I thought the cake warranted its own post, with instructions!

From the time Sarah was very little, I decided to make The Very Hungry Caterpillar “her” book, the one I read to her almost every day. By the time she was a few months old, she seemed to recognize it. She would even giggle  prematurely on the page where the egg went “Pop!” because she knew what was coming.

I had seen the idea of making a caterpillar cake out of a Bundt cake a long time ago, but I Googled “Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake” to get some ideas.

I increased the cake recipe by 50% and made one Bundt cake and one 9×5 loaf cake. I cut the Bundt cake in half, then cut one half in half again to make the body. I cut a circle out of the loaf cake for the head and flattened it a bit on the side where it joins the body. In retrospect, I should have cut a little bit of the loaf cake for the tail, but instead I just carved off the end of the Bundt cake a little bit to shape the tail.

I increased the buttercream frosting recipe by 50% too, so I’d have plenty to work with. (And I have a lot of green and a little red frosting left over. Christmas cookies, anyone?) I scooped out a tiny bit and dyed it yellow, then scooped out enough to cover the head and dyed it red, then made the rest dark green and light green. The frosting job is pretty self-explanatory. One tip: instead of trying to make a thin line of yellow frosting around the eyes, I just put a little ball of yellow frosting down and carefully pressed the green candy down on top of it. I raided Anna’s candy jar and found some Spree for the eyes and nose (there were exactly three green ones!). Hershey’s kisses made great feet. The antennae were some kind of fruit-twist type candy.

When my mom arrived with the fruit/veggie tray, I helped myself to four strawberry halves and laid them on the cake board. (If that makes no sense to you, then go read the book.)

It was a lot of fun! I do not know how to decorate cakes by piping icing around in pretty designs and such, so this is one great way to make a decorated cake without having to have that particular skill.

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