I made this homemade snake birthday cake for my husband, Jim, for his 51st birthday. He loves reptiles and I modeled this one after our 5-foot bull snake, Alice.
Since I made this cake shortly after Easter, I found the “Edible Grass” in the clearance section of my local Rite-Aid. It’s supposed to be for filling Easter baskets, but worked great under my snake and was easier and cheaper than making tinted coconut. I just unrolled the grass and snipped chunks into 3-4 inch pieces and placed them on the foil lined tray.
The cake I made out of a butter pecan cake mix to which I added sour cream and toasted pecans. I baked it in 2 nine-inch layers. Before I put the cake together, I cut out 9-inch circles on newspaper and then cut the paper into the shapes. I wanted to make the cake to see how they’d fit together and to be sure they’d fit on the tray I was using.
I liked this configuration because it was compact, but still really interesting. I cut out the centers of each layer with a clean can from pineapple – I have a can opener that removes the entire lid leaving a nice edge to cut through the cake. I centered the can on each layer by measuring from the edge of the can to the edge of the cake on four sides with a straight ruler.
I cut one layer into three-quarters of a ring and the other layer into two ring halves. I took one center and cut two flat pieces off the sides at angles to give the sort of diamond shaped head. I cut the remaining quarter ring in half diagonally to create the tail piece. I had a single center leftover and the half tail piece.
I actually iced the center piece to make a mini cake that I gave my husband as a “cake preview piece” the night before his birthday. The other leftover piece mysteriously disappeared when my teenage son wandered through the kitchen… :)
I made my homemade cream cheese frosting – so easy! 8 ounces cream cheese creamed with 1 stick softened butter – add 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla. I added some yellow food coloring and a drop of red to make the icing “Alice-colored.”
I decorated the homemade snake birthday cake with chocolate chips turned upside down so the pointy side was pressed into the cake. Very easy. I melted a few tablespoons of chips and placed them into a zip top sandwich bag, snipped the corner and squeezed out a forked tongue onto parchment paper (could use waxed paper) and let harden. I actually squeezed out a number of them and picked the one I liked best.
Fun to make and the homemade snake birthday cake got rave reviews!
Thanks so much Susan – I’ll make this for sure. My husband HATES snakes – we had a snake shed its skin by our rose bush Sunday and he wouldn’t even pick up the skin!
My grandson would think this was so cool!
Carol
…seriously awesome. This is a great cake in a succession of great cakes! My particular favorites that were made for my birthdays growing up have to be Alf, Pocahontas, or maybe Domokun. Both were sheet cakes iced with picture perfect characters. Oh, and there was the 3-D VW beetle on my 17th birthday to match my first car. I’ll see if I can scrounge up some pictures to post here.
This snake looks *just like* Alice! I especially like the shape of the head and the little rattler. Nice touch, mom!