I made this birthday cake for my son-in-law who works for a company installing computer poker tables. I checked out this wonderful site for Las Vegas cakes and this is what I made.
Just two boxes of cake mix in a large roasting pan. I cut out five individual pieces of paper to the size of a playing card that fit the space I had. Then laid them out as if holding them in your hand and traced the outline on the waxed paper.
I froze the cake beforehand and then cut out the shape of the waxed paper pattern. I simply iced it in white with red for the numbers suits and edges. It was one of the photographed cakes I have ever made.
More Poker, Cards and Las Vegas Cakes
Las Vegas Cake by Jamie H., Salem, OR
I got this idea for Las Vegas cakes from the Wilton 2006 yearbook. I baked two half sheets of cake. I then took a half sheet cake board and but out the size of octagon that I wanted. I used that as a pattern to cut the double layered cake. The cake was covered in buttercream and then fondant.
I used a small cutter for the chips and cut small rectangles of fondant for the cards. I then used an icing marker to finish the cards. I covered four pillars with black fondant and glued them to the bottom of the cake board for the table legs. I made this for my poker loving husband’s birthday. He thought it was pretty cool.
Las Vegas Cake by Sandra S., Harrah, OK
I made a 9 x 13 cake then iced it with Wilton’s buttercream recipe. To get the cards onto the cake I traced an outline of some playing cards with them fanned out. Then I outlined them with prepared black icing, used a writing tip to put in the hearts. After using letters pressed into the hardened icing I traced the letters. I got lots of ideas from other Las Vegas cakes on this website.
The poker chips were attached with additional frosting on the back of the chips. I finished the cake with star tips for the border.
Las Vegas Cake by Judith Y., San Antonio, TX
A co-worker asked me to make a ‘poker night’ cake for her husband’s 30th birthday. I searched for Las Vegas cakes on your website and came up with this cake. I used an 18×18 square pan (takes about three cake mixes or 12-15 cups of batter). When I bought the pan I was told that this size cake pan does not always fit in the new models of stove/ovens. You would have to measure to be sure this size pan fits in your oven.
I baked this larger cake at 325 degrees for about an hour (50-65 minutes depending on your oven). I cut the corners off the cake to create the octagon shape. I initially covered the cake in white icing. Using parchment paper as a barrier I air brushed the ‘rails’ around the table.
When the air brushing dried I frosted the center with green frosting. I used rolled fondant for the mugs, playing cards and the poker chips. To get the two tones on the chips I rolled white fondant into a rope. Using tinted fondant I rolled the tinted rope around the white fondant and created a two tone rope. I put these ropes in the freezer for about 30 minutes to harden the fondant. I sliced the frozen fondant into chips using a sharp knife. With this method you can create as small or large chip as you need. I used rolled fondant for the cards as well painting by hand the suits on the cards. The remaining cards (there were 52 of them!) and chips were placed around the cake for decorations.
This cake fed about 40 adults with leftovers for the birthday boy to take home! My co-worker told me that when she went to serve the cake everyone asked where it was. They thought the cake was a center piece. This cake was a blast to make and quite easy. The hardest part was air brushing the ‘rails’. I am sure frosting could be used if air brushing is not feasible.
Las Vegas Cake by Shelby B., Haymarket, VA
My husband threw me a surprise 30th birthday party and got a friend of mine to get a neighbor to ask how to bake a cake, but in the end she ordered this cake and have it delivered to a hall. Imagine my surprise when I realized I’d been conned into making my own cake! The chips are spree.
Las Vegas Cake by Trina E., Naivasha, Kenya
This cake was adapted from a Jane Asher book on how to bake a cake for a lady called Wyn for her 90th Birthday. She is a fervent Bridge Player and therefore it was appropriate.(thus the Wyn-ing Hand).
The cake was a rich chocolate sponge and I did the table top on a separate board so that it could be prepared before hand and also taken from the cake before cutting. The cards were made out of petal paste and hand painted. The table top was covered with homemade fondant roll out icing. (Bought icing is not available in Kenya).
