Steps

• To prepare the cake base, put milk and butter in a saucepan and heat until the butter melts. Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C) and line the bottom of a 9-inch (22 cm) cake pan with parchment paper.

  Place the eggs in a bowl and start whisking. As they begin to swell, gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk until they are pale and very fluffy.

  Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt over the egg mixture and fold in gently with a whisk, using gentle movements from bottom to top.

  Reheat the milk, turn off just before it starts to boil, and pour it into the bowl with the batter. Do not pour it in the center but along the edge, incorporating it with a whisk and gentle movements from bottom to top.

  Transfer the batter into the lined cake pan and bake at 340°F (170°C) for approximately 35 minutes. Perform the toothpick test. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

  

• When the cake has completely cooled, cut it twice horizontally to obtain 3 layers. Take the first layer and fill it with just under half of the jam. Place the second layer on top and fill it with more jam (reserving 2 tablespoons). Place the third and final layer and spread the remaining jam over the entire surface of the cake. Let it dry.

  Meanwhile, prepare the ganache. Chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl. Heat the cream until it starts to boil, remove from heat, and pour over the chopped chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and you have a homogeneous mixture.

  Pour the ganache over the cake, covering it entirely. Then sprinkle the top with chocolate sprinkles.

  

• Cut some of the wafer rolls in half or into 3 pieces to ensure they are not all the same length. Chop the 3/4 oz of chocolate and melt it. Now take one wafer roll at a time, put a little melted chocolate on it, and place it along the edge of the cake. The melted chocolate will act as “glue.” Continue the same with the remaining rolls until the entire edge of the cake is covered. Arrange them irregularly, alternating longer with shorter ones.

• Now all that’s left is to make the pandas with marzipan.

  Each panda consists of 3 white balls (head, muzzle, and body), with the head slightly smaller than the body, and the ball forming the muzzle is even smaller, proportionate to the head, of course. To make them, I melted some white chocolate and dipped the balls made with marzipan until coated, then immediately rolled them in shredded coconut.

  The black part, i.e., arms, legs, ears, eyes, and nose, I made by adding black food coloring to the marzipan until achieving the desired color. Then, with the black marzipan for each panda, I made a roll, bent it into a horseshoe shape for the arms, two slightly flattened balls for the legs, two small flat discs for the eyes, one for the nose, and another flat disc that I cut in half to make the ears.

  I assembled each panda with the help of a toothpick that holds together the head, arms, and body, and melted chocolate used as “glue” for the other parts of the body. I finished by painting the paws and eyes using melted white chocolate on the black marzipan.

  Place the finished pandas on the cake, along with some pieces of wafer roll. Finish with green gummy candies cut as desired and placed on the cake as if they were leaves and sprigs of rosemary here and there.

  Your panda birthday cake is ready.