By request: Joshua’s gecko cake

This year Joshua requested a gecko cake for his birthday (actually, first he wanted an axolotl cake and then he decided on a gecko). He’s really into animals and really into reptiles, so I wasn’t at all surprised.

I used a single homemade round chocolate cake layer to make this gecko. I was surprised at how well it worked out…I had just a few scraps left and those were happily consumed by the kids. 😉 I loosely followed the pattern from the axolotl cake diagram for my initial cuts and then just used some of the scraps for the legs.

The axolotl cake recipe suggested freezing the cake before frosting it, so I gave that a try and I am a believer now! If you’ve ever hacked up a cake and then tried to frost it, you know that the cut sides are a bear to deal with. Freezing the cake before frosting it makes the job so much easier.

I let Joshua and his friend do the frosting.

I think this was nearly as much fun for them as eating the cake.

Joshua came up with the idea to use chick sprinkles (from a clearance pack of sprinkles that I bought after Easter) for the gecko’s claws. We also sprinkled the top of the gecko with green sugar from the same pack because it made him look a bit more reptilian. 😉

And we used some sour cherry balls for the eyes.

You know what’s nice about giving the frosting job to the kids? It relieves you of any responsibility for making the cake perfect (not that any of mine ever look perfect!).

Joshua was over the moon about his gecko cake, just like Lisey was about her imperfect Peep bunny cake (and like Zoe was about her imperfect Mola-Mola cake). And Sonia was very pleased with her CandyLand Cake, even though it didn’t look nearly as nice as the one in the magazine.

I love that my children are so excited about the not-magazine-worthy cakes that I turn out…Martha Stewart Living will never call and ask me to share my decorating tips on their TV show, but my cakes make my kids happy and that’s what matters. 🙂

Today’s 365 post: More slightly ugly bread from me