Precursor Orb (Jak and Daxter) Birthday Cake

I had never heard of the Jak and Daxter video game, so when my nephew asked me to bake his birthday cake in the shape of the precursor orb, I had no idea what he was talking about.  He described it as "an orange easter egg with weird writing on it."  Okay?  So I googled it and here's what I found:

Sure! I can make a cake that looks like that!  No problem!

I don't have an egg-shaped baking pan, so I decided to modify my round pans.  (I could have just baked the round cakes and then cut them into an egg shape, but I always have serious crumb-in-the-frosting issues when I try that method.  Not to mention the cake scraps that get wasted.)  So get ready for some serious "make do" action.

I fashioned some aluminum foil into an egg shape and inserted it in the pans.

Then I added more foil to fill up the empty areas.

Finally I covered it with parchment paper so that, when I poured in the batter, it didn't seep under the foil.

It's not pretty, but it worked OK.  And out came two (sort of) egg-shaped cakes!

I tinted the buttercream icing orange and frosted the cake with a shell border at the bottom.  Then I added some brown food coloring to the orange frosting to make a slightly darker shade for the writing.  I drew on the writing with a toothpick and then went over it with the frosting in a bag with a #2 tip.

And here we have a precursor orb birthday cake!

The birthday boy was over-the-moon.  Even though he was the only one who knew what the cake was supposed to be.

Happy 12th birthday, Dawson!