My dad loves fishing! So every year I try to make him a fishing related cake or cupcakes to celebrate. This year I decided to make him a “Live Bait Can” cake using gummy worms and crushed up Oreo cookies for the “worm dirt.” This was a super easy cake to make, and it was a hit with all my nieces and nephews! They all wanted to make sure they got their share of worms and dirt when the cake was cut.
Live Bait Fishing Cake Recipe
Materials:
- 1 cake mix and accompanying ingredients needed to make the cake batter
- no stick cooking spray with flour
- 10 inch round cake board
- decorative foil
- Wilton #5 tip or another medium piping tip
- Pastry bag
- 1 bag gummy worms
- Oreo or other chocolate sandwich cookies
- 3 cups white decorative icing
- Wilton delphinium blue food color (or any color you like)
- red food color
- 2~ 8 or 9 inch round cake pans
Directions:
1. Mix up and bake the cakes according to the package directions. Spray the cake pans with the no stick cooking spray before you pour in the cake mixture.
2. Once the cakes are baked, turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
3. Once the cakes are cool level the tops with a serrated knife.
4. Cover a 10 inch round cake board with decorative foil.
5. Color most of the icing with the delphinium food color. Reserve about 1/3 cup of the icing and color it red with the red food color.
6. Put a dollop of icing in the center of the cake board and spread it around. Place the first cake, cut side face down, on top of the icing.
7. Put a layer of delphinium blue icing on top of the cake, then place the second cake on top, cut side down.
8. Ice both cakes together with two layers of the delphinium icing.
9. Let the cake set for a few minutes to allow the icing to dry a little. Smooth the icing using your fingers over a piece of wax paper.
10. Add the red icing to the pastry bag with the Wilton #5 piping tip on the end. Pipe “Live Bait” on the front of the cake.
11. Crush up about 1/2 bag of Oreo Cookies in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, or a heavy bottom cup.
12. Carefully pour the crushed cookies onto the top of the cake and level them out.
13. Clean up any excess crumbs or icing from around the cake and cake board with a damp rag.
14. Place the gummy worms on top of the cake and you’re ready to serve!
I had to haul this cake around quite a bit before it got to it’s final destination, so I waited to add the “dirt and worms” until I got to the party so it didn’t get knocked off in transit. If I didn’t have to haul the cake I probably would have added another layer or tow and made it taller (just an idea if you decide to make this cake yourself).
Here are the links to some of the other Fishing theme birthday cakes I’ve made for my dad through the years.