3rd Birthday Cake

I'm working on being a better party planner. I have good intentions a few months before the big day, but then things come up and suddenly I'm at the last minute. This cake worked great as a last minute plan and it was easy to convince the party guests that it took me all day. In reality, it only took 1 1/2 hours to make, including the baking time! Not too bad for my first try at making a "fancy" cake!

I was inspired by this cake at Enchanted Mommy, and couldn't wait for my daughter's third birthday so I could finally make one for her! Unfortunately, I haven't really had much luck in making "cute" cakes. I was afraid of this plan going terribly wrong, so I waited until the morning of her party to put the cake together. The original cake used two cakes, and I only had time to make one. So, I improvised... I figured if I ruined it, my husband could pick up a bakery cake on the way home.

Luckily, things turned out just fine. It was a lot easier than I thought, and I even got the little birthday girl to help! As most things, I'm sure there are 100 ways to get a similar result. Here's how I made mine:

1. Mix up a cake mix {any flavor your want. Make according to the box instructions} and bake it in a bundt pan. *As an added note, I also had a few cupcakes on hand.
2. Let the cake cool completely and remove from the pan. Place the cake upside-down {so the cake would be rounded on top and flat on the bottom} on a large pizza pan or cookie sheet. You could also cut a circle out of cardboard and cover with aluminum foil.
3. Cut the bundt cake in half. Arrange on the pan/cutout to resemble the top & bottom of a "3" {see image above. The halves will need to be at an angle}. Cut a couple {or one large} cupcakes in half and piece in between the bundt cakes to make the center of the "3". It might look really messy, but it doesn't have to be perfect since it will all be covered. Just try to get the shape looking as much like a "3" as possible.
4. Mix up frosting or use canned frosting. I opted for canned chocolate fudge frosting and ended up using about 3/4 of the can. Frost the cake liberally and make sure to fill in any cracks. Frost smooth, but it doesn't have to look perfect since it will be covered in candy.
5. This is where the kids can help! Pour some of the M&Ms into a large bowl, and add more as you need more colors. I had a big bag of plain M&Ms {56 oz} and used less than half of the bag. I would imagine a Party Size/42 oz bag would work just as well. Separate or pick out the candies by color, and arrange on the cake one at a time. We made a striped rainbow pattern because it was easy for my three year old to help line them up and find one color at a time. Also keep in mind that most bags have more of some colors than others. Ours was pretty low on reds, so we didn't have as many red stripes. We also didn't use any brown M&Ms because they don't show up well on chocolate frosting.
6. Once the cake is covered in candies, cover the cake with plastic wrap or tinfoil until ready to serve.

This made for a fun {and delicious!} conversation piece,

and my daughter was so excited to have it as her birthday cake!