A Walmart Cake Makeover
This cake was a fun and enjoyable cake project to make. Ok, so let me tell you how this cake came about. I, of course, have been baking and decorating cakes for over 20 years. I started doing this because I wanted to make something special for my family on their birthdays. Well, ten years ago I moved away from my family, so I took a break from baking. And then my 4-year-old nephew called me and said he wanted a sonic cake for his birthday. So guess what’s about to happen? He will get this easy sonic hedgehog cake for a birthday.
OMG! I mean, how can I not make that happen? Although I did not want to buy a $700.00 plane ticket to make it in person, I immediately looked for alternatives on how I could make that happen for my nephew. Listen, Auntie was ready. So, I came up with a design that his mom could easily make at home in 30 minutes or less. You, too can use this design to make it at home. This decorated cake will be an adventure. But together we can do it.
From this store-bought cake…
To This Sonic Hedgehog Birthday Cake
First, you will need a few supplies:
1 – 8-10 inch cake (store bought) preferably white icing on top and as few decorations as possible. The cake I bought was $6.99 at Walmart
Can of store-bought icing or ask the baker for additional icing
Wilton blue food spray $3.00
A Sonic toy (the most expensive object for cake making, which is ok, it will be another Birthday toy)
2 – Toy trees, you may be able to get these from the dollar store, but I got mine from Amazon
Yellow fondant (A small pack)
Blue sugar sprinkles
Your choice of letter decals (I chose blue to match my cake color)
Cake board (12-inch)
Round spin table (optional)
Spatula
Note: Newspaper or table cloth to spray the cake and to keep it from getting on your surrounding areas.
Let’s get Ready to assemble this cake y’all.
Now that you have all your supplies and are ready to make this cake, I want you to freeze your cake for 1 hour; yes, put the cake in the freezer. We will always start with a frozen cake only because it makes handling the cake easier and decrease our chances of mistakes. While the cake is in the freezer, assemble all your products and ingredients needed.
First, we will remove any decorations on the top of the cake. I kept my border on the cake because I wanted to save time. I just had some essential red flowers on the top of this cake. Be careful and keep as much icing on the cake as possible. If you happen to remove too much icing as I did, don’t worry about it. We can fix it later.
Next, if you have any holes in the cake like in this picture, take some parchment paper, cut it to size, and cover the gap.
Place your cake on the turntable; if you don’t have one, you will turn your cake manually.
Now it’s time to spray your cake blue using the Wilton color spray can.
About 5-6 inches from the cake, spray your 1st coat of color. After all, this process should take no more than 5 minutes. It will be spotty, that’s ok.
We will give it another coat. Once finished with your first coat of color, put it back in the freezer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, give the cake another coat of paint. Lightly remove any excess color with a paper towel.
I sprinkled the cake with Blue Sugar candy (what is this called). Blue sugar is optional; you do not have to use this. I just wanted to give it a finishing sparkle and some texture. This step can be a bit messy. If you use the sugar, make sure you clean everything off. Now, transferring the cake, the cake should still be somewhat frozen.
Next, you will want to put some store-bought icing on the new cake board (this will act as glue); you will only need a tablespoon or two.
Now, remove your cake from the store-bought container (you can use a spatula or bench scraper) very carefully and place the cake in the center of the new cake board.
Above all else, now It’s time to decorate- if you have any holes on the top of the cake, place additional icing in that spot, it can be white as shown in the picture, or it can be blue (but you will need to buy food coloring to make it blue).
Don’t forget the Yellow fondant.
Next, it’s time to cut the fondant circle and small circle balls. Roll out a piece of fondant about ¼ inch thick (I rolled mine out on parchment paper Using the fondant roller). Take the bottom of the clean glass and use a pizza cutter to cut around the glass; this will give you a perfect circle for your cake. If you want to write anything on your circle, the time would be to do it now. Set aside.
If needed, you will need to fix your border. I used small yellow fondant balls to place around the cake. Take about 1/8th of a teaspoon of fondant, roll it in your hands, and put it around the cake. Make as many or as few as you like. I made 10-12. The fondant pieces will give your cake a finished professional look.
You can use any kind of trees.
Next, apply the toy and trees to the top of the cake. Now, you must have a happy birthday on your cake; you would need to use decals and place Happy Birthday on the cake.
Easy Sonic Hedgehog Cake for a Birthday!
Ta-Dah, you did it! How does it look? Please take a picture and post it to Instagram @dessertmakeovers.
I’m proud of you. Job well done. What are we going to make next?
