Easy Digger Cake Idea

Today I’m sharing a really easy digger cake idea. Earlier this year I was searching for easy cake decorating ideas and stumbled across this absolutely inspired construction birthday cake from Modern Parents, Messy Kids.

I immediately bookmarked it as a potential birthday cake for one of my boys, it has got to be the quickest and easiest cake to decorate ever!

Small Baby recently turned two (where did that time go?!) and I thought that this cake would be perfect for him.  He’s such a stereotypical boy, with his love of trains, planes, tractors and cars, and diggers are high up there on his current list of favourite things!

I decided to make a homemade cake and take inspiration from the original construction cake to decorate it, and despite spending a whole 5 minutes on decorating it, I was pleased enough with how it came out to share it here with you!

An abiding childhood memory for me is that come rain or shine, my lovely Mum ALWAYS made us each a homemade birthday cake every year.  We’d spend hours poring over her cake decorating books, and she never failed to pull off whatever complicated cake we chose!

Sadly though, I don’t appear to have inherited her brilliant cake decorating genes, although I was very pleased with the success with Small Child’s minion cupcakes last year.  My homemade cakes always taste pretty good, though I say so myself, but the decorating part is usually somewhat lacking in polish!

This simple cake decorating idea was therefore a godsend.

I had to make our cake dairy free due to Mr Amazing’s dairy intolerance, so I used this easy Chocolate Cake recipe by Mary Berry, substituting the butter with pure sunflower dairy free spread and leaving out the ganache icing.

For the icing, I used this Vegan Chocolate Fudge Icing recipe from BBC Food, although I added a little extra icing sugar as the icing was a bit too runny for this cake.

Easy Digger Cake

Supplies needed:

• 1 chocolate cake, homemade or shop bought
• chocolate icing of your choice (if using a homemade cake)
• 2 or 3 matchbox sized toy construction vehicles
• chocolate chips and chocolate chunks to decorate

Method:

First wash your vehicles in warm soapy water and dry thoroughly.  I bought new vehicles especially for use on the cake – they made a much appreciated extra little present for the birthday boy!

Place your cake on a plate or cake board.  If using a homemade cake, stack up any layers with a little icing in between.

With the tip of a sharp knife, cut a hole in the top of the cake and remove the resulting chunk of cake. Eat it up before anyone else snaffles it – it’s the cooks reward!

Spread your icing over the top of the cake, leaving the hole bare. Arrange the construction vehicles so that they look like they are in action – being sure to place a digger by the hole.

Add the chocolate chips and chocolate chunks to complete the picture.  

I had the bulldozer shovelling dark chocolate chips, and piled a few chunks of dark chocolate into the tipper truck.

Serve up and enjoy!

Small Baby was absolutely delighted with his cake – we had trouble persuading him to stop playing with the vehicles long enough for us to cut it up and eat it!

If diggers aren’t your thing, you may also like these simple birthday cake ideas from some of my blogging friends; Princess Castle Cake, Mini Monster Cakes and Spider Man Cupcakes from ET Speaks from Home, Peppa Pig Cake Video Tutorial from Taming Twins, Chocolate Cupcakes from Fab Food 4 All or this Really Easy Owl Cake from Sew White.

Do you make homemade birthday cakes for your children?

Grace

Print Recipe

Easy Digger Cake

Really easy digger cake for kids - this is the easiest birthday cake to decorate ever - my boys loved it!

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time0 mins

Decorating5 mins

Total Time10 mins

Course: Dessert, Party Food

Cuisine: British, Vegetarian

Servings: 6 people

Author: Grace Hall

Ingredients

• 1 chocolate cake, homemade or shop bought
• chocolate icing of your choice (if using a homemade cake)
• 2 or 3 matchbox sized toy construction vehicles
• chocolate chips and chocolate chunks to decorate

Instructions

• First wash your vehicles in warm soapy water and dry thoroughly.  I bought new vehicles especially for use on the cake - they made a much appreciated extra little present for the birthday boy!
• Place your cake on a plate or cake board.  If using a homemade cake, stack up any layers with a little icing in between.
• With the tip of a sharp knife, cut a hole in the top of the cake and remove the resulting chunk of cake. Eat it up before anyone else snaffles it - it's the cooks reward!
• Spread your icing over the top of the cake, leaving the hole bare. Arrange the construction vehicles so that they look like they are in action - being sure to place a digger by the hole. Add the chocolate chips and chocolate chunks to complete the picture.  I had the bulldozer shovelling dark chocolate chips, and piled a few chunks of dark chocolate into the tipper truck.