Earth Day Cake Decorating Ideas

Celebrate Earth Day with cake.

Every April 22, people around the world observe Earth Day. While the main focus of the day is on environmental education and socio-political efforts, it has increasingly also become a holiday, complete with decorations and treats. Bake a special Earth Day cake for your family or for an Earth Day event, or as a project with a scout troop or cooking club.

Earth Cake

There's no better theme for a Earth Day cake than the Earth itself. Prepare a round two-layer cake. Frost with a solid coat of bright blue icing that you made by adding blue gel food coloring to white frosting and mixing. Color another batch of frosting green. Using a pastry bag with a small round tip, pipe the outline of the continents, using a globe as your guide. It doesn't have to be perfect, just the suggestion of the continents will look like the Earth. Fill in the continents with green icing.

Recycle Cake

Decorate your Earth Day cake with the recognizable recycle logo, with its three distinctive "chasing arrows." Frost a round or rectangular cake with white frosting. Mix a batch of icing in the color of your choice -- green, blue or red -- using gel food coloring. Using a picture of the logo as a guide, trace the arrow shape in the frosting with a toothpick, then pipe the colored icing over it. The arrow shapes can be filled, or the outlines can be left hollow.

Go Green Cake

Use nothing but green frosting and embellishments in different shades to create the ultimate "green" cake. Start by frosting the entire cake with a light green frosting. In a bowl, toss shredded coconut with green food coloring to create edible grass to spread on top of the cake. Color a batch of frosting dark green and pipe designs around the edges and down the sides. If you like, you can add green gummi animals on top, such as frogs and worms.

All Natural Cake

If you prefer an Earth Day cake without food coloring, decorate with nuts and berries instead. Frost your cake with all-natural spiced frosting and spell out "Happy Earth Day with shelled almonds, sunflower seeds and walnut meats. Embellish with fresh or dried berries. You could puree fresh blueberries to make a natural, edible purple "paint" that you can apply to the iced cake with a brush. Other edibles you can use to decorate your cake with include dry soybeans, banana chips and candied citrus slices.

References

• EarthDay.org: Earth Day -- A History of a Movement
• Recycling Logo Art: Professional Recycle Logos