Donkey Hodie Birthday Cake

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Donkey Hodie Birthday Cake

Courtesy Nikki Brooks and PBS Kids

Ingredients

2 round 8-inch cakes, from a package or your own recipe
2 16 oz containers of white frosting
Yellow, blue, and red food coloring
White icing writer
Black icing writer
Pink fruit chew or taffy

Directions

1. Bake two round 8-inch cakes according to the package instructions or your personal recipe.

2. Start by making Donkey Hodie's ears and mane. Cut two large arc shapes on each side of one cake using a knife. Round out the tips of the ears on one end, so they are not pointy.

3. Use a small cup to cut out a small crescent on each end of the football-shaped pieces.

4. Use the leftover scraps from that same round cake to cut out a teardrop shape for Donkey Hodie’s magenta mane.

5. Next, create Donkey Hodie’s face on the second round cake. Place the cake on a large piece of cardboard and secure it in place with a little bit of white frosting. Attach the ears and mane using a bit of white frosting.

6. Now, mix the frosting colors. This step can be fun for you and your child to do together! Divide the white frosting into two bowls by placing one large scoop of frosting in one bowl and the rest of the frosting in the other. Mix yellow food coloring in the bowl with the most frosting. Mix red and blue food coloring in the bowl with the single scoop of frosting until you create a shade of purple that matches Donkey Hodie's magenta mane. Set the mixed frostings aside for the next step.

7. Next, ice the cake! Spread a thick layer of yellow frosting over the round cake and ears. Then, spread the magenta frosting over the mane. Smooth as desired.

8. Now it is time to create a lighter shade of yellow for the inside of Donkey Hodie’s ears. Using your yellow frosting bowl, continue to mix food coloring and white frosting until the desired lighter yellow shade is reached. Take your spatula and add the lighter yellow frosting to the ears, leaving half an inch of bright yellow around the outer edge.

9. To draw Donkey Hodie’s face on the cake, use a toothpick or the sharp tip of a knife to make the shape of Donkey Hodie's snout in the frosting. Start by making the snout in the shape of an upside-down jelly bean. It may help to draw it on a sheet of paper and use it as a template to trace onto the cake. Finish with an upside-down U shape for the mouth.

10. With a toothpick or knife, draw the eyes in the shape of two ovals. Draw a smaller half oval for Donkey Hodie's irises. You can use the handle of a spatula as a tracing guide.

11. Next, outline the eyes and snout with icing. With a white icing writer, fill in the whites of Donkey Hodie's eyes. Take a black icing writer and outline around the eyes and the snout, and then fill in both irises. Remember to add Donkey Hodie’s eyelashes, too!

12. Flatten out a pink fruit chew with a rolling pin to make the tongue. Take two tiny pieces of fruit chew for the nostrils and roll them into small oval shapes. Place them on the snout to make the nostrils.