Excited to find an ice-cream echidna in The Australian Women’s Weekly, the children were keen to see it recreated at home.  We filled a glass bowl with raspberry ripple ice-cream (they loved the idea of the red syrup being “blood”!) and, when re-frozen, inverted it onto the serving base.  Then we stuck in a couple of boxes of Cadbury’s Fingers for spines, added a mini swiss-roll for the nose, covered the head with the kind of chocolate syrup that sets hard when cold, and stuck on a couple of Smarties for eyes.  A final dusting of grated chocolate and our masterpiece was done.

We have made this cake many times since, restyling it as “hedgehog” for UK audiences and “porcupine” in the US. Its most recent incarnation was as centre-piece of a birthday party in a 3rd grade classroom, where it disappeared in moments!