How to Make a Gumball Machine Birthday Cake

Believe me - I am no cake decorator, so if I can do this cake so can you! When my daughter turned 7, she wanted me to make a Gumball Machine birthday cake for her party. No problem! I had no idea how I was going to make it, but I didn't want to disappoint her. I finally came up with this simple idea for a homemade Gumball Machine cake. Everyone oohed and ahhed over it at our celebration. It will get a lot of smiles at your party, too! Plus you can take the credit for making it yourself.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 9" round cake pan
• 9x13" cake pan
• 2 box cake mixes
• decorating icing of your choice
• food coloring of your choice
• plain M&M's candy

1. 

   Grease and flour the 9" round cake pan and the 9x13" pan. Prepare cakes according to package directions. When cakes are completely cool, remove from pans. This is where the fun begins!

2. 

   Place the round cake at the top of your tray (I just covered a cookie sheet with heavy duty foil). Then turn your 9x13" cake so the longest sides are horizontal. Cut 2" off of each end of the 9x13" cake, and cut a half circle at the top. The half circle should be about 9" across.

3. Place the rectangular cake under the round cake so they touch each other. Using white icing, frost the round cake completely. Then use food coloring to make the desired color for the bottom. Ice the bottom completely. I then took black icing and wrote happy birthday, wrote 25 cents and made a spot for the gum to land.

4. Push plain M&M candies into the bottom of the white circle to resemble gum balls. I also put one in the slot so it looked like a gumball was coming out of the machine.
   
   Have fun and enjoy!

[turtledove]

on 7/9/2009 Kudos to your daughter for her imagination, too! 5*

[tamby2112]

on 6/27/2009 Cute idea! Thanks for the great cake idea! 5*s

[emilywhitby1]

on 6/21/2009 This is such a cute birthday cake idea! I have three kids, so I need plenty of ideas for birthday cakes--I can't wait to try this one! Thanks, 5*

[kimmij]

on 6/21/2009 Such a cute birthday cake idea - thanks for sharing! 5 stars and "recommended".

[fen527]

on 6/19/2009 I love this idea! So creative, easy, and cheap.