Go Diego Go! Cake

My son wanted a Go Diego Go! party for his 3rd birthday. I thought about ordering a cake for him from our favorite Italian bakery, but then I was overcome with sticker shock when I got a price quote. So, I decided to try my hand at baking his cake myself. After searching online for inspiration, I found a great set of instructions at Piece of Cake Decorating for the two-tier jungle waterfall cake I made:

Each tier was half chocolate and half banana with oreo buttercream filling. My son came up with all the flavors on his own, and the guests loved it!

Tools and Ingredients:

• 12-inch silver cake board (Wilton)
• Two 8-inch round cake boards (Wilton)
• 7 wooden dowls (Wilton)
• Dora and Diego cake toppers or other small figures (Amazon)
• 10-inch round cake (two layers)
• 8-inch round cake (two layers)
• Oreo cookies, crumbled
• Buttercream frosting (Annie’s Eats)
• Light brown frosting for covering cake
• Blue frosting for waterfall and writing birthday message
• Green frosting for grass
• Tips #5, #21 (star tip), #233 (grass tip), and #67 (leaf)

What I Did:

1. Bake an 8-inch and 10-inch cake, each with two layers. Since I only had one of each pan size, I made enough chocolate batter to bake in the 8-inch and 10-inch pans simultaneously. After the cakes cooled, I used the same pans to bake banana cakes as well.
2. Once the cake layers cool, level the cakes.
3. Crumble 2/3 pack of oreo cookies in a mini-chopper.
4. Make a quick buttercream frosting and mix it with some of the oreo crumble.
5. Place the 10-inch banana cake towards the back of the 12-inch silver cake board. This will leave you some room in the front of the board to write a birthday message and to draw the bottom of the waterfall.
6. Place the 8-inch banana cake on the 8-inch cake board.
7. Cover both banana cakes with the oreo buttercream filling.
8. Stack the chocolate cakes on top of the banana cakes, but do not stack the 8-inch cake on the 10-inch cake yet!
9. Cover both cakes with light buttercream frosting.
10. Take the second 8-inch cake board and outline where you plan to place the 8-inch cake on top. You should place the 8-inch outline towards the back of the 10-inch cake. This will give you space in the front to make a waterfall.
11. Stick a wooden dowel into the 10-inch cake and mark where the dowl begins to stick out of the cake. Cut six dowels down to size and stick them into the cake in a circle inside your outline.
12. Place the 8-inch cake (with the cake board) on top of the 10-inch cake.
13. Take your last dowel and place it in the center of the whole cake. Cut down to size and re-insert into cake. Hide the top of the center dowel with light brown buttercream frosting.
14. Outline the waterfall and stream on top of the cake. Using an angled spatula, fill in the waterfall with light blue frosting. Use the spatula to make the frosting uneven giving the illusion of flowing water.
15. Using the star tip, pipe some stars at the bottom of the 8-inch tier and 10-inch tier to make splashing water.
16. Use the grass tip and green frosting to draw grass on each tier and along the waterfall.
17. Place cake toppers and figures on cake. Use leftover oreo cookie crumbles at the base of the bridge to make a dirt road for Diego to drive on.
18. Use tip #5 and green icing to draw vine stems around the cake. Use the leaf tip to add leaves to the vines.
19. Use tip #5 and blue icing to write a birthday message on the silver cake board.

And…you’re done!

Source: Piece of Cake Decorating