Z-Man’s Fourth Birthday 3D Monster Mutt Rottweiler Cake and Matching Cupcakes!

Hey everyone not only do I love to craft but I especially love make edible crafts for my son’s birthday parties and I just had to share with you the awesome cake and cupcakes I made for his last party in which he turned four. This year since he is really into Monster Trucks and Monster Jam he decided he wanted a 3D Monster Mutt cake and matching monster truck cupcakes, so instead of buying the cake and cupcakes which I will now admit would have been a whole lot easier and less time consuming I decided I would just make the cake myself like I have the previous years (I will post those with how-to directions later on as well).

Here is our finished Monster Mutt Cake:

For the cake I used:

White Cake Mix (4 boxes)

White Frosting (4 of the small tubs)

Gel Food Coloring (Brown, Black and Grey)

1-4”x10” inch bread pan for the nose (hood)

1-8”x11” inch glass baking dish (long cake pan) for the body

1-6”x 9” inch glass baking dish for the cab of the truck

4-41/2 inch spring form pans for the monster truck tires

1 sheet of black edible paper for the ears and windows

Large pretzel sticks for the tail and “shocks” under the cake (see side photo)

1 package of sour licorice candy (only used one of the red licorice for the tongue)

1 package of coconut (colored w/ the brown food coloring for “dirt”)

1 small package of the small toasted marshmallows w/ brown coconut for the “rocks”

and finally for the “dirt” base I ordered a whole sheet chocolate chip cookie cake from our local grocery store.

Instructions:

(FYI: it’s been a few months since I actually made the cake so I’m going to roughly go though the steps my dad and I used to make the cake, and it will take some tweaking to get it right and the way you want it)

The first step was to make the cakes ahead of time (since I was in school I made them two days in advance so we would have a whole day to assumable) and I froze them overnight (very important step so they don’t fall apart when carving them).

Here is a photo of the body of the truck and cab along with the four wheels:

I prepared the cake mix according to the directions on the box, I think the brand was Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix (I got on sale at our local Wal-Mart for 98 cents a box). I used only one box for the body, a whole box for the wheels (1 box should be more than enough to fill the four mini cake pans that will act as the tires), I used another box to make 4”x10” and 6”x9” pans that would make the hood and cab. It is also wise if you have left over batter or an extra box to make a couple of extra cabs and hoods (I made one extra of each and ended up having to use them because of issues with the first ones).

Once the cakes were chilled in the freezer overnight the next step was to assemble and ice this puppy (pun intendedJ)! The first thing we did was place the body on the cookie cake and gently cut on the fenders where the tires would sit easily and then cut the cab to fit and slanted the cake we used as the hood. I really wish I would have had photos but my computer crashed and I am lucky to have the few photos I had uploaded to facebook but all my assembly photos were wiped out. (NOTE: if the cake starts falling apart put it back in the freezer for an hour or so and for extra support you can use some of the pretzel rods to hold some of the cake up in place, and remember it doesn’t have to be perfect the kids are going to devour it quickly so it won’t matter)

Once we had the cake put together with all the tires set in place we began icing the cake making sure to mix the white icing with the gel food color for the appropriate color for Monster Mutt Rottweiler, we used a photo of the truck I took at the Monster Jam show we attended earlier in the year for the coloring but here is a good photo I found on the internet showing off his colors for a general idea and comparison (photo borrowed from: http://www.monstermayhem.org/forums/showthread.php?15716-Best-looking-new-truck-scheme):

I mixed the colors by eyeballing them, I started with the amount of white icing that I thought it would take to cover all the parts that needed to be that color and added the color gel until I got the color I wanted. Which I did for the Black, Grey(silver) and Brown.

Once the Mutt was iced we added the finishing touches of the red licorice tongue (cutting it to look like he was panting, we cut the ears and widows out of the black edible paper (I picked this up at our local Hobby Lobby) and iced the inside of the tires grey to look like wheels, placed the stubbed pretzel tail (we covered in black icing) and then used the other pretzels to look as shocks and the other rods under the truck.

After the final touches to the truck were finished we began working on the “dirt” he would be setting on: since we started with a chocolate chip cookie cake it was already the dirt color and I just wanted to give it more of a realistic Monster Jam look so I took a package of shredded coconut and added some of the brown gel food coloring and shook it up until the coconut flakes were pretty much colored then sprinkled it around on the cookie to look like loose dirt and on the tires to look as if he had driven through the “mud” then I added the small toasted coconut (brown) marshmallows to look like bigger chunks of dirt and mud.

This is the finished product:

Please just remember this is supposed to be a fun 3D cake to make and it does take some work getting it to look right but it don’t have to be perfect, our cake was far from perfect by Z-Man loved it anyway and the kids at his party were thrilled with it and it didn’t really last to awful long once it was time to eat cake and ice cream!

