Very Hungry Catepillar cake?

[Wigeon]

I can't be the first Mnetter to attempt a Very Hungry Catepillar cake so I am after advice from anyone who has gone before me

I am envisaging something like this (third cake down).

I have quite a few elements sorted, but quite a few questions:

Body - victoria sponge in bundt tin, cut into three halves and made into a catepillar shape (two bottom halves and one top half if that makes sense).

Colouring - buttercream icing, coloured green for the body and red for the head.

Green buttercream eyes, outlined in yellow. Not sure if this will work...

I was thinking matchmakers for the antentae. Not sure how to get the little feet to look like the book, and especially not sure how to do the multi-coloured spikes on the back.

I am a bit worried that the green buttercream won't be a nice dark green and the red buttercream will be pink. Any tips?

And any general tips? I am fairly new to this novelty cake business!

Thanks in advance!

I did this for my dds birthday - used bundt tin. Used paste colouring from hobbycraft - not pink at all, violently red! And the green was hmmm very green. Used liquorice allsorts for eyes, antennae and legs on someone else suggestion - looked really cool! I was very pleased with the result!

Ooh, liquorice allsorts - great tip! Am quite near a hobbycraft too...Thank you.

would def recommend paste from a proper cake dec supplier as opposed to food colouring...and please never forget that LO's/kids are always thrilled with the finished creation despite your own reservations

I did a hungry caterpillar cake for DS2's 1st birthday.

Very basic: did plain sponge and covered in white ready roll icing.

Drew out the caterpillar onto tracing paper the right size for the cake, then made up some slightly different colour greens in icing together with the other colours (orange for sun, red for face etc) and rolled out bits, cut them out with a knife and bunged them on the cake using a paint brush and water to 'glue' them on.

I'll try to put up a picture.

Would second using coloured paste rather than dyes - much easier and you don't need much, but they last for quite a while so are worth the outlay.

I always freeze any unused icing paste.

Wow - that looks fantastic Pigeonpie! Lots of votes for paste - I think it will be an investment for many birthday cakes to come.

Aseriously - the cake is for a joint birthday party for 8 two year olds (including my own) and their parents; I am much more concerned about impressing the parents rather than their 2 year olds who will no doubt be very impressed as long as the cake contains 100% cake!

Thank you everyone for thoughts /advice so far.

Oh - I think I can use paste colouring in buttercream as well as fondant icing? The catepillar will be 3 dimensional, rather than a flat picture, IYSWIM.

Check out this cupcake version www.cococakecupcakes.blogspot.com/search?q=hungry+caterpillar .

wigeon please relax i know it's hard...but if the other kids parents were so concerned then they would have made other arrangements..and we all know that your LO will be thrilled with mummy's cake as you've made it and let's face it that's all that matters

Don't worry, I'm not really stressing about it - they all think I'm a domestic goddess already because I occasionally make muffins!! . So I have a reputation to uphold ! I'm sure they will love it - I just want it to look (and taste) good!

I did the cupcake version jellybeang mentioned and it worked well. The only problem was getting multi-toned green buttercream icing but we got there in the end.

I bet that yours will be great! If you are 'theming' the party,Waitrose and JohnLewis do lovely Hungry Caterpillar invitations, baloons, badges, hats etc.

Have fun!

Have just had a trip to Hobbycraft and bought red and green paste colouring - thank you wifeofdoom! I never knew Hobbycraft did cake stuff.

I am thinking of russtling up a few cupcakes as well in case there isn't enough cake (15 adults, 8 children).

The Big Bake Day is tomorrow so will post a picture of the final result...

I like this one

Oh, must read thread before posting!

Good luck, and post a pic so we can copy you

Good Luck Wigeon! Looking forward to seeing it in all it's glory.

Photos on profile! I am really pleased.

Cake - bundt tin. Marbled with plain victoria sponge mix and cocoa/ victoria sponge mix. Sections stuck together with melted chocolate, and cake stuck to board with melted chocolate.

Body and head - buttercream coloured with paste colouring.

Legs, eyes, nose and sun - shop-bought ready to roll coloured icing.

Antenae - matchmakers

Spots - smarties, stuck on with glace icing.

Did buy all-sorts but decided not to eat them and unfortunately will have to eat the whole packet .

Thank you everyone for their help! I'm not sure anyone at the party is going to be allowed to eat it!

fabulous!! I love it.

the hungry catepillar is one of our families fave books.

Thank you very much!

Its DS2s birthday Saturday and I've just decided I'm doing one!

fabulous, well done

Thank you! If you are going to try it, some of its more impressive stats are:

9 eggs
At least 500g of icing sugar
2 pats of butter in the icing alone
5 tubes of smarties

And you can't quite see from the picture, but I used light green and dark green icing for the body, which looks nice, but I should have made the light lighter and the dark darker.

Wigeon - that looks fab! Well done. Now you've done that there'll be no stopping your imagination next year .

Oh and your DD is gorgeous too

Thank you! I will start plannning her 3rd birthday cake imminently!

I have seen a picture of one that used an iced round cake (orange fondant icing) for the head, and then cupcakes with piped buttercream icing in green for the body. I have done quite a lot of novelty (and serious) celebration cakes, and this loked great. I am going to do it for my 15 year old daughters birthday as she loved the book, and did an animation project at school of the story recently!