Playable Angry Birds Cake

Roopa

It was my friend Sandy’s son’s 5th birthday this weekend, and she asked if I could make a birthday cake for the occasion. Like any 5 year old, he cycles through interests pretty quickly, but the final consensus was an Angry Birds cake. I watched a video of a playable cake a few years ago, and thought it would be really cool to try recreate that. I took the lazy route and let her supply me with the pigs and birds (rather than trying to make them from fondant), as well as a slingshot. As a Lego fanatic, I kind of judged the structural integrity of the K’Nex slingshot, but that’s just me being picky. Because of the animals, the cake is not 100% edible, but I don’t really have the time, skill, or fondant to make them all. I’m really just banking on 5 year olds being easily impressed.

It’s kind of tricky to make a relatively stable cake that falls apart really easily. I brought Sandy the cake and all the components, and she assembled it the morning of the party. She sent me a picture of the final product in all its glory! Note: the slingshot is actually separate, but on the cake for picture purposes.

For the cake, I made a full batch of my vanilla recipe (in a 9"X13" pan) as well as another half batch (in a square 8"X8" pan). I figured it’s better to have a little too much cake than not enough cake.

VANILLA CAKE (9X13)

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 cup milk
1-¾ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
3/8 cup oil
2 tbsp. apple sauce
2 tbsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F.
Add vinegar to milk, and set aside.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
Mix milk, oil, apple sauce, and vanilla together
Combine wet and dry ingredients. Don’t overmix.
Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through.

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM ICING

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter, softened
3 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
food colouring as needed

DIRECTIONS

Beat the butter until creamy.
Add icing sugar, and beat on medium speed until well mixed
Add vanilla and salt, and mix until thoroughly incorporated

ASSEMBLY

I froze my cakes once they had cooled off, and began the cutting assembly process then, since cake is much easier to cut when frozen!

After that, I dyed a little bit of icing blue to make water, and filled in the cake itself. I also used graham crumbs and brown sugar around the cake to look beachy.

I used green icing to cover the rest of the cake with grass, and used some leftover yellow icing to make some flowers. I also made a little raft using kitkat bars.

I really enjoy the little umbrella!

For the rest of the decorations, I used kit kats and coffee crisps (since they are peanut free) and painted marshmallows blue to look vaguely like ice cubes. I froze the chocolate in the shapes I wanted (with icing between) to give it a little more stability too.