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Dinosaur Cake Recipe & Design IdeasThe dinosaur cake below was kindly submitted by one of our readers like yourself... Cake Submitted by Heather H. from The Colony, Texas.
My son went through a long dinosaur phase so when a friend of mine asked me to make a dinosaur cake for her son, I knew exactly what to do! I used my most popular flavor cake mix which is Betty Crocker's Golden Vanilla for the bottom 12"x18" cake. I test the cake's doneness with a toothpick and take the cake out when the toothpick comes out slightly tacky not all the way clean. This keeps the cake from being too dry as the cake will continue to bake on its own for a few minutes simply from the heat that it retains. Immediately after removing the dinosaur birthday cake from the oven, I place a clean kitchen towel over the entire cake and gently press down on the towel all over the cake this presses out any air pockets and levels the cake without cutting any of it away. After pressing the cake until its level, I layer a couple more towels over the cake while it cools this keeps all the moisture trapped inside! These techniques make for a "melt-in-your-mouth" texture! I frosted the cake with homemade buttercream frosting: Mix on low speed: 2 cups Crisco with 2 Tbsp meringue powder. In a measuring cup combine ½ cup water, 1 tsp clear vanilla extract, 1 tsp clear butter extract, ½ tsp almond extract, 1 tsp salt. Alternate adding 2 lbs powdered sugar and the extract mixture a little at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Do not beat for too long as air bubbles will get trapped in the frosting and will make it harder to smooth the frosting on the cake. This dinosaur cake took more than one batch of frosting I made two batches and had some left over. I tinted one full batch green. Then I tinted parts of the second batch blue, brown, and red. I frosted the top and sides of the 12"x18" cake with green frosting and then let it set until the frosting crusted (about 30 minutes). I then took the blue frosting and just free handed a stream and pond and smoothed it with a spatula. I then filled in the rest of the top of the cake with tip #233 grass. I also bordered the cake with tip #233. For the volcano, I baked Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge mix in the Wonder Mold cake pan (this is the pan used for stand up doll cakes). After it was completely cool I placed it on its own cake board (about 8" diameter depending on how high the cake rises since the Wonder Mold gets gradually wider the higher it's filled). I frosted the volcano smooth with the brown frosting. I placed the volcano cake on the 12" x 18" cake at one corner. I then added more green frosting with the tip #233 around the base of the volcano to conceal the cake board. I used tip #10 with red frosting to free hand the lava coming out the top and down the sides of the volcano. I then used clean plastic dinosaurs, rocks, and palm trees to create the "dinosaur diorama" with all the herbivore dinosaurs fleeing from the carnivorous t-rex! I pressed them into the frosting to hold them in place if they needed more help to stay put, I squeezed some fresh green frosting and then set the dinosaur into it. I wrote the Happy Birthday message on the front of the cake in red frosting with tip #3 so that the words didn't take away from the scene on top of the cake. This page will help you plan a great dinosaur theme party. Return from Dinosaur Cake to Birthday Cakes Area Back to Kids' Birthday Party Guide Subscribe to Family Smiles |
