DIY Lego Cake

Last year I put a certificate for a custom-decorated cake on an auction at work to raise money for Ethiopia Reads (building a school/library in Ethiopia). I didn't know who had purchased it until last week when the wife of one of our executives let me know they had purchased the cake. Her son was turning 6 and loved Legos, so she had some ideas for a Lego cake. Most of the ideas involved fondant, which I haven't worked with much, so I asked if I could come up with a buttercream version. I think it tastes so much better, even if it doesn't look as polished!  I found a cute idea for lego cake on  Pinterest and worked from there. 

The kid liked white cake (which I never make), so I followed this Pinterest advice for improving a cake mix. It FLOPPED. Like, half the cake flopped out of the pan when I was flipping it onto a wire rack. I tried to salvage it by wrapping in plastic wrap and sticking in the freezer, but it was clear by the next day that it was not happening, so I salvaged a small square to use as one of the top legos and ended up baking another cake...this time straight from the cake mix box :).

You can kind of see that I just cut a square from one corner and layered in the top left corner, then added the extra square one notch over and one notch down. I frosted each a differet color (the white and green pieces are "six toppers" and the other three are "four toppers". Is that proper logo terminology? I'm not sure but I think you know what I mean. As I finished each color, I cut a large marshmallow in half and frosted the outside circumference, then stuck it sticky-side down onto the cake and finished off the top with a little more frosting. I didn't use toothpicks and they stuck just fine.

I finished the presentation off with some piping on the wrapping-paper-wrapped cake board and a white shell-edging around the bottom. The family said they loved it and I was happy they enjoyed it! I don't think I'll go into the cake business anytime soon, but I enjoyed the projects this weekend!