Hidden Pawprint Cake

So remember how last year I let my daughter tell me what she wanted her birthday cake to look like? This year I didn’t even have a chance to ask– she handed me a sketch one day and informed me that this was what I’d be making. It had three tiers (!), was decorated with berries and green icing, and had a fake warning on the outside saying that it most certainly did NOT hide any surprises inside… or did it?

Apparently she decided that what she wanted was a hidden pawprint to surprise her guests. It had to be pink, and it had to show only when the cake was cut into. While I had a general idea as to how to get this done, I turned to the internet and was happy to find a tutorial to give me some details as to how it could be accomplished! Here it is:

I’m not going to bother posting too many step-by-step instructions because honestly, the video is pretty good at explaining what to do.

Of course, with a fancy cake like that for the base, I couldn’t just let the top two tiers be plain, could I? I decided to make a heart shape inside the top tier, which was only semi-successful, and a candy surprise in the center! The kids loved that one.

And the piece de resistance…

Okay, so not perfect– I didn’t put the center two toes close enough together, but it was difficult with such a small cake– only 7″ diameter at the base. I had three 7″ layers, two 6″ layers, and a single 4″ layer split in half. We had 22 people, and plenty of cake for all!