First Birthday Dr. Seuss Hodge-Podge Cake with Cat in the Hat Smash Cake

I really enjoyed making this Dr. Seuss Hodge-Podge cake with Cat in the Hat smash cake for my nephew’s first birthday party. I have always loved Dr. Seuss books and this is the first cake I’ve made dedicated to his works. There are so many whimsical and fun characters and objects in Dr. Seuss books, so it was difficult to decide which ones to include. These are white cakes with colored jimmies to make them look like confetti inside.

For the bottom of the 2-tiered cake, I colored butter cream icing blue and stacked and frosted 2-8″ layers. For the top, I colored my butter cream icing yellow and stacked and frosted 2-6″ layers. I smoothed the icing higher on one side than the other to make it a little off-balance. I used a combination of fondant and gum paste to make a tea pot with a fish and water splashing out, a green and yellow balloon, a red and white ball with a star, a red and white train front, a mini white and pink cake with a candle on top, a green and yellow tree, a platter with green eggs and ham held up by a hand on a lollipop stick, a red and white kite, a gray elephant trunk, and a train track.

I used colored butter cream to pipe on a red border, a green border, Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat, 2 trees from the Lorax, Horton’s face from Horton Hears a Who, and an umbrella. After I got to the party, I placed all of the fondant additions by attaching them to the cake with butter cream frosting. For the Cat in the Hat cake, I colored some butter cream icing red and some black. I frosted the cake in white, then added red stripes and piped black icing between the stripes to outline them. I piped on the name, “Levi”, and added a number 1 candle. I love how some of the decorations are piped on with buttercream and others are 3-D with fondant and gum paste. The train track going through on cake and onto the top of the other is one of my favorite parts, along with the tiny pink and white cake and candle on top.

Everyone at the party loved this whimsical cake, and I loved the look on my nephew’s face when he saw it…which was even better when he was able to dig into the smash cake!

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