Thanks to this site I found the cake that I wanted to do for my son’s 1st birthday. I decided on the 3D version of the Baby Einstein caterpillar.
First, I made the cakes using the Wilton Sports ball. I baked them about 2 weeks before the party and froze them (as suggested by someone for moistness) and they were very moist. I used one box of cake mix for each section (in various flavors).
The afternoon before the party, I took the cakes out of the freezer and let them thaw for a couple of hours before decorating them. While they were thawing I taped two of the large cake cardboards together end-to-end and covered them with parchment paper which is easy to clean up any dropped icing. I put Baby Einstein stickers on the end of the board.
For the icing I used (1 1/2 c shortening, 2 lbs powdered sugar, and 1/2 c water with various flavors depending on the cake I was decorating). It took about 1/2 of that icing recipe for each “ball”. I colored them based on the Baby Einstein caterpillar. The aqua was made by using the Sky Blue Wilton icing color with a few drops of the yellow. The yellow head was made with lots of yellow color and a little bit of the Wilton orange color.
I used the mini (100 calorie) twinkies for the feet and put the same yellow “head” icing on them (turned out really cute). I used black gel for the eyes and mouth and a bit of white icing on the eyes. I used 2 red Blow Pops with Strawberry twizzlers covering the sticks for the antenae. I applied pink sprinkles with a round stencil paint brush for the cheeks (make sure the brush is damp if the icing is already dried, helps to apply the sprinkles).
I was very excited after I finished the cake and everone at the party thought the cake was professionally made. Thanks to this website I had a successful party!
This is a really cute cake, what a great job.