In this post, you will find all the cake components that can be made or purchased ahead of time if you plan on making my logging truck cake. Of course, these decorations don't have to be limited to a logging truck cake. You can always pick and choose what decorations you want to make and apply them to a cake of your own. Use the menu above to jump straight to whatever you're interested in!
Mushroom Cookies
The mushroom cookies were a really fun touch and I think the bright red added some much needed color contrast to the overall cake. Most of mine turned out pretty sloppy and I actually smeared the red buttercream with my fingers a few times after the cookies were already placed on the cake! I did get better as I went though and if I were to make these again, I think they'd turn out much better.
Cookies have a pretty long shelf life so I actually baked these several days ahead of the party. I adhered the stems and caps together the night before and did the frosting decoration on top the morning I made the cake. Next time, I would do the frosting the night before so that it could dry out better and be more resistant to smudging.
I really don't know if it's ok to use straight white food coloring like paint but it worked in terms of appearance and I don't think the cookies had any strange taste. A whitened frosting could also work for the spots but I was taking some serious shortcuts in terms of time management!
Recipe
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Sugar cookies shaped like small mushrooms with buttercream frosting intended for decorating a logging truck scene cake.
Ingredients
- ⅓ batch unbaked gluten free sugar cookie dough from lila loa (swap the regular butter with dairy free)
- 1-2 individual dairy free caramels, see notes
- ¼ C plain dairy free buttercream (set aside from the batch made for the logging cake)
- red gel food coloring, as needed
- white gel food coloring, as needed
Additional Materials:
- cooling rack
- food-safe paint brush
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Roll the cookie dough into several small balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. The size will depend on how large you want your mushroom caps. You'll want to make more than you plan on putting on the cake to allow for errors (don't worry, the ugly ones taste just as good!)
- Shape more cookie dough into cylindrical, stem-like shapes. They should be appropriately sized for the mushroom caps. I experimented with a variety of thick/thin, long/short, straight/curved shapes until I found what I liked.
- Bake the shaped cookie dough for 5-6 minutes depending on the size you made. Then allow the cookies to fully cool on the cookie sheet.
- Once the cookies are cool, use a very sharp paring knife to gently cut away a small hole in the flat part of the cookie mushroom caps. It should be slightly larger than the "stem" you're using with that cap.
- Microwave the dairy free caramel for just 5 seconds or until it's soft enough to manipulate with your fingers. Remember if you microwave it too long it will be way too hot to touch. Break off a tiny piece of the caramel and stick it into the hole you cut. Immediately press a stem into the caramel to stick it in place. Set aside until the caramel cools.
- Put the buttercream in a microwave safe bowl and again, being super gentle with the microwave times, heat for a few seconds. Start with 5 seconds and continue adding from there - you want the frosting to lose it's hold and be dip-able/ever so slightly runny but not so cooked that the oils split out.
- Stir in a drop of red food coloring at a time until you reach your desired tint.
- Get out your cooling rack. Dip each mushroom cap in the red frosting, using the stem to hold them, then place the stems through the holes of the cooling rack so the frosting can dry without smudging.
- Once the frosting is mostly dry, use a small food-safe paint brush dipped in white gel food coloring to paint on the white spots and allow to fully dry before using on a cake.
Notes
- Potential allergens contained in this recipe may vary due to brands of ingredients used, product reformulations, etc. Please verify that all your ingredients are safe for you to consume and always be mindful of allergen cross contact while cooking.
- Cocomels were used to test this recipe which do not contain any dairy but they are made on shared equipment with other dairy products as well as peanut, tree nuts, and soy protein (according to their website, the equipment is "purged" before production). If you react to traces of dairy or these other allergens, you might try replacing the caramels with another sticky candy. I haven't tried it but a sticky dried fruit like mashed up raisins, apricots, or dates might hold too.
Chocolate Tree Bark
The chocolate bark gets placed around the outside of the cake and is intended to look like tree bark. The food coloring is optional and the chocolate doesn't require tempering since the surface gets roughed up. For a fun added detail, I used a hot paring knife to carve Allen's initials (LAF) inside a heart, similar to a tree carving.
Recipe
Yield:Description
Roughed up chocolate shards intended to look like tree bark on a cake.
Ingredients
- 10 oz bag Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips
- black gel food coloring, optional
Additional materials:
- parchment paper
- rolling pin or similar object
- paring knife
- new toothbrush or stiff pastry brush
Instructions
- Line a large cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Pour chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl.
- Microwave 30 seconds and stir. Repeat until chocolate chips are melted down.
