DIY Construction Birthday Cake in 3 steps: Bake, Break, Ice

We just had my 2 year old son's birthday party and I got a little into the theme...okay, okay, I admit, a lot!   Like I may have been more excited about all the trucks and whatnot than he was.

Anyway among the themed food and decorations was this awesome construction/work zone birthday cake.  It seriously has to be the easiest DIY cake out there -- and I'm no cake decorator.  In fact, I usually let the kids take credit blame for cake icing jobs.

For the construction cake I just baked a chocolate box cake in two round cake pans.  I put them in the fridge to chill for a few hours before I started icing.  I iced the top of the bottom cake and then stacked the second cake on top.  As you can see, my cake's pretty rough...

After they were stacked, I used a spoon to dig out a big chunk of the cake. (I saved the crumbs - but more on that later.)

A minute or so later my husband walks in and his jaw dropped, "What the hell happened to the cake?" Haha...that's right I did it on purpose.  Later my daughter spotted it: "Mommy!!! Someone took a big bite out of Blake's cake!!!"   Not to worry...

After I assured everyone the cake was exactly how I wanted it, I iced the entire thing with the exception of the "hole."

Then I wrote out my son's name on the side using chocolate chips.

The last step was to add a couple of mini construction trucks from this set of six that I got at Target for $7...there's also available through Amazon. 


I used the excavator to "dig" the hole and piled some of the crumbs I saved into the back of the dump truck.  The rest of the crumbs I used to make a dirt pile.

It was a huge hit and it was soooooo simple....but shhh don't let anyone know it was as simple as baking, breaking and icing a cake!