Coolest Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Cake

I love this book especially for the art by Eric Carle and used this Homemade Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Cake making as an opportunity to play with some new techniques. First, several weeks ahead of time I made the gum paste fruit. I first colored the white gum paste the color of the fruit but could not get the vibrant colors, so I went back and painted them with food coloring gel paste. I was able to give them more color, but also some shading. Notice the hole poked through each one as in the book.

I then worked on the 2 inch cookies to replicate the dots in the background in the book. I frosted them, and when the frosting was set, I also colored them with food coloring gel paste. As far as working with the gel paste, I only took a few drops and them painted with a wet paint brush. A little water spreads the color a lot.

I made the cakes a week in advance, two Bundt cakes and two eight inch rounds. I froze them for a week so I would not have to do everything last minute. I shaped the caterpillar body from Bundt cake. I had to use small pieces to shape the head and then covered that with precolored red fondant for a cleaner look. The face features are also fondant that was either precolored or painted with color gel paste.

To frost the body I divided white frosting into three containers and colored them three different shades of green. I blended them with application to the cake to simulate the color of the caterpillar in the book. The feet are Hershey’s Kisses. I included a basic two-tier 8 inch round cake with chocolate frosting for the candle and so that I had enough cake to feed everyone. The letters are fondant that I painted again with colored gel paste. Everything is attached to a piece of foam board using frosting for “glue”.

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