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31 Incredible Birthday Cake Designs

Step-by-step recipes, designs and color pics of the easiest (and cutest) birthday cakes for boys and girls

Ingredients:

• 1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
• Yellow food coloring
• Red food coloring
• 1 frozen pound cake (10.75 oz), thawed
• 1 bar (4 oz) white chocolate
• 2 chocolate-covered doughnuts
• 2 mini-chocolate-covered doughnuts
• Thin pretzel sticks
• 3 red and 2 green Dots
• 4 yellow M&M's
• 2 orange Fruit Loops Cereal Straws
• 1 graham cracker
• 1 cup coarsely crushed chocolate graham-cracker crumbs

What you'll need:

• A bread knife
• 2 resealable sandwich-size plastic bags(Ziploc)
• A serving platter
• A serrated knife

For the white and yellow frosting:

1. Spoon 2 Tbsp of the untinted vanilla frosting into a small resealable bag.
2. Add yellow food coloring and a few drops of the red food coloring to the remaining frosting to tint it a yellow-orange. Spoon ¼ cup of the yellow-orange frosting into another resealable plastic bag.

Trimming and frosting the cake:

1. Place the cake on a clean work surface. Using a bread knife, cut the cake crosswise so you have one 3 by 3 ½-inch cake and one 4 by 3 ½-inch cake. Take the smaller 3 by 3 ½-inch piece and trim a ½-inch slice from either side of the cake (see template). Discard trimmings.
2. Place the larger 4 by 3 ½-inch piece, cut side down, on a serving platter. Attach the 3 by 2 ½-inch piece to the front of the tall piece with some of the yellow-orange frosting, as pictured.
3. Spread the cakes with the remaining yellow-orange frosting to cover and make smooth.

For the candy decoration:

1. Cut the white chocolate into 2 (1 by 1 ½-inch) rectangles and 1 (2 by 3-inch) rectangle for the windows.
2. Attach the chocolate doughnuts at the back of the cake as wheels. Press the mini–chocolate-covered doughnuts in front on the smaller cake as the wheels.
3. Press the larger white chocolate "window" onto the cab of the bulldozer; press the smaller white-chocolate windows onto either side of the bulldozer's cab.
4. Trim the pretzel sticks with a serrated knife and outline the white-chocolate windows with the pretzels.
5. Add the red and green Dots to the top of the cake.
6. Snip a small corner from the bags with the white and yellow-orange frosting. Pipe white dots in front of the cake and add the red Dots as the lights.
7. Pipe the vanilla frosting in the center of the doughnuts and press the yellow candies in, as pictured.

For the bulldozer's shovel:

1. Pipe a dot of yellow-orange frosting on top of the back wheels and lay the orange Froot Loops Cereal Straws on top, as pictured.
2. Spread the remaining yellow-orange frosting over the graham cracker. Rest the graham cracker in front of the cereal sticks for the bulldozer's shovel.
3. Pipe an outline of yellow-orange frosting around the graham cracker. Pile the coarsely crushed chocolate graham crackers around cake and on the shovel.

Cake Anatomy:

Cake Cutout: