My friend's twins are celebrating their 2nd birthday, and when I found out she was having a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' party, I begged her to let me make the cake. I LOVE the hungry caterpillar and kicked myself for not thinking of using it for a theme for one of my kiddies parties when they were younger, so I was delighted when this opportunity presented itself.
I decided to use only white fondant and then hand paint it to get it as close to Eric Carle's artwork as possible. I had so much fun making this cake!
The cake itself was rich dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing, my favourite!
All I can say is WOW!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely incredible, you are so very talented!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful cake, I also love the very hungry caterpillar, you have replicated it perfectly!
ReplyDeleteThank you Heather, Tina and Becca xxx
ReplyDeleteWow! My sons birthday is less than two weeks away and have conveniently decided upon the Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. This cake is amazing! How did you get the colours of the bitten food so precise? and most importantly how long did it take to make as I can see I have one mammoth of a task!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I guess my reply is a bit late. I cut each piece from rolled out white fondant, then hand painted it with food gel colours and water. Inhope your cake went well!
ReplyDeleteAmazing!! Is the butterfly made of icing too?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is! Thank you xx
DeleteYou did exactly what I had drawn up to do for my daughter's first birthday party! This is almost exactly out of my brain! Very impressive!
ReplyDeleteThankyou pixie_19! You know what they say: Great minds think alike :)
DeleteI am in love with this cake i have chosen the same theme for my daughters first birthday however i cannot paint or draw to save my life would you possibly be able to refer me to a bakery in texas that would be able to replicate or come close to it for my daughter's party.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Iliana! Unfortunately, I am in the UK, so I wouldn't be able to recomend a baker in Texas, sorry. I hope you get your cake xx
DeleteHello Can you please advise how to make the butterfly topper? Thank you
ReplyDeleteHello!
DeleteI rolled out white fondant (with tylo added) and cut out the wing shape for each wing, as well as two overlay pieces for each wing to give a bit of dimension. I then lay two skewers on each wing (leaving a few inches sticking out to be inserted into the cake) and 'glued' the overlay pieces on to the wings to cover the skewers. I then left them to harden for a couple of days. Once hardened, I painted them with food colouring and left them to dry thoroughly. To assemble, I removed a small central core of the cake and replaced it with fondant, then covered the cake as normal and added the leaf. I then inserted the wings at an angel (into the fondant core) and placed the fondant for the butterfly's body on top. Once this had set for a few hours I added the head, with wire antennae, then painted the head and body.
I hope this makes sense, I have added a photo of the finished wings (before inserting them in the cake) to the end of the post.
I was just browsing to see how other people tackled the butterfly, and I'm so glad I found this! I have everything else done, but that butterfly is going to be the death of me!
ReplyDeleteOhhh, the things we do for our kiddos (or friend's kiddos!)
Thank you for sharing!
This is beautiful! I'm trying to make a cake with painted on pieces of food and I just want to make sure I'm understanding the process. I've scoured the web looking for help, but haven't found much on this. Is there a certain technique you used on the food and butterfly or did you just mix the gel colors and water and paintaway?! I'm going to give it a try, but any help would be appreciated! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah. I pretty much did just that, mix the colours with water and paint away! I just treated it as water colours. Just a couple of tips though:
Delete• let the fondant set a bit before you paint on it, as it softens further with the painting (leaving it until it is nice and hard is best).
• Work quickly. The paint dissolves the fondant, so if you work on it for too long
...continued
Delete•If you work on a piece for too long, it can become a sticky mess.
• If you make a mistake, use a clean moist brush and 'sweep' or erase the mistake away quickly, then let it dry a bit again before you try again (again to avoid the sticky mess).
Good luck! I hope your cake turns out beautifully xx
Hello i love your cake its fab, just wondering if you made the caterpiller out of fondant as well and then painted it as its amasing, the best that i have seen well done x
DeleteThank you so much :)
DeleteThe caterpillar was indeed made of fondant, then painted. I think if I had to do it again though, I would make a base structure out of rice krispy treats, then cover that in fondant and then paint.
Hi I will try that and let you know how I get on with the rice krispys, how did you make the little hairs on his back is it just fondant? Also how have you covered the cake stand is it hungry caterpiller fabric or paper? Thanks for your help, Christina x
ReplyDeletePlease do let me know! I'd love to see a photo :)
DeleteThe little hairs I made by rolling little worms of fondant and leaving them to harden, then I painted them and let them dry. They were then just pushed into the fresh fondant of the caterpillar's back. I covered the cake board with paper, then clear sticky back plastic.
How did you cover the cake board? Is there a printable that I could use and print. Thanks love it. Im from Aus and doing a hungry caterpillar theme cake soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you xx
DeleteI found the image on the Internet, then printed out enough sheets to cover the board. I then covered the board in clear vinyl / sticky-back plastic. Good luck with your cake, I would love to see a picture of it when it's done!
Such an amazing cake, I'm going to try and make something similar for my granddaughter's 1st birthday. Can I ask what your timeframe was like making your cake.
ReplyDeleteThank you