Dec 21
2010

How to Make a Snowman Birthday Cake—Celebrating 4 with a Snowman Party

in Dessert, Entertaining, Recipes by Type

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Celebrating Squirrel's 4th Birthday with a Snowman Party

For Squirrel’s 4th birthday last week, we threw a little birthday party at the house and invited some of her friends.

Snowman Birthday Party!!

Opening birthday presents

We decided to have a snowman themed party—something fun and seasonal.

Snowman GarlandSquirrel taking the Snowman Pledge

We started with a couple of crafts.  The kids made wintry snowman scenes with pre-cut foam pieces,

Making snowman scenes

and then they built cute little snowmen on lollipop sticks out of marshmallows, candy, and frosting.

The Marshmallow Snowman Convention

After a quick game of “Pin the Nose on the Snowman,”

Playing Pin the Nose on the Snowman

we served a light lunch of peanut butter and jelly “snowball” sandwiches, with a side of snowman arms. (I actually had planned on cutting the sandwiches out in a snowman shape and sticking the pretzels into the sandwiches to look like arms, but I forgot to check the size of the cookie cutter beforehand and it ended up being to big.)

Snowball Sandwiches and Snowman Arms

Finally, I brought out the pièce de résistance: a snowman birthday cake.

Snowman Birthday Cake

I was really please with how the cake turned out, and it ended up being really easy to make. Bonus!

A slice of snowman birthday cake

How To Make a Snowman Cake

1. You can choose any cake flavor you want.  Use a recipe that makes enough batter for two 9-inch round cake pans or one 9×13-inch rectangular baking pan.  I used a recipe for Simple Vanilla Cake that I had been wanting to try out for months after reading about it on Angry Chicken.  Then choose 2 glass mixing bowls that are oven safe—one larger and one smaller (the large bowl I used was about 12 inches in diameter and the small bowl was 8 inches in diameter), and grease the bowls.

2. Make the cake batter and pour it into the bowls, so that the batter in the larger bowl comes to a fill line that is equal to the smaller bowl, or slightly higher.  Bake the cake at the temperature dictated by the cake recipe, but instead of baking according to the indicated time, carefully watch the cakes and let them cook until until the tops are golden (if you’re making a white or yellow cake) and a bamboo skewer poked into the center of each cake comes out clean.  The cake in my small bowl took about 40 minutes to cook, whereas the cake in my large bowl took about 55 minutes to cook.

3. Loosen the sides of the cake from the bowl with a thin knife, then it turn out onto a cooling rack. Let the cakes cool completely before covering with frosting.  I made my cakes the night before, so that I wouldn’t be rushed the day of the party.

4. Make your favorite white frosting that pairs best with the cake flavor you have chosen.  I made vanilla buttercream frosting using a wonderful (and easy!) recipe from Alice of Savory Sweet Life.

5. Place your cakes on a cake board, then carve out a small crescent piece of the smaller cake (the head), so that the cake will fit closer against the large cake (the body).  Then use the frosting you made to frost the cake.  Reserve a small amount of frosting to use for making snowman embellishments.

6. Once frosted, sprinkle the cake with shredded coconut, to give the cake a “snowier” look.

7. Time to decorate! I kept my snowman simple.  I colored the leftover frosting black and used it to pipe on the “coal” eyes and mouth.  For the nose, I used a candy orange and trimmed it down a bit.  For the buttons, I used round peppermint candies.  Finally, I used pretzel rods for the arms.

Making the Snowman Birthday Cake

The cake made more than enough to feed the 8 kids and 5 adults present.  After the party, I still had part of the body and the entire head left!  The cake was a hit, and so easy that I will definitely use the idea again.

Leftover Snowman Birthday Cake

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

Paula - bell'alimento December 21, 2010 at 5:56 pm

Could this party be any more adorable? I think NOT! Lurve it! Happy Birthday Sweet Squirrel! Hope you had SNOW much fun ; ) xoxo <3 Auntie Bella!

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Christine December 21, 2010 at 6:06 pm

Love your wonderful snowman theme. You’re an awesome and creative mom! My son is turning 4 too in January.

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Rachel @ Baked by Rachel December 21, 2010 at 6:06 pm

That turned out SO cute! Love it and definitely bookmarking this for later – been considering doing a winter/snow themed party for my oldest daughters next bday.

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Megan December 21, 2010 at 6:13 pm

Awwww, Happy 4th Birthday, Squirrel!
The cake looked excellent, LFM – very cute! Love the pretzel arms!

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Lana December 21, 2010 at 6:16 pm

This is beyond cute! Who does not like the Snowman? I am sure that the kids loved it:)
Mine are getting older, and the requests get weirder. Get ready – they become really creative, in a bad sense of the word:)
Happy 4th, Squirrel! I hope you feel better, sweetness!

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Olga @ MangoTomato December 21, 2010 at 7:06 pm

cuteness to the max!!! I think I would have loved all the craft projects. My favorite photo is the one with all the little feet :)

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kat December 21, 2010 at 7:49 pm

seeing the coconut reminded me of the rabbit cake my mom made for my little brother’s birthday (many many moons ago)….happy birthday squirrel!

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Missy J December 21, 2010 at 9:10 pm

SO FREAKING CUTE! I love Squirrel’s cake! I may just have to make that this weekend for Christmas with my nieces & nephews!

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Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen December 22, 2010 at 2:32 am

So clever and creative! What a special cake. I love that your whole party was snowman themed right down to the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches :-) You think of everything!

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Paula December 22, 2010 at 6:51 am

Looked like a great party and you did awesome on that snowman cake. Such Fun! I love your daughter’s snowman hat!

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Heather (Heather's Dish) December 22, 2010 at 7:04 am

this is so cute! can i have a snowman cake on my september birthday? :)

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Daydreamer Desserts December 22, 2010 at 9:52 pm

Happy belated birthday to little miss Squirrel, loved the theme you chose and great job with the pièce de résistance. Very clever of you to use glass mixing bowls to form the body of the snowman!

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Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite December 23, 2010 at 4:58 pm

Happy Birthday Squirrel! I LOVE that you chose such a fun theme but I guess my invite got lost in the mail huh? Must have been all the snow we had up in Canada….

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Joy December 29, 2010 at 11:44 am

The cake is adorable. I love it.

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Jane Weber January 31, 2011 at 12:48 pm

Thank you so much for all the great suggestions – it has made planning so much easier! I can’t wait to make the little lollipop snowmen – sooo cute!

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Sarah December 4, 2013 at 11:35 pm

Where did you get the precut snowman foam pieces? So cute!

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Amber January 2, 2021 at 3:05 pm

My daughter is turning 4 next Sunday and requested a snowman cake. How do you know if your bowls are oven safe? I have several glass mixing bowls, but they don’t say on them anywhere.

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Annie January 21, 2021 at 4:51 pm

Thank you so much for this awesome idea! My son wanted a snowman cake for his birthday and your idea of using over-safe bowls is brilliant! He loved his snowman cake!

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