Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake

Back in the spring I decided to take a cake decorating class at a local cake supply store.  I will admit that the idea of going into a room filled with gluten laden cakes freaked me out; but I was a mom on a mission.  Armed with vinyl gloves and sitting at my own table to minimize cross contamination, I dug in.  It was a lot of fun, and my curious getup prompted some great questions from the other students so I took it upon myself to do a little Celiac Disease education!  Instead of taking my cakes home (too risky), I gifted them to friends, family and the other students.  Maybe it will inspire a real professional to start a gluten free bakery in Albuquerque!

There is one bakery in town that makes gluten free cake but it is not a dedicated bakery and the cake just wasn’t that great.  It was heavy and loaded with pineapple and nuts… not exactly kid fare.  I also knew I didn’t want my boys to grow up just having plain frosted cupcakes for every party or what I call a 9 x 13 “Pyrex cake.”  If my boys have to be gluten-free, then I want all of their friends to be envious of their food! 😉

So, where to start?  The cake recipe or the cake decoration?  I figured that the decorations were most important.  If it is bright and not a color found in nature, then I have a foot in the door with the under 10 set.  The new GF Betty Crocker cake mixes are pretty good and they are quick.  I still want to find a great scratch cake recipe, but time is of the essence, they are already 5 and 2!

Luke’s 2nd birthday party is around the corner, so I decided to do a practice cake before his party.  He loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle, so that is the theme.  Now I need a caterpillar cake!  I found a Caterpillar Cakelet Pan from Williams Sonoma which was quite helpful.  I made several batches of cakelets out of chocolate and yellow cake batter from the GF Betty Crocker mixes, this way I could alternate each segmented body part with the different flavors.  One thing that I learned in my cake decorating class was how to use an icing bag and several different tips.  The #21 and #32 tips are good staples for decorating most cakes that you can bake in the little kid shaped pans you can find at a craft store.

Here is my practice caterpillar cake:

My cake board was a bit small so I couldn’t give the caterpillar the accurate shape, but it is a start!  I used 2 purple lollipops for the antenna.  Luke loved it.

Actual Birthday Cake: