How to Bake a Dinosaur Cake

Dinosaurs truly are coming back into style. Honestly, I don't think they ever went out of style. So this year try this great idea, and make your kids a dinosaur cake. They will keep their room clean for weeks to thank you. Alright, so that last part I made up, but they will still love their dinosaur cake!

Things You'll Need

• 3 Packages of Cake Mix
• 3 Packages of Frosting
• Food Coloring
• 2 Large Round Cake Pans
• 2 Small Round Baking Pans
• 100 Calorie Cookie Packs

Instructions

1. The first step is to prepare your cake mixes. You can mix and match all you want with flavors. Just from past experience, I would not add anything to your batter (chocolate chips, nuts, things like that). That can make it really difficult to cut straight lines in your cake when you're ready to sculpt your dinosaur. Any box cake mix will work, though. You will need the cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil. Mix it with some water in accordance with the specific directions on the mix of your choice.

2. Fill your two large round cake pans and two small ones with your cake batter. Use the directions on the back of your cake boxes on how long to cook your cakes. You should generally cook a cake for half an hour. The ramekins will take less time to bake than the two rounds, so watch carefully so you do not burn the smaller cakes. Your cakes will be done when you can insert a toothpick into them, and they come out pretty much clean.

3. Set the cakes aside, and let them cool completely.

4. Cut one of your round cakes in half. This will be your dinosaur cakes body. Use frosting to stick the two halves together. You now have the body of your dinosaur cake!

5. Take your two ramekin cakes, and stick them together with frosting. It should give you a semi-ball like structure that will be perfect for your dinosaur's head. Use the frosting (and maybe a couple of toothpicks or skewers if the head just wont stay in place) to connect your dinosaur cake's head to the body.

6. Now use the other round cake to cut out shapes for the tail and legs. Don't worry about perfection. Just remember, frosting covers a multitude of mistakes.

7. Decorate your cake. This is really where you can make your dinosaur cake original. Take as much frosting as you deem fit, and dye it your dinosaur's color. You can stay traditional and dye your dinosaur green, or you can dye it your child's favorite color. It's wherever your imagination takes you. Put a pretty good coat over the entire cake. This is where you can make up for any "oops moments" you had while making the cake by layering and shaping your frosting over any blemishes or holes.

8. Make your dinosaur cake come alive. For it's spiny scales down the back, 100 calorie cookie pack snacks make perfect spikes. You can also use lines of chocolate chips down the back as well.

9. To give your cake that "wow factor", cook a regular sheet cake as a base for your dinosaur cake. You can even turn that sheet cake into a prehistoric forest for your dinosaur to live in. You can use green frosting for grass, crushed chocolate for dirt, green licorice for vines, and blue tube frosting for water! It is fine on its own, or with this idea in place.

Tips & Warnings

• Any time you are having issues getting the dinosaur cake's parts to stick together, you can use toothpicks to "hold down the fort."

• When cutting your cake to eat, remember where you have put toothpicks or skewers so you don't accidentally feed them to a party guest.