The Tank

I decided to do a post about the tank cake I made for Owen. I was very thankful for a photo I found online that gave me the idea, and I thought maybe this post would be helpful for someone who would like to make one for their kid, too. This cake was almost entirely ice cream. Only the top round piece was cake. I had to keep popping this cake in the freezer at different points in the decorating process to keep it from melting.

This (greased) aluminum pan held 1 gallon of softened ice cream (half vanilla, half choc. chip cookie dough), which I re-froze after putting it in the pan.

Here's the little round cake. I cut a small amount from the top to make it level. We made cupcakes from the remaining batter.

Another aluminum pan (sheet-cake style) used to put the ice cream cake on.

inverted ice cream cake

mini cake on top toward one end

Icing. I actually made this by combining some of the ingredients from two separate frosting recipes I have. It has chocolate pudding in it, which flavors it and also adds color. Chill it for about an hour before frosting the ice cream cake.

Great gobs of frosting. I put a little under the round cake to help keep it in place better.

smooth out the frosting

Look at all this sugar! The Sandies are used as "sand" around the tank.

Break up the Hershey bars like this.

You can see where the Oreos and Hersheys go. I broke the Oreos in half and added a small amount of frosting to help them stick.

Your soldier needs a place! Dig out a hole in the cake and place an Oreo against one side of the hole. Frost the Oreo.

There's where the soldier goes. I actually had to dig this hole a little bigger later.

Use a food processor to grind your Sandies to make "sand"

Wilton makes food color spray in lots of colors. Green goes well for the tank.

lightly spray the green on in several places and sprinkle the "sand" around the edges

Obviously my stuff didn't get real centered, but this is for a 4 year old. He doesn't care. It looks like a tank to him. The "guns" are 4 black candles. The US Army decal is a sticker which I mounted on paper, cut out, and lined the back with packaging tape so the grease from the frosting doesn't seep through the paper. It decorates the tank, and also acts as a wax catcher when you light those "guns".

The finished product!