Kids' birthday cake ideas: Woodland

Materials:

• large chocolate roll or jelly roll
• two small chocolate rolls
• chocolate icing
• crumbled chocolate cookies, ground pistachios, mint leaf candies
• cake board or serving tray
• toothpicks
• extra edible decorations, see below

Directions:

1. Lay a large chocolate roll (or jelly roll) on a cake board or serving tray. Cut slanted edges off two small chocolate rolls.

2. Attach the “branches” to the top and side of the large chocolate roll using toothpicks. Spread a layer of chocolate icing all over log.

3. Drag the tines of a fork across the log to create the look of bark. Decorate cake with cookie “dirt” crumbs, ground pistachio “moss,” and mint leaves.

Decorations:

Ladybugs: Use Wilton Foodwriter’s black edible colour marker to create M&M ladybugs. Draw a line down the centre of a red M&M. Draw its ‘head’ at the end of one line. Draw dots on the remaining body. You can try this with mini M&M’s too.

Candy mushrooms: Cut 1/4 of a white mini-marshmallow off the top. This will give you a sticky edge. Attach the flat-side of a strawberry marshmallow on the sticky edge of the mini marshmallow.

Candy flowers: Use food-safe scissors to cut a mini marshmallow into several thin slices. Take a yellow M&M and attach the marshmallow ‘petals’ on one side of the M&M. Flip it over to make a flower. If desired, cut green licorice into ‘stems’ for flowers.

A version of this article appeared in the September 2013 issue.

See more of our DIY birthday cake ideas here>