooth. Pour this into the pans.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. To test if it's done, poke a toothpick inside, all the way to the bottom. If it comes back with liquid batter on it, the cake's not ready yet.

When the cake is ready, turn over both pans over a clean dishcloth and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, find the picture of a bidoof and print it as big as possible. You'll need to redraw it even bigger, but this helps to get all the details in. Copy the drawing on a sheet of parchment paper, this time making it as big as you want your cake to be (it helps if you've measured your pans first). Cut out the drawing and pin it to the big rectangular cake with toothpicks. Cut the cake with a bread knife, following the edges of the drawing.

Once this is done, cut out the head of the drawing and pin this to the small round cake. Cut out the muzzle and teeth from leftover pieces.

Place the big rectangular cake on a serving plate that's big enough, and mix a batch of icing. Icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder was all I needed for the bidoof colors, just dose the cocoa to get the right color. The yellow parts have no cocoa, while the claws have LOTS of it. The eyes are made from coffee beans, and the nose is half a strawberry. The teeth were a bit tricky, as butter is always yellow here and colors the icing... we used margarine icing instead. Sorry if there is no recipe for this, my family's approach is to add butter if it's too dry, and add sugar if it's too runny, until you get the right consistency.

Ice the body first, and use icing to stick the head on. You could also use jam for this. Strawberry jam, why not?

Of course, you could try icing it with a mix of melted chocolate and a bit of butter, using milk chocolate for the body, dark chocolate for the claws and white chocolate for the yellow parts. You have to be careful when melting chocolate, it gets all lumpy and icky if you warm it up too much, and white chocolate is really tricky.