Safari Cake

My son is so much into safari animals that when it came time for his birthday cake that was my inspiration. Also to note, I am not a baker. So, this cake was the result of an amateur effort.

The basic ingredients:

Yellow cake mix

Spice cake mix

1 container of Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy coconut pecan frosting

1 bowl homemade white powder sugar frosting (my recipe is butter, milk, sugar & cream of tartar)

asst food coloring drops

1 pkg blue Jello

Organic pumpkin seads

Honey wheat pretzel sticks

Strawberries whole (only need leaf tops)

tooth picks

plastic safari animals (tiny ones about 1″ high)

The day before I decorated the cake I did the following:

I made the yellow sheet cake as instructed. This was for the base of the cake. And mixed the spice cake as instructed. I used a small metal mixing bowl to bake some of it. (the leftover cake filled 18 cup cakes) The timing was hard to determine because I had to keep checking it every 15 minutes after it baked for 30 already. This was used for the rock on top. I prepared the blue Jello in a pie pan.

The next day for decorating:

Using a drinking glass I cut a hole out of the sheet cake and cut the same size out of the jello for the hippo pond. I ended up putting two layers of the jello into the pond opening to get it to the same height as the cake. Then I frosted the sheet cake with the Betty Crocker frosting only going to the edge of the jello pond. I used the pumpkin seeds around the pond to look similar to rocks.

I cut the spice cake bowl to resemble a rock and stuck it on the top right corner of the sheet. It took some reshaping, but once it’s frosted, the cake underneath need not be pretty. Using my homemade frosting, I died it with a mix of black and green food coloring to look like gray. Test it first before you try it.

I cut the tops of 12 strawberries to use as leaves for the trees (trimming the strawberry fruit away). Using a toothpick I was able to stick the leaves 3 tops high onto a pretzel stick for the trees.

The last thing I did was to place a select few of the plastic animals around and there you have the finished result.

My son was thrilled and we had so much fun making it. Good luck.