This Bakugan field cake was a huge hit at my son’s 6th Birthday party. The cake and field take no time at all. The edible Bakugan balls take some time, but are well worth the “wow” factor.
I made 2 yellow cakes (9X13). Then put them together and cut them down to a 12X12 square (approx). You can make the square as large as you want. Note: If you make your cake from scratch you wont get the “rise” in the middle of the cake that you usually get from a box mix. I used the “quick yellow cake” recipe on recipezaar.com (but with a few modifications – I doubled the recipe, used 1/4 sour cream and 3/4 milk, cake flour vs. regular flour, and 1 extra egg). The cake came out great for this project and tasted delicious!
Then I iced with Wilton’s butter cream icing recipe. I used butter flavor Crisco instead of regular shortening which had a fantastic flavor. Once iced, I used yellow and red spray to decorate (Wilton Color Mist). Where they overlap the color changes to orange. Then I laid out the “field” using Keebler chocolate covered graham cookies. (You could also use thin mints or some other flat square/rectangular cookie to make the field). Total I used 24 cookies (4 rows of 6).
It wasn’t a perfect square board, but close enough.
Next I cut 4 red licorice sticks. The sticks should cover about 3/4 of the length of each side, but not go the full length of the field. Up until this point, the cake is easy and fast. Here’s the challenging, but totally doable part…the edible Bakugan balls.
How to make the balls:
First pick several of your child’s balls to use as models. Balls: Lindt chocolate balls/truffles. Have more “white” chocolate on hand, and some chocolate ones too.
Color for the balls: Use Wilton Pearl Dust and decorator brushes. If you want you can also use a very small amount of vanilla to turn the powder into paint. I mean small! Just dip the tip of your brush in some vanilla then mix it into the pearl dust (like your an artist mixing on you palate). For the “Ventis” Bakugan balls (the teal green ones) I also mixed a little food coloring in. Then use you brush to literally “paint” or brush on dust (just like you’d brush on eye shadow). Cover the whole ball. I put each ball on a pampered chef cake tester (long thin metal stick). I slid the ball on so it was like a lolly pop candy on top of my cake tester. You could also try a toothpick or skewer. You do end up touching the balls though as you decorate which can cause the chocolate to get soft and/or melt. I put the balls in the fridge and pulled them out one at a time. I tried the freezer too, but if they were too cold, the chocolate ball would crack when placed on the cake tester. If they get too soft though the slip around a lot on the stick which makes decorating hard.
My pearl dust colors were WHITE (mixed with teal food coloring) for Ventus (wind attribute); RED dust on a “chocolate ball” for a darker red, red on a white Lindt ball for a lighter color (same holds true for any ball you create) for Pyrus (fire attribute); BLUE dust on chocolate ball for aquas (water attribute), SILVER dust on a white ball for haos (light attribute). I used gold dust on a white ball for sub-terra (the brownish one – earth attribute). It didn’t look right, I should have used BRONZE. I just used chocolate balls for darkus (dark attribute). I would have used a black glitter if I could have found it, but I don’t think they make it.
To make the designs, I just did my best to copy some of my son’s favorite balls. I started with the shield on each one and then did the line patterns. I used Betty Crocker Gel Food Colors (No drip formula – and it did NOT drip) and Wilton Fondant Icing Writer. I could not find either of these in black at the craft store so I also used black icing in a tube with a No. 2 tip. (That was painstaking, definitely try and order black in advance assuming it’s actually made). I used yellow gel which had more of a gold look. The green gel was very dark, but worked fine. The gel goes on easy but doesn’t really dry so if you “hit” it it will smudge. The fondant writer icing (I used this for my white and purple lines) went on a little thick, but was also fine. The fondant writer “dries” hard which is good. However, gravity does take over while your decorating with fondant writers (more so than with the gel) so you have to be careful and work quick. I also “painted” stripes on one white ball using the mixture of white glitter and teal food coloring described above. I also tried to use white glitter to do the shield on on of the balls. It worked, but took longer and was more difficult (thus the fondant writer and food color gel). Do whatever works for you, but be sure you have really good brushes if you want to “paint” the designs on using cake glitter.
Once a ball was finished, I looked for 2 places to carefully pick it up (pull it off the cake tester) and then placed it directly on the cake, push it down into the icing a little. Make 12 balls, 3 in each corner and you are done!
Last take 2 Bakugan cards place them face down on the field (cookie square) and pop open a few real Bakugan on top. I did this last step at the actual party.
My boys also made some of their own balls. They used pearl dust, brushed it on to color the ball and then used gel food color tubes to create their own design. Last, they ate them right off the stick!
In total this Bakugan field cake took about 5 hours for set up of decorating, decorating itself, and clean-up from decorating. It was well worth the time and effort.
Your idea for the Bakugan balls are absolute genius. I am making a brownie cake for the arena and was wondering how to create the balls. Thank you! Thank you!
What a great idea – we actually just ordered a sheet cake with white icing and Happy Birthday in the middle. My 4 year old son and I painted our Bakugans (I ended up doing the designs) and placing them all over the cake. We made enough for everyone to have one and they were a hit! Thanks for the great idea! The bronze dust looked perfect and we used all fondant icing writers. For the colors we couldn’t buy – like gold – we used the white fondant writer and then dusted on some of the bronze and gold pearl dust. It was time consuming, but it turned out looking great and we were so proud! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
make me one
You did an awesome job! Thanks for sharing. I am going to make one similar but I am going to use real Bakugans. I am going to use just 2 on each corner and one on the cards. I have been going nuts trying to figure out how to make one in my head. I had a few ideas but I love yours.
I had thought of doing the little balls and using chocolate covered peanut butter balls. But what you did sounds like a little less work.
Thanks for sharing!! The ball idea is so AWESOME!!
Thank you so much for putting your cake and instructions on here! I made one yesterday for my 5 year old. Those little balls sure are tricky and I didn’t get the dust down very well until the last 3 balls. They all loved it though! GREAT IDEA! Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing the great idea. My 7 year old has a birthday coming up and this is exactly the idea I was looking for. I didn’t want to have to buy a Bakugan for each child, so the edible version is perfect so that everyone can have one.
You are amazing. I have one of my son’s birthday party in two weeks. I have been practicing making 3D Bakugan cakes and fondant balls. I am so happy to see yours! How amazing! You definitely inspired me and I will have to post pictures of mine when I am done to share as well. Hat’s off to you! Simply brilliant!
in order for you not to touch the “Bakugan balls” stick it first to the toothpick or skewer (or whatever you are using) then hold the stick while decorating it so you don’t have to touch/ruin the decoration
You are a terrific parent to go to all this trouble. With that being said, I’m HIGHLY indebted to you for the step-by-step information and will be making this cake on Friday. I cannot thank you enough!
This cake is fantastic !!!
That is just great. I was just going to put toys on mine.
I have been looking through some of these cakes and they always have fondant involved not the easiest. I found yours and thought that it would be great for my almost 4yr old (in 2 months) who had every option of party themes he insisted on Bakugan after I asked him several times haha this seems fairly simple enough and easier on my time.I also decided to try rice crispy treat balls dipped in chocolate and because the melting chocolate comes in a variety I thought it might be just as good.If anyone has tried that please let me know if it came out well.