Fiction-Food Café: Jiji Doubts Doonatsu (Animal Donut)

Last week I posted the animal doughnut--or "doubutsu doonatsu"--how-to for Kuroneko-sama (Ms. Black Cat) from the anime series "Trigun" and included this image of my Jiji doughnut at the end of the post along with the ingredients needed. It kept bugging me though to keep little Jiji tucked at the bottom of a post so I decided he deserved one of his own. For more information about animal doughnuts please visit my original post.

And just FYI, many of you may be familiar with the Studio Ghibli film "Kiki's Delivery Service", but did you know that it's based on a lovely little book series by Eiko Kadono called Witch's Express Home Delivery? Please click here to read my review of the English translation of the first book in the series which, like the film, is titled Kiki's Delivery Service. Also included in my review post is a listing of foods found in the book paired with recipes from the net. Another exciting nugget; a live-action adaptation of Eiko Kadono's little witch Kiki books has finished filming in Japan and is expected to premier March 2014 (in Japan of course, but I'm sure English speaking audiences will get to experience it at some point!).

Jiji Doubutsu Doonatsu (Animal Doughnut)

Ingredients (per 1 doughnut):
Plain Cake Doughnut

Dark Chocolate Fudge Frosting
2 Candy Corns OR Whole Almonds
Cherry Tootsie Fruit Roll
Vanilla Tootsie Fruit Roll
Grape Frootie (also from Tootsie)
Chocolate Jimmies (aka Sprinkles)

Important Items:
Parchment Paper or Foil
Wire Rack (cake cooling rack)
Small Round Cookie Cutter
Toothpick
Directions:

1. Line a tray with parchment paper or foil & place a wire rack on top. Place your doughnut on the rack & press the 2 candy corns or almonds, vertically, into the top of the doughnut like ears. Open the frosting (make sure you remove the foil circle) & microwave the container for 30 seconds. Stir & then microwave for 30 seconds more. The frosting should be thin & pourable. Spoon the chocolate frosting over the doughnut & protruding candy corns in a circular motion. Pour several coats if needed to cover the candy & top & most of the sides of the doughnut (don't worry about the bottom). Let sit about 20 mins to solidify.
Note: The excess frosting will fall through the rack to the tray below. After the doughnut decorating is all done & solidified you can scoop up the fallen frosting & put it back in the container.

2. For the next steps of creating Jiji's face, a toothpick will help greatly when sticking on the candy roll pieces. Also, refer to the photos in this post for placement. Unwrap the Tootsie Roll candies & flatten them out with your fingers. Cut 2 tiny triangles from the purple. Stretch them into long triangles & put them on the ears of the chocolate-covered doughnut. Cut a tiny triangle from the pink & slightly round the bottom of it. Place it on the front of the doughnut for the little mouth. Roll a tiny pink oval & attach an even tinier pink piece underneath it, horizontally, to create the nose & carefully stick it on the doughnut. Using one side of a small round cutter, cut half a circle in the vanilla candy & then cut another, opposing, half circle just under it to create an eye. Repeat this for eye #2 & shape the pieces with your fingers a little bit to more closely resemble Jiji's eyes. Place both eyes on the front of the doughnut.
3. Remelt the frosting in the microwave for a few seconds & then dip a toothpick into the chocolate & carefully draw a little vertical oval on both of the vanilla eyes to create pupils. Finally, find 4 long chocolate jimmies (sprinkles) & stick two on either side of Jiji's face.