Dinosaur Birthday Cake
Want an adorable Dinosaur Birthday cake - without the hassle of a layer cake? This one's a 'cut to shape' cake, and super easy to decorate!
Servings: 15 servings
Calories: 495kcal
Equipment
- serrated knife (to trim cake to shape)
- cardboard cake board (optional, but I found this the easiest way to decorate and move the cake!)
- 2 small piping bags + tips (linked is the set I used with the multi-hole grass tip, the notchedleaf tip, and the middle-sized rounded tips)
Ingredients
Dinosaur Cake base
- 3 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, room temperature)
- 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract
- 5 eggs
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk (room temperature)
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (one package; softened)
- 1 cup butter (two sticks, softened)
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter
- ¾ cup cocoa powder (Save and add later)
- 2-3 drops Blue gel food coloring (Save and add later)
- 2-3 drops Green gel food coloring (Save and add later)
Decorations
- 10-12 Small toy dinosaurs (I used this set of 12 3-inch to dinosaurs from Amazon)
- Chocolate rocks
- 10-12 red candy melts (optional; for volcano)
- 3-4 orange candy melts (optional; for volcano)
- 1 ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs (¼ cup if you just want to add some to the cake – it took about cup to cover the cake board)
Instructions
Dinosaur Cake base
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 15x10” pan with baker's floured cooking spray, or grease and line with parchment paper.
- Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle (or mixing bowl with a hand mixer or whisk) until fully combined.
- Mix room-temperature butter into the dry mix a tablespoon at at time on a low speed. Continue to mix until no large lumps of butter remain, and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Pour in eggs and mix on low until just incorporated. Mix in the buttermilk on low speed. Add in vanilla and oil, and mix at a low speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Allow cake to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pan. Cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired. (This is a great time to make your frosting!)
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt and beat until well combined.
Shaping
- Once your cake is baked and cooled/chilled, use a medium serrated knife to cut it into a number shape – I used a hand-sketched paper pattern to help me keep my cuts straight. (If you want to make a cake pop volcano, save the scraps!)
- With an offset spatula, spread a thin crumb coat of frosting over the cake – this keeps the cake from drying out and crumbs out of the colored frostings.
Decorating
- Split remaining frosting into 3 parts, and color one blue, one green, and add cocoa powder and a tablespoon or two of milk if needed to the last part to make brown frosting. (Note: if you want to decorate your cake board, split the frosting into 4 parts and color the last one light brown with cocoa powder).
- With an offset spatula, cover the bottom half of your number with brown frosting, and the top half with green.
- Add a small ‘river’ of blue frosting with an offset spatula – I spread some down the side of the number and onto the cake board to make a 'waterfall.'
- Transfer remaining green frosting to the piping bag. Pipe on grass with the multi-hole tip, and some leaves with the notched leaf tip. (Using a plastic bag/tip coupler makes switching tips easier). I also added some leaves around the base of the top of the cake.
- Transfer remaining brown frosting to another piping bag; pipe brown 'rocks' around the base of the brown part of the cake. Add small plastic dinosaurs and chocolate rocks wherever they fit!
- (Optional, but to decorate the cake board use some brown frosting to adhere graham cracker crumbs to the cake board around the cake. I added a few more chocolate rocks as well!
- (Optional) To make the cake pop ‘volcano,’ mash about a cup of cake scraps with a couple of tablespoons of frosting until the mix is pliable and no longer crumbly – add more frosting a half tablespoon at a time if needed. Mold the mix into a rough cone shape with an indent at the top, and position on the cake or cake board, and cover with brown frosting. Melt down the red candy melts, and transfer to a piping bag (or a small zip-lock). Chop a couple of orange candy melts to sprinkle on top.
- And you’re done! Congratulate yourself on your awesome-looking cake!
Video
Notes
(Please note nutrition information is an estimate, and may not be exactly accurate.)
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice (1/15th cake) | Calories: 495kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 24g