Awesome Homemade U.S. Army Tank Cake

My Grandson wanted a ‘GI*Joe’ homemade army tank cake for his 7th birthday, so I found your site and started looking. I found lots of ideas from many different cakes and combined them with my own and came up with a cake that he absolutely loved.

This was my first try at sculpting cake and using rolled fondant. I baked 3 devils foods cakes (9×13), after they cooled – I wrapped them in Saran Wrap and refrigerated overnight (the tank actually took a little over 2 cakes). I used the trimmings from the tank for the small hill under the front of the tank.

The hill and the rest of the board were covered with chocolate frosting then covered with crushed Oreos and Vanilla Wafers for the dirt and tinted coconut (Wilton’s leaf green) for the grass. I used butter cream frosting (found recipe online) between the layers and to hold the fondant onto the cake.

I made marshmallow fondant (found recipe online) saved some white for the letters and stars and colored the rest with Wilton’s paste food color (juniper green, brown, black, yellow). The hatch cover and wheels are Oreo cookies (2 sizes) covered with fondant and the gun(s) are Oreo Fun Stix, also covered with fondant.

After I sculpted the homemade army tank cake, I covered it with the butter cream frosting and then attached the fondant. To get the camouflage I partially rolled the green fondant and placed the black and brown pieces on top and finished rolling. The treads are black strips of fondant that I made impressions across with a square skewer. The letters, number 7, and stars are all cut-outs.

I put ‘U.S.Army’ on one side and his name on the other all in white and the number 7 (yellow) on the front of the tank for his age. The star on top is 2 layers with the bottom one a little larger (yellow). To attach the cut outs and wheels, I just used a little water to moisten the fondant. The U.S. flag was clipart printed and attached to a toothpick. I bought inexpensive army men (Toys R Us) and removed the legs from 1 and put him on top of the tank coming out of the hatch and place the rest on the board around the tank.