How to Make a Dinosaur Cake

I am just going to give a warning before you read this post.

This is simply how to MAKE a very easy dinosaur cake,

NOT how to DECORATE the cake.

For Cannon's 5th Birthday I let him decorate his own cake.

Which if you ask me was the best part of the whole thing!

Here is the finished result:

How to Make a Dinosaur Cake

And here's how to do it:

You will need:

1 cake mix (I used one from a box)

- One 8 or 9" cake pan

- Muffin Tin

- 1 small - medium glass (ovenproof) bowl

Prepare the cake according to the package directions.

Thoroughly spray the bowl, cake pan and 4 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Use half of the batter to fill up the 8-9" cake pan.

Fill 4 muffin cups with batter

Pour the remaining batter into the ovenproof glass bowl (make sure you use a bowl that is large enough - you don't want cake flowing over the edge.  I put mine on a cookie sheet just to be safe).

It should look something like this:

Now put those all in a 350 degree oven.

** Note that the cooking times are going to be different for each.  Check the cake box for cooking times for the cupcakes and round.

I put them all in at the same time, and took the cupcakes out as soon as they were done, and then took the cake pan out when it was done, and finally took out the bowl.

The bowl is going to have to cook for the longest amount of time, since it will be the thickest.  I had to cook mine for about 40 minutes.  Just poke a butter knife in there and make sure that it comes out clean (same as the toothpick concept).

Let everything cool completely.

Now for the assembly:

The bowl cake is going to go down first, and will be the main body of the dinosaur.  I used frosting to hold it in place.

(**You may have to cut the top of the cake to ensure that it is flat)

Cut the tops off of the cupcakes, leaving them in-tact and set aside.

Now cut each cupcake in half, making a moon shape so it will fit around the body (they are going to be the hands and feet):

Now use the cupcake tops to form the head and the neck:

One top is cut in half to form the neck.

The other half of that piece connects to the neck to hold up the head (the 'nose' and 'head' are each one cupcake top).

Now use your round cake and cut out a tail.  I followed along the edge so the tail would curl around, like so:

And there you have it!

Cannon wanted it blue with green, so we used blue frosting with green sprinkles:

He also informed me that it needed "spikes", which ended up being chocolate covered almonds.

He went a little spike crazy but he had a great time doing it and he LOVED the end result!

He spent a long while admiring his work...

Happy Birthday Cannon!