I love making unique cakes. This rocket cake was such fun to make and my son loved it! It is a Wonder Mold cake with sugar cones around and on top. Buzz is an action figure he had and is housed in a plastic drink cup that one side was cut out of. I iced the cup and placed it on top of Buzz. It was his 3rd birthday hence the 3 2 1.
More Unique Cakes and Rocket Cakes
Unique cake by Devon D., Wasilla, Alaska
My soon to be three year old son wanted a Buzz Lightyear birthday party. I found all of the decorations and invitations, but alas not a bakery who could make unique cakes for a Buzz Lightyear theme party. I did find a local bakery that had a few Buzz picks and toys with some cute blue and white star sprinkles.
So I made a half sheet and crumb coated it with butter cream icing. Then I mixed up three batches of homemade marshmallow fondant. I made one in a deep purple and made that the top of the sheet cake. I baked a quarter sheet cake and carved it into the shape of a rocket ship. After crumb coating the rocket ship I covered it in white fondant and painted silver stripes on the rocket using silver luster dust mixed with lemon extract.
I colored more of the fondant bright red and yellow to make the flames coming out of the rocket. I put borders on the cake in blue and green to match Buzz and sprinkled a bit of silver luster dust and the star sprinkles around the half sheet.
Unique cake by Eileen S., Old Bridge, NJ
I made a cake mix in a large rectangle cake pan and after cooling it I cut the cake in half and turned the cake pieces long ways. Cut two triangles off the top corners to use for bottom. I have a candy store near to me that had gummy letters I could use for the name. I get all my ideas for unique cakes from this site and Martha Stewart’s.
Unique cake by Julianne A., Mackay, Queensland, Australia
I made this cake for a Boy’s 4th birthday. We had a model 5 cm high so I draw a picture of it then started with my cake from there.
I made a slab of vanilla cake, put my drawing on it and cut it out. Then I made 2 quantities of frosting and started to make the colors. I did the red first then the black, grey and then finally white. I love making unique cakes and this one made a big statement at the party.
Unique cake by Jodie R., Tucson, AZ
This was one of the most unique cakes I have ever made. It was my son’s 1st birthday. The rocket cake was his while the rest of us shared the sheet cake.
The rocket was made of stacked layers, w/icing in b/w as the glue. This was so tall I had to put a dowel down the center. The blue “legs” of the rocket are made of cardboard and then covered in icing. Blue sugar made this cake sparkle!
Unique cake by Pen P., Berkeley, CA
“Rocket ship in Space” cake. The rocket ship that takes off on top of the quarter-sheet cake (which served as the “space”) was made from a chocolate cake that I baked in a small Pyrex bowl. I sliced the half-sphere into three, removed the middle portion and sandwiched together the ‘ends’ giving me an oval, football-shaped cake.
From the middle portion, I cut out the rocket ship ‘legs’. I laid out these pieces on a cake board and traced the rocket ship shape. After I cut this shape, I put the assembled rocket ship cake on it and started decorating it separately from the quarter-sheet base.
After I crumb coated the “rocket ship” with buttercream, I wrapped the cake either with a plain or a red-tinted white modeling chocolate. For the middle portion, I painted it unevenly with silver luster dust mixed with lemon extract. I scored the panels with a knife. For the rivets, I “pre-drilled” the holes with toothpick, and then inserted into each one a chocolate sprinkle.
After the rocket ship was made, I set it atop the quarter-sheet “space” cake, which I frosted with marbleized blue and red buttercream sprinkled with gold and silver sparkle dust. The planets were made out of tinted white modeling chocolate, which I also painted with the silver luster dust.
Instead of piping up a border, I lined up “meteorites” at the bottom of the cake and also scattered them on top (these were candy-covered chocolate “rocks” which I found at a local candy store). For the rocket ship flames, I placed cut-up yellow and red fruit roll-ups at the bottom of the rocket ship.
And for the final touch, I placed these really cool twisted candles – 2 red and 3 yellow— at the bottom of the rocket ship above the fruit roll-up “flames”. After these candles were lit at the party, the “rocket ship” sure took off and was a big hit with the kids!
TIP: Make sure to chill the chocolate cake BEFORE cutting and shaping. Otherwise, it will be crumbly and difficult to manage.
RECIPES: I made the cake’s frosting and white modeling chocolate from scratch. For a simpler version, the cake recipe for the rocket ship was equivalent to one cake mix; for the sheet cake, 2 cake mixes. I used about 6 cups of buttercream frosting, mostly for the quarter-sheet “space” cake.
Thanks for all the unique cakes on this site!
Unique cake by Deborah H., Fuquay-Varina, NC
This cake was for my son’s 5th birthday. He had a Jimmy Neutron party. I came across a recipe for a rocket ship cake in a Pampered Chef recipe book and modified it to fit the party theme as you can see in the birthday cake picture above. It’s always fun to modify unique cakes.
Cake:
- 2 pkg. yellow cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
Frosting:
- 1 pkg. (2lbs.) powdered sugar (about 7 cups), divided
- 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 Tbsp. clear vanilla extract
- 6-7 Tbsp. milk, divided
- Food Coloring
Decorations:
- 5 Sugar cones
- Assorted Sprinkles
- Red Hots
- Action Figure of choice
- 9 oz. plastic cup
- Orange / Red Fruit Roll- ups
Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour the Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl. Prepare 1 cake mix according to pkg. Pour into batter bowl and bake 1 hour, 10 minutes to 1 hour, 15 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Remove to cooling rack. Cool 15 minutes. Run large knife around outside of cake and gently turn out onto cooling rack, large end down. Cool 3 hours. Repeat with remaining cake mix to make a second cake.
For Frosting, combine half of the powdered sugar with butter, shortening, vanilla and 3 Tbsp. of the milk in large bowl. Beat w/ mixer until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, adding more milk, 1 Tbsp. at a time, as needed for good spreading consistency. Tint approx. 1 1/2 cups of the frosting orange and 1/2 cup of the frosting blue.
Slice off 2 inches from bottom (large end) of one cake and place on 14 inch round serving platter. (Reserve unused top for later use.)
Frost bottom portion of cake w/ orange frosting (as seen in the birthday cake picture). Top with second cake; frost with white frosting. With sharp scissors, cut flame shapes from fruit roll ups and place on orange frosting. Attach 4 sugar cones to sides of cake. (Depending on shape of sugar cone, it may be necessary to shave top edge of cone to fit snugly against cake, or simply push cone into cake.)
In the birthday cake picture above you can also see that there’s an action figure on top of the cake. Frost back of 9oz. clear plastic cup with white frosting. Place over action figure. Frost sugar cone with white frosting and decorate w/ colored sprinkles. Attach to glass with frosting. Decorate cake with remaining frosting and small candies, as desired.
Everyone enjoyed this cake.
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