D's Crafty Hodge Podge: Jungle/Zoo Cake

This cake was so easy to make and a huge hit, with the birthday kid!

I used my favorite vanilla cake recipe, which you can find HERE.

I places the cake on a cake board right side up, hoping the uneven top would make it look uneven when finished. I also lined my cake pan with parchment paper which gave the corners their funny look.

Next I cut off one of the corners and then shaved the corner down so that it gradually slopped up wards and would look like a mountain top. I also scraped out a little river so that it would be lower then the grass

I also gradually cut away around the corner so that it would slop down and would help with my waterfall. I also placed the corner on top to make sure I like how it looked.

Now add the dirt (chocolate frosting). Make sure to get close to the river but not in it.

Now stick tooth picks into your mountain top and place it in the corner.

Finish up the dirt.

So I forgot to take a picture of the next step :( but just take your dark blue gel and squeeze it in the center of the river. Also squeeze some gel over each of the sides so it runs down.

Now add some light blue (I had a special request for "sparkly" blue) over the top of the dark blue.

Take a butter knife and smooth it out so that it mixes together just a little

I found some light blue rock candy that I took off of the stick and sprinkled randomly. It is hard to see in the pictures but really adds to the water.

Now your river is FINISHED!!!

Onto the most time consuming part.... rocks

Our local candy shop carries chocolate rocks and they are amazing! and very real looking.

I started placing them around the river and on the parts that slopped down

Then continued around the the side of the cake.

Going all the way around, this is a great part for a little helper to participate in.

My little helper found "special rock" in the rock bag that we put on the mountain top.

Then we covered the mountain and added 2 little rock to the river.

Now my little helper and I made some green frosting.

This is the most advanced step, but don't worry it really isn't that hard just used some special cake decorating items.

I used a disposable decorating bag and a Wilton open star tip (number 18)

Once your are ready to go your just cover the top with drop flowers. You just squeeze a little frosting out then lift the bag up to create the flower. I did different sizes and tried to avoid straight lines. I also liked leaving a little area with just a few tufts of grass. Also as you can see I left varying sizes of space around my grass clumps.