Constructing a Birthday Cake

It’s birthday season here at Chez Mom. From November through February we celebrate a batch of birthdays, with another series of births in the spring. While I’m constantly trying to find the balance between work and being a mom, one thing I’ve decided that’s important to me is to make my kids’ (and sometimes husband’s) birthday cakes.

I don’t go all-out crazy like some people on Pinteret, but I try to tailor the cake to what they love that year. For my daughter, it’ll be Hello Kitty — for the second consecutive year. For my son, the theme was Caterpillar construction equipment. Here’s how I did it.

Start with the construction toys:

Caterpillar Construction Equipment

The inspiration: Caterpillar construction equipment.

Next, set up the scene with a few pretzel sticks and bunny crackers.

Caterpillar Construction Equipment toys in action

Caterpillar cake staging area.

Sacrifice a few bunny crackers along the way.

Caterpillar steam roller crushes bunny crackers

My husband wouldn’t let me include this scene on the cake.

For a sense of scale, I got out the cake pans used to bake the cake.

Round cake pans with Caterpillar equipment toys

Shiny.

Frost the cake.

White frosted cake

Cake frosted in off-white to represent a sandy construction site.

Then start deconstructing, er — constructing.

Caterpillar construction site birthday cake

I admit it — this part was really fun.

Add some green sparkly sugar for grass and some broken pretzel sticks for tree stumps, and you’re done!

Caterpillar construction site birthday cake

The finished product.

What’s the most elaborate birthday cake you or  your kids have had?

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