The messiest cake possible

[DanM]

For my daughter's first birthday, I made a basic chocolate sponge cake with chocolate frosting. The cake crumbled, but it was not a complete mess with her covered in it. Her grandmas are about to have birthdays so I want to try this again and let Abby wish her grandmas a happy birthday with a skype call and a small cake. I want a disaster of a mess for the grandmas to enjoy.

Any thoughts on what type of cake to make that will suit these needs? What about frosting or buttercream?

thanks!

Dan

Edited September 2, 2011 by DanM (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Well, any kind of filled cake is going get go a long way towards your desired messiness: just take your two layers of sponge and fill them with a pastry cream or custard. Or go crazy, go with four layers, do some custard/pastry cream and some whipped cream. Whipped cream as the frosting is nice too since it's soft and tends to go everywhere in the hands of children.

[heidih]

I did this with my son's first birthday cake. I made a small one for him and a small sheet cake for the adults. Chocolate cake topped with a white frosting and lots of colorful sprinkles and gel writing. The color contrasts work really well for photos on their chubby cheeks. Having the chocolate in the cake tends to not leave so much on the face (and hair and shirt) and the white frosting with the colorful bits clings nicely. Have fun.

[heidih]

On the other hand for shear messy and still cute we had another birthday where some older twins decided to face plant in the cake. It was a white cake with whipped cream and sliced strawberries. As Chris Hennes noted, whipped cream is slippery and the strawberries add lovely color. (have warm soapy water on standby for preemptive intial cleanup)

[DanM]

How about a chocolate pudding cake with some whipped cream and sprinkes?

[judiu]

And drop cloths (plastic tablecloths) and soap and water, and paper towels, LOTS of paper towels!