Feel free to use this how-to ( I know it’s not the best, I’m not great at explaining how to do these type things) and if you have any questions about any of my directions please feel free to shoot me over an e-mail at craftyarmom@aol.com and I will do my best to help you out. Also if you do tackle this cake for your little ones I’d love to see a picture J!

Okay, I know what your thinking by now, I’m not a cake maker and this looks impossible (though it’s really not) and for you crafty moms, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents looking for a fun Monster Truck cake/cupcake idea that doesn’t require lots of cutting and assembly I have a set of super easy to make and awesome Monster Jam cupcakes that will also be perfect for the little one’s Monster Jam party!

To make these cupcakes I used:

2-boxes of Confetti Cake Mix

24-black cupcake papers

2- Nonstick Cupcake/Muffin Pans (6 cups in each pan)

2-cans of white icing

Gel Food coloring (Green, Brown, Orange, Red, Black (to make Grey))

Sprinkles (Bones (Halloween), Red Sugar, (Halloween Mix of Green, White, Black and Purple), Orange Sprinkles, Yellow Sprinkles

Cake Decorating Kit with Nozzles (I got mine at Hobby Lobby for $14.00 and it works great on cupcakes)

24- Monster Jam Stickers (I ordered these online here: http://www.birthdaydirect.com/monster-truck-jam-value-stickers-individual-p-28044.html)

24- Toothpicks or wooden skewers

Double sided tape or Tape dots

Directions:

Mix and bake the cupcakes per directions on the back of the box. Since I made 24 cupcakes it took two full rounds of baking and cooling to get them all baked, and I used two boxes of the confetti cake mix to make the cupcakes fairly large. (NOTE: When baking my cupcakes in baking cups inside muffin tins I like to spray the paper cup well with cooking spray to keep them from sticking and it makes them much easier to get out of the paper when it’s time to eat).

Once I had the cupcakes in the oven and baking I took this time to cut the white edges off the stickers to make them perfect circles (again this does not have to be done nor do the circles have to be perfect, kids don’t pay that much attention to detail), (NOTE: if you would prefer to print out your cupcake toppers that would work fine as well)

After I got all the white off the stickers and they were nice and round, I made sure to leave the backing on so that the kiddos would have a sticker to use once they took it off the cupcake (see two for one here, cupcake topper and party favor)! I then used a glue dot to attach the sticker to a wooden tooth pick and that’s it, you have cute once of a kind cupcake toppers made just for your little ones party!

Once the cupcakes were all baked and allowed to cool I divided them up so that I would have 5 cupcakes for each of the Monster Trucks I had stickers for and set out to mixing the icing. To apply the icing to the cupcakes I used my cake icing tool with the tip used to make flowers and such to give me the wavy swirl that I wanted on these cupcakes. Again with mixing I just eyeballed all the colors until I got the color I wanted and just guessed at how much white icing needed, after the first 5 it will be easy to estimate on the amount of white icing needed for the others.

* Monster Mutt cupcakes were iced brown with bone sprinkles that I had picked up at Target around Halloween.

* El Toro Loco cupcakes were iced orange with yellow sprinkles

* Captain’s Curse cupcakes were iced dark red with red sugar sprinkles

* Grave Digger cupcakes were iced green with a mixture of black, white, green and purple sprinkles that again I picked up around Halloween time.

* Maximum Destruction cupcakes were iced silver/grey (I made this color by using just a touch of black gel in the white icing) and topped with orange sprinkles.

Once I had the cupcakes all iced and decorated I added the cupcake toppers and that’s it you have a one of a kind yummy batch of cupcakes for the little Monster Jam fan and his/her friends.

Well that’s it for the cake/cupcakes used for Z-Man’s Monster Jam party. I hope this has inspired you to get in the kitchen and get creative when it comes to fun birthday cakes and ideas. Please feel free to use either of these ideas for your little ones, all I ask is if you do I’d love to see a picture (not required tho) and just have fun making them and don’t be to serious about them being perfect, again the kiddos don’t care they are just going to love the fact that its fun, different, unique and not store bought!

Again, if you have any questions or if I need to clear anything up please feel free to contact me at craftyarmom@aol.com and I will do my best to help you out. Be sure to keep checking back because I have how-tos for a WonderPet Flyboat 3D cake, Disney’s Mater 3D Cake, and lastly a 3D Dinosaur Train cake along with some cute handmade party favors that are sure to be a huge hit!

Thanks so much for checking out my blog and our Monster Mutt Rottweiler 3D Cake and matching Monster Jam cupcakes!