Coolest Crayon Birthday Cake

Our 1 year old just loves chewing on crayons that her big sisters leave lying around so when it was her birthday I had this idea of making a Crayon cake – but with no idea what it would actually look like or how to do it! So I googled it and of course scores of other talented parents had had the idea long before me, and so I picked the one I liked the best and thought I could most easily accomplish and set to work.

I baked a chocolate cake which I know fits in my 9×12 inch pan. I sliched the dome off and cut the edges to make it nice and square, then cup a step out of the top for the ‘crayons’ to sit on. Then came the icing. Other people had iced the yellow and green for the box with star-tips but I am just not very good with a piping bag. So I decided to use Marzipan as my yellow since I prefer the taste anyway and it gave a lovely smooth finish. I added a bit of yellow color to make it a bit more vibrant. I just spread the green on and smoothed it as best I could, with the two shaky piping lines at the top.

For the ‘crayons’ I used lady finger cookies with the top cut to a crayon-shaped tip. I was amazed how much food coloring I had to use to get the vibrant colors and even so my red still looked pink! I used a paintbrush to get it as smooth as I could, then piped on the writing and squiggles on the crayons.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed making this cake and our guests were all suitably impressed! I also made color coordinated fruit platters to go on the table. It took a long time (3 hours?) to get the icing right but it really wasn’t that hard. Very happy I made the effort. I am sure our baby will appreciate it too in a few years!

Related cakes: