My First Decorated Cake - Hello T-Rex!

It is one my life long dreams to throw a theme party for a child. I long to plan a princess party for a cute little girl or a pirate party for a naughty little boy. Not having kids of my own I often ask my relatives if they want to celebrate the birthdays of their kiddos. Sadly for me, no one wants to do that and I am left with even more longing. Well, maybe I'll just throw one for Latif and pretend he is a little boy (which he is in many ways!)

One of the things that I would love to do is theme cakes. It only takes a beautiful design to bring that look of pure delight on a child's face. I still remember the look of joy on a colleagues 6 year old daughter when she saw her barbie cake. I wanted to do something similar for my nephew on his birthday just because I knew I would not get this chance again. So I just took it on myself to bake him a cake and have some fun of our own.

The Little Birthday Boy

I came across the oh-so-easy tutorials on BettyCrocker for fun birthday cakes and found the dino design. They have wonderful designs with videos showing exactly what needs to be done. Moreover, they even provide the template for the designs so there is no guessing or free hand cutting. Just print and cut according to the directions and decorate as shown. Voila!

Getting ready to cut the cake

A quick trip to the supermarket and I had all my stuff ready. Cadbury has these cute chocolate buttons in milk and white chocolate which can be used for animal eyes and ears. I also found lovely rock candy that looks just like stones! For the background I printed a jungle theme picture from the internet and stuck it on cardboard. In order to prevent it from spoiling due to the icing I wrapped a layer of cling wrap to it.  For my cake I used the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake which held well to the shaping but the frosting was very difficult for me. The cake is so moist that the sticky frosting was pulling the cake to it instead of sticking to it. This was even after I had chilled the cakes. Next time I will use home made butter cream and not the supermarket stuff that tastes like ---, umm nothing!

Say Cheese!

I guess with a little imagination and creativity one can make any type of cake. I would love to do a barbie cake next. Any birthday girl requests?

Things you will need

Two 9 inch round cake layers - Any flavour- I used Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Two tubs Ready made Vanilla Frosting Or home made butter cream frosting - I used Betty Crocker Vanilla

Hershey's Kisses

Cadbury Buttons or similar flat candies

Chocolate Chips
Food Colour for the dinosaur (You can use any colour for the dinosaur)

Plain Craft paper/tray/cake board for background (12X16) inch
Sweetened Shredded Coconut (Optional)

Stone Candy (Optional)
Dinosaur Template (Link given below)

1. Bake your cakes and cool completely. Place in the fridge for an hour to chill. Once chilled, remove and trim the tops of the cakes to level them. Place the templates onto the cakes and cut out the shapes using a serrated knife. Keep the knife perpendicular and cut in a straight motion. Arrange the pieces as shown in the diagram on a tray or large piece of cardboard.
2. Tint the vanilla frosting with the desired colour for dinosaur (yellow, green or orange) and crumb coat the cakes. Place in fridge for half an hour to firm up the frosting. Remove and frost completely using an offset spatula. If the frosting sticks too much to the spatula dip in hot water and wipe with a clean cloth before proceeding.
3. Once the dinosaur is completely frosted, unwrap the hersheys kisses and place all along the dinosaur back. Decorate the body using different candies as desired. Pipe the mouth with a little vanilla frosting.
4. If you do not have a background, try using shredded coconut as grass. Colour the shredded coconut using green food colour. Pipe a litlle vanilla frosting on the bottom edge of the paper or tray and stick the rock candies in a row. Sprinkle the coconut in a layer above the candies to look like grass.

Click here to download the template for the dinosaur - Betty Crocker.com

Happy Eating!!