My son Ryan loved Clifford the big red dog just before his first birthday so I decided that was going to be the theme for his party. I made three round cakes for the face, two round cakes I left as they were, the other one I cut the shape of his ears and chin out.
It was a big cake but we had a big party! The bone cake I just cut away from a cake cooked in a loaf tin. Both were covered in butter cream icing. And I piped the face details on.
More Clifford the Big Red Dog Cakes
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by Jennifer S., Fulton, AL
The only two shows my son Luke watches are Thomas and Clifford. We had a Thomas party last year so Clifford the big red dog it was this year for his third birthday. I used Duncan Hines white cake mix for the cake. One box did great. I greased the pan with shortening that I had and it did not stick at all.
After one bottle of Wilton gel red food coloring and one bottle of one I had in the cabinet the icing was still not Clifford red. I went to Wal-Mart and got the icing they had already dyed red in a squeeze bottle and bought the star tip to pipe the red on. I have a Decorator Bottle from The Pampered Chef® and I filled them with the black and white icing to do the pipe of the details of the cake.
Cake by Angela H., Salisbury, NC
To make this Clifford the big red dog cake I used a Wilton puppy dog pan that I had used previously for another cake. I mixed an entire pot of red food coloring with several containers of strawberry frosting so it would dye easier. Then I set the character cake on a plain sheet cake that I’d iced to look like grass. It was a hit!
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by Micah M., Clovis, NM
For my son’s first birthday we decided to do a Clifford Theme because he loves the PBS show so much. I searched all over for Clifford the Big Red Dog cake ideas and never really found what I was looking for so I designed my own.
I used the Wilton 3D stand up teddy bear pan for my Clifford with a pound cake mix. I cut off the ears to the teddy bear and added fondant feet and front legs.
I used a rice crispy treat for his snout then frosted over everything and built the rest up with the butter cream frosting.
I put him on a base cake frosted with fondant and piped on paw prints and dog bones on the sides. I then made a mini 3 tiered cake for baby’s crash cake. This cake turned out so cute and was a hit at the party!
Cake by Emily B., Marlborough, MA
My daughter really loved Clifford but I couldn’t find any cake toppers of Clifford that I liked very much. So I downloaded a picture of Clifford from PBSkids and enlarged it so it would fit the top of the cake.
Then I used color flow to make Clifford! I used bright primary colors for the frosting and the borders since it was for a 2nd birthday. After I positioned Clifford on the cake I used black decorating gel to draw a string that leads to a balloon with my daughter’s name on it.
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by Tracy T., Soddy Daisy, TN
I used a Clifford the big red dog coloring page and traced it onto the cake. I piped paw prints on the side of the cake. It came out cute.
Dawn K., Woodcliff Lake, NJ
It was my daughter’s 2nd birthday and when asked what kind of party she wanted, with no hesitation she answered, “I want a Clifford Party”. So I purchased Clifford the Big Red Dog party supplies from an online website.
When it came to the cake, there is no Clifford cake pan, so I had to improvise. I purchased the Wilton Lazy Dog cake pan (retired) from eBay. I then modified the design to make it look more like Clifford the Big Red Dog.
I made buttercream frosting and colored some red-red and some black. Both colors were obtained using Wilton paste colors. If you make the colors a couple of days ahead, they will darken over time (the red looks pink when first made, then after several days goes to red-red). The black looks gray a first then goes to black.
I used a box cake mix to bake the dog and also made a square from an 8×8 pan (so that I could cut out the bone). I then frosted the cakes as seen!! It was the hit of the party!!
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by
Tracye D., Buda, TX
For my son’s third birthday, we decided to do a Clifford the Big Red Dog theme as he loves the books and had started watching the show on PBS. Because there was no “Clifford” cake pan, we decided to make a dog house cake.
Because Spencer (the birthday boy) is also a real strawberry lover, I decided to make my favorite cake called “Strawberries N Cream Cake”. To make this dog birthday cake, I baked 2 house cakes (used the Wilton 3D dog house cake pan twice) using a yellow cake mix with double pudding in the mix (makes it stand up better if you use pound cake or pudding in the mix cake) and put a layer of fresh strawberries in between the cakes as I stood them together.
I then poked some cookie treat sticks (you could also use wooden dowels) into it at a diagonal to help hold the house together and then frosted it with a whipped cream cheese frosting that I made from scratch (recipe at the bottom).
I sliced more fresh strawberries to lay on the roof to look like shingles. I used black frosting to create the dog door opening to the house and a dog bone sticker that I wrote Clifford on and stuck on wax paper to lay on the front of the house.
Because we had many people at this party (14 big kids plus their infant siblings and moms), I also baked a Texas chocolate sheath cake to create the bottom layer (grassy field). I added coconut flakes tinted with green food coloring to create the grassy look.
This was a very big hit with both adults and children because there was a choice of cake flavors and both cakes tasted wonderful. I found the Clifford figure blowing out a candle on a small birthday cake at my local cake decorating store.
It was the most fun and this dog birthday cake is by far the coolest cake I’ve ever made!
Hope you like this idea…the frosting recipe follows:
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting 2 packages (3oz each), cream cheese 2 Tb., milk 4 cups chilled, whipping cream 1 & 1/3 cups, powdered sugar. Beat cream cheese and milk in chilled bowl on low speed until smooth; beat in whipping cream and powdered sugar. Beat on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until stiff peaks form.
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by
Stacy S., Shawnee, KS
This Clifford the Big Red Dog cake was for my daughter’s 2nd birthday! She is a huge Clifford fan – so I set out to give her a great surprise with her cake. I used a dog cake pan that I found at a specialty candy / cake store near our home. I found making RED icing was not as easy as adding red food coloring. After almost 2 entire containers of red food coloring and a bowl full of hot pink icing – I discovered red food DYE. It only took 3 drops and I had the perfect color. I used white gel for the eyes and black for the ears and legs. Besides lots of red tongues and lips – the Clifford the Big Red Dog cake was a HUGE hit!!
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by Cathy M., Sumter, SC
Clifford the Big Red Dog cake by Angela N., Singapore
The birthday boy loves Clifford the big red dog. I was concerned about the large amount of red coloring (if I were to make the whole dog red). So I decided to put red spots instead. It turned out the dog really stood out.
The body of the dog was carved using a large loaf pan. Part of the legs was cut out from cylinder shape cake (baked using food cans). The head of the dog was a pudding mould; the snout was a mini doll mould. The ears and tail of Clifford the big red dog were just fondant and covered with butter cream. The large white bone was molded from fondant.
