Turtle Birthday Cake!

My son picked this out for his fourth birthday (yesterday).  We spent the day in Asiago, at a gnome park, then got pizza, and then came home and had his family party with this cake.

This cake is pretty easy to make; you just need two round cakes, frosting, a bigger cupcake or muffin, and some miscellaneous stuff. This method comes from Parenting.  For the cake, I made a cream cheese pound cake.  It was too much for just the cake pans, so I put the rest into a small loaf pan and we ate it Sunday with nectarines and whipped cream.

Turtle Birthday Cake
from Parenting

2 cups (about) vanilla frosting
Green food coloring
2 (8 or 9-inch) round cakes
4 Little Debbie Nutty Bars (or something similarly shaped)
1 jumbo cupcake or muffin
½ cup chocolate frosting (or Nutella- may not need all of it)
2 green or blue M&M's
1 tube black decorating icing
1 small bag Tootsie Rolls
12 green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews (or Laffy Taffy)

What you'll need:
1 resealable snack or sandwich-size plastic bag
A serving platter
A bread knife
A rolling pin or a heavy bottle

For the white and green frosting:
Spoon 2 Tbsp of the vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag.  Add food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it green

Trimming the cake:
Place one 8 or 9-inch cake on a serving platter. Using a bread knife, trim the top to make it level. Spread some of the green frosting on top. Place the second 8 or 9-inch cake on top to make a 2-layer cake.  Bevel the edges of the top cake to make the turtle shell's dome shape.  Spread the top and sides of cake with the remaining green frosting; make smooth.

Assembling the cake:
Trim 1 inch from one end of each Nutty Bar. Press Nutty Bars, cut side in, against the turtle-shell cake for the turtle's legs.  Trim the jumbo cupcake or muffin and place in the front for the turtle's head. Spread chocolate frosting or Nutella over the cupcake and make smooth.

For the icing decoration:
Snip a small corner from the bag of untinted vanilla frosting.  For the turtle's eyes, pipe white dots onto the cupcake head and attach the green or green M&M's. Pipe white dots on the M&M's.  Pipe white dots on the tips of the snack cakes for the turtle's claws.  Using the black decorating icing, pipe black eye brows and nostrils.

For the shell pattern:
Press 3 Tootsie Rolls together (may microwave for a few seconds first). Using your rolling pin or a heavy bottle, roll the Tootsie Rolls out on a piece of wax paper. Use a sharp paring knife or sharp edge of a metal brownie server to cut the flattened Tootsie Rolls into hexagons of varying size. Repeat with the remaining Tootsie Rolls to make 7 brown hexagons (or just make as few or many as you want.)

Press 2 of the green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews/Laffy Taffy together and roll out on a sheet of wax paper. Cut out a smaller hexagonal shape from the flattened green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews. Repeat with remaining green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews until you have 6 (give or take) green hexagons.
Arrange the chocolate and green hexagons on top of the cake.  

Press some of the Tootsie Roll scraps together and shape into a 2-inch cone. Bend slightly and attach as the turtle's tail.

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