I modeled all the hands (one hand unfortunately has six finders!) and cards about two weeks before so that they would dry and be ready to place on the board and therefore all that was required on the day was to bake the cake.
Las Vegas cakes are so much fun to make. Good Luck!
Las Vegas Cake by Tiffany G., Victoria, Canada
I made this cake for my husbands 30th birthday. I had a poker theme, so searched Las Vegas cakes, as my husband loves poker and wanted to make a cake to go along with it. I made a three layer cake alternating chocolate, vanilla, chocolate and frosted the layers with chocolate butter cream icing.
For the outside I made green butter cream icing to look like the felt of a poker table. For the poker chips I used a mini muffin tin as a mold. I first painted the white chocolate detail of the chips on the muffin tins and let it harden. Then I poured my desired chocolate flavor over top. I wrote the number value on the top with an edible marker.
For the chocolates that went around the bottom of the cake I bought a chocolate mold with the four suit shapes on it of hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. I used dark chocolate for the ‘black’ suits and red melting chocolate for the hearts and diamonds. Then I alternated the suits around the bottom of the cake.
For the cards on top I bought mini playing cards and laminated the cards together to make a Royal Flush. For the writing I used white gel icing. The cake was a big hit and no one believed me when I told them I had made the chocolate poker chips. The boys all loved it!
Las Vegas Cake by Theresa B., Saint Petersburg, FL
My youngest Daughter just turned 22 and loves to play cards. Texas Hold’Em is her favorite and I made these Las Vegas cakes for her birthday party.
I used plastic poker chips with adhesive letters to spell out Happy Birthday and her name. Chocolate coin chips were used and making the Roulette consisted of just icing that I decorated. So much fun to make and she loved it!
Las Vegas Cakes by Mary D., Mukwonago, WI
The idea for this cake came from the Wilton yearbook. I needed to make some modifications to the cake as it serves only 17.
I used a 15″ hexagon cake pan with 2 cake-mixes in each pan using a “pound/wedding” cake recipe. Once each cake was prepared I stacked them on a 16″ round cake board and put a THIN layer of butter cream frosting on the outside of the cake. Next using homemade fondant frosting (1c shortening, 1c corn syrup, 1/2 tsp butter flavor, 1 tsp vanilla flavor, 1/2 tsp popcorn salt and 8 cups powdered sugar; mix with dough hook) dyed Kelly green, I rolled it out 1/8″ thick on a cutting mat and using the hexagon pan turned upside down I made an impression to get the correct size.
Next with a ruler and fondant cutter I trimmed the edges and placed on top of the cake trimming any further excess. I then used a smoother over the top. I rolled out black fondant 1/8″ thick and cut rectangles measuring 8″ x 4″ one at a time. I wet the top 1/2″ edge of green fondant with a cake brush and water (the water acts like glue) and placed the rectangle on the cake, first eyeing up the bottom edge and rolling my hand up over the top. I worked each piece into place first with my hand then rubbed it with the smoother working it smooth with the green on top.
Using white fondant rolled 1/8″ thick I made the cards cutting them 1 1/4″ x 3/4″. Next I took food-coloring markers and wrote on the numbers and symbols. Carefully lifting 5 cards off at a time and placing the together with a small cake knife, I then placed them on the cake. Also stacked about 7 cards angling the top and drawing the top of the card.
I used red, light blue and black fondant also rolled 1/8″ thick and cut into small circles, stacked and placed on the cake along with a miscellaneous grouping in the middle. I used white butter cream frosting to spell out Happy 30th Birthday Paul with a #3 tip around the outside edge of the table/cake. We used three sparkle candles on our Poker table Las Vegas cakes.
Las Vegas Cakes by Lynne O., Schenectady, NY
My brother is slightly obsessed with poker, so when we had a little birthday party for him I decided to make him a poker cake. I simply made a regular box cake, which I frosted green to look like a poker table. Then I frosted graham crackers with white frosting for the cards, which I finished off with a red gel icing. The poker chips were made from wafer cookies, frosted with both red and blue frosting. If you don’t like the saying on the cake, there are plenty more puns you can make if you think about it!
