How to make an elephant cake tutorial

A couple weeks ago I posted Cole's wild safari party which, included a cute elephant cake and wild animal cupcakes.  Also, as many of you already know I am also a guest blogger on Spaceships and Laser beams so I wrapped the two together and came up with how to plan a wild animal kingdom party and also gave a tutorial on how to sculpt an elephant cake. If you want some ideas on how to plan a wild animal kingdom party for your little one please go check out my post. You can also follow me on Pinterest where I pin lots of ideas for different parties and events. So without further ado I will share with you the tutorial on how to make this cute little elephant. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

First up you will need to bake one 8” round cake and, one half ball cake. The half ball cake pan is a Wilton product, which can be purchased at most local craft stores.

Next, cut the 8” tier in half because we will only need one layer to achieve the correct height. After you have one layer of the 8” cake you can place the half ball cake on top and, then carve down the sides so that the cake bottom cake is level with the half ball cake. After you have carved your cake you can spread icing on the entire cake and set aside to firm up.

Next up, we will work on the board for the cake so that it will resemble grass that the elephant is sitting on. You will need to get a board approximately 14” x 10” (board size will vary depending on how big you make the legs) and cover it in fondant. After the entire board is covered in fondant take green food coloring and add streaks of color to the fondant. Before the food coloring dries take a paper towel and pat the streaked area to give the fondant the appearance of grass. Repeat this process until you have covered the entire board. After you have finished the board you can move on to covering the body of the elephant in gray fondant. Don’t forget to add some wrinkles!

 When you have completed the board and body you can move on to shaping the legs and head out of rice cereal treats. I used rice cereal because it is easy to shape and also kids love it! The head will be the hardest part of the body to shape. You want to make sure the head matches the size of the body you have so be sure to check it while forming the head. After you have completed the head you can shape the legs. You will want to make sure the entire elephant will fit on the board you have cut so you may need to modify the legs a little to make sure everything fits

After sculpting the head and legs you can cover everything in matching gray fondant and add some cute matching wrinkles. Then you can place the entire elephant onto your board. At this point you will want to hide the gaps between the legs and the body by adding extra wrinkles (fondant) into those shapes.

Lastly, you add all the details to your elephant to make him come to life! For the ears cut a template out of paper to line up with the elephant before cutting them out of fondant. Once you have the ears in place use paper towels or dowels to support the ears in place while they dry. You may need to add dowel supports behind the ears for extra stability. If the border around your elephant is not as clean as you would like then you can add a simple grass border to hide the imperfections. Don’t forget his eyebrows, toenails, and tail!

 Ta-da a cute little elephant fit for any child's birthday!

Hope this tutorial will help you guys out! Keep an eye for my guest blogging post on Spaceships and Laser beams where I will give new party ideas and a matching tutorial every month. Don't forget to enter our giveaway to win an Ipad or Ipad mini (three chances to win). The giveaway will run until the end of March!