My Blessed Mess: Bob the Builder

I have been meaning to post this for months but kept forgetting and lost the blog so here we go. For my little guys 3rd birthday he wanted Bob the Builder. Well Bob was super popular a few years ago but now he is hard to find. Went over several different ideas for what he wanted - sheet cake that had a road made out of graham crackers in the shape of a 3 with machines digging dirt (crushed oreos) and toy figures of some of the machines and Bob, dump truck cake, and a cake shaped like Bob. Well I could not find any little figures and Conner wanted Bob not just the machines.

I am by no means a pro when it comes to decorating cakes but I do enjoy playing around with it. I finally decided to make a Bob out of round cake pans like I did my owl. (You can see that post here) I cooked my cake using two round 9 in pans and then drew out a pattern for my pieces. If you need a better idea about how to use pans to create a templete and pattern check the owl post I mentioned earlier.

After the cake cooked I let it cool for a while and long while so that it would not fall to pieces when I cut it. Also a good idea to add some pudding to the mix to help it be firmer. While the cake was cooling I made my icing. I have a huge sweet tooth but I do not love buttercream icing, it is just too sweet to me. I like to buy the Wilton whipped icing and make it myself. (You can get it from Walmart or Micheals) It is not near as sweet or as firm as buttercream so while it is deliscious it does not hold its shape as well. I make all the icing in a large bowl and then take a little out for each color I need. I use the Wilton icing dye to color my frosting.

Ok now that the cake is good and cool, you will begin cutting out your pieces. Lay your pattern on your cake and carefully cut out the parts you need. I left one circle whole and then cut out my ears, nose, and hat pieces. The hat is 3 different pieces. The bottom is a little less than half of the other cake and then I cut two pieces to make the brim of the hat and the ridge that runs up it.

After I placed my pieces I frosted it. Frosting took some time with all the corners and turns and I was not happy with the eyes and mouth but overall there was Bob and my 3 year old was tickled! I know you can not see his happiness from the pictures he was not excited about the camera but he was happy about the cake.