For my daughter Kate’s first birthday party, I decided to do an insect theme and make a ladybird cake. I actually made 2 ladybirds; a mommy and a baby, but I am only going to describe how I made one. Just make a second smaller version if you want to do a baby too.
I bought a glass Pyrex bowl and baked a chocolate cake in it. I cut the cake into 2 pieces in the proportions of 1 third:2 thirds. I bought a block of ready-made fondant icing from a baking specialist shop. I divided the block into 3 parts; a big ball which I coloured pink (it was meant to be red but the red food colouring only turned the icing pink!), another big ball which I coloured black and a small ball I left white (tip: it is better to use powder colour rather than liquid for fondant icing because the liquid makes the icing quite sticky). I further divided the black ball into 2 smaller balls.
Then I rolled the balls into flat circles using a rolling pin. Remember to grease the surface that you roll the icing onto and the rolling pin and also your hands with a clear cooking fat. I’ve used normal butter before and that also works fine. I’ve read that you can also use icing sugar or corn flour but I’ve tried it and found that it leaves white powder marks on the icing.
I covered the 2 parts of the cake in apricot jam and then draped the pink circle over the bigger piece (the body) and one black circle over the smaller piece (the head). I smoothed the icing down over the cake with my hands and cut off the excess icing around the edges. I ran a wooden skewer over the centre of the back of the body to create a wing divide. Then I pushed the 2 pieces together to make the ladybird.
I cut big black circles from the second black circle of icing and decorated the pink body with them. I used white and black circles for the eyes. I made antennae from black bottle cleaners with a ball of black icing on the top and propped them in the divide between the 2 cakes. I sprinkled the ladybird with pink food glitter and I coloured some desiccated coconut green (in a plastic bag) and surrounded the ladybird with the coconut to make grass.
Lastly I stuck in a single candle and wrote Kate’s name on the cake board using icing made from beaten egg white and icing sugar. She loved it!
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This is so cute! (although don’t you mean “ladybugs” instead of “ladybirds?”) The expressions on their little faces are very sweet, and I you succeeded in getting a nice, true red color (not easy to do.) Congrats!
Thanks for the compliment. Just to let you know that we call them ladybirds in South Africa not ladybugs, but it’s the same thing. :)
I was searching for a Ladybird cake and this was the one that popped up. I am going to make it for my grand-daughter Amy she loves ladybirds (by the way we call them ladybirds in Ireland.)I am hoping it turns out well
Was searching for a ladybird cake for my daughters first birthday and found this one. Was easy to make and turned out brilliantly – she loved it !! Made a mummy with 2 babies !! Only thing I would suggest is buying already coloured icing – I managed to get the red but not black so the head was slightly grey , but it didn’t matter she loved it anyway !! If I can do it anyone can !!
My boy turned one today and I made the same cake….for Sunday when the friends are coming over. Guess we used the same book. In the end I painted the red and black on because it stayed grey and an ugly orangy red. Now I have to say it looks awesome
Think this is a cool theme for a first birthday!! And so far from all the ladybug cakes I’ve seen on this site, this one’s the best!!
This is adorable!! I am planning on using this for my daughter’s 1st birthday on New Years Eve! I had searched high and low but was unable to find anything! Oh yes, we call them Ladybirds here in Australia too!! Thanks for the inspiration!
You make it sounds like a piece of cake. I hope my cake will turn out as well as yours. Thanks for the tips :)
Dear Alison J,
Your ladybird cake looks wonderful and I would like to try it out for my daughter’s third birthday, but I have never cooked a cake in a pyrex bowl and so have a couple of questions: please can you tell me the number of eggs that you used (then I will be able to adjust flour and sugar proportions accordingly), the temperature of your oven and the time you cooked it for, and lastly the quantity of fondant icing that you used. [Alternatively, if you could tell me the name of the book you got the recipe from I could find out all of the above for myself!]
With many thanks, eagerly looking forward to trying it out,
– CMM
To CMM, I baked a regular chocolate cake in a bowl, I placed it in a 325 degree F oven and cooked it for over an hour, I just kept checking the consistency with a wooden skewer and it worked well. I hope this helps! Angela J Thank you for this lovely idea, I had such fun making this cake and it was even more special knowing that is came from SA.ECHOES