- Once the chocolate has melted, pour onto the parchment paper (use all the chocolate for thick bark or work in multiple batches for thinner bark).
- Add two or three drops of black gel food coloring (optional) and use a spatula to evenly spread out the chocolate. This will add small black streaks to the chocolate as the food coloring gets distributed.
- Cover the chocolate with another sheet of parchment paper. Place a rolling pin on one end and gently wrap the chocolate filled parchment around it. Leave to harden overnight.
- Once the chocolate has hardened, slowly unroll the paper. The chocolate will break into shards but you can give it a little help if any pieces are too big. Hang onto the small pieces too because they can be used to fill in gaps on the outside of the cake later.
- To add texture to the bark, use the tip of a paring knife, the serrations on a steak knife, or in my case - the plastic tool that removes remnants from a garlic press. Gently swipe the item lengthwise on each chocolate shard to make it resemble the texture of tree bark. Use a new toothbrush or stiff pastry brush to wipe off the chocolate shavings as soon as you're done with each piece. This ensures the shavings don't re-attach to the chocolate and make it look crumbly.
- As an added touch, you can add a "carving" to the bark. I did my son's initials in a heart but you could also do the person's age, a significant date, or whatever you want. Pick a piece of bark that you would like on the front of the cake (a wider piece is easier to work with). Dip the tip of a paring knife into hot water and wipe it dry. Use the hot knife to make you design, re-dipping it as the knife gets cool.
- Store chocolate bark in an airtight container until ready to use on your cake. You can stack multiple layers of it by separating each layer with parchment paper.
Notes
Potential allergens contained in this recipe may vary due to brands of ingredients used, product reformulations, etc. Please verify that all your ingredients are safe for you to consume and always be mindful of allergen cross contact while cooking.
More than one batch may be needed to make it all the way around the cake plus provide room for slip-ups. Be generous with the amount you make - it can't be made last minutes since it takes so long to cool. I saved the leftovers and have been chopping them up to replace chocolate chips in my baking.
Mug Cake "Moss"
I almost didn't make the moss but I like the extra detail and color it added. It barely took any time for me to make it and I already had all the ingredients I needed at home. I just looked online for a mug cake recipe and swapped the gluten and dairy ingredients 1:1 with ingredients I could eat.
- You'll need the mug cake ingredients found in Just So Tasty's Vanilla Mug Cake but replace the butter with dairy free "butter", milk with almond or carton coconut milk, and flour with Bob's Red Mill gluten free 1 to 1 flour. All the ingredient replacements use the same quantity. You will also omit the sprinkles.
- Follow Just So Tasty's recipe through step 3 to mix the ingredients into a batter.
- Use green and a touch of brown food colorings until the batter is a green moss color. (I used 2 drops McCormick green food coloring, 2-3 drops AmeriColor gel food coloring in Cork, and just a dipped toothpick's worth of Americolor gel food coloring in chocolate brown.
- Follow the cooking instructions on Just So Tasty and once cool, store in an airtight container until you're ready to decorate your cake.
Cake Toppers
I don't usually use inedible cake toppers (aside from the candles) but I thought the characters and scene really brought the cake to life and made it more enjoyable for Lenn Allen. Actually he threw a huge fit over that tiny marshmallow. It was all his tunnel vision could see on the cake and nobody understood what he was trying to tell us. We eventually figured it out and he got a pretty good sugar fix too.
Trees
For trees, we bought colored pencils made from tree cuttings and used some of them as guest favors too.
Logging Truck with Log Piles
I found the logging truck and little log piles on Wal-Mart's website. These are very small items and way too delicate for young kids but it fit perfectly on the cake and was so cute.
Fork Lift
We already owned the fork lift and I'm not sure where it came from. I was looking for an actual log loader but they're so hard to find and I only have so much money I can spend on a birthday cake anyways!
LEGO Minifigure with Harness
This guy was a little bit of work to get him to stay up in his "tree" but I thought it turned out really cute and was worth the extra effort.
- For the LEGO Minifigure, I found this lumberjack Minifigure. Mine looks slightly different than the one Amazon is showing but they are both cute.
- Start by tying one end of a string around the lumberjack's hips. Wrap the string in multiple layers from shoulder to between legs to other shoulder multiple times then begin wrapping it multiple times around the hips. Finish by securing a knot in the front but don't cut the length of string just yet.
- Figure out how far you want the Minifigure to hang down on the "tree" and tie the string around the top of the tree, leaving the correct length between the knot and the LEGO lumberjack. Cut off the excess string.
- Finally, add the chainsaw in the LEGO lumberjack's hand and use a little bit of hot glue to secure his feet to the tree so he stays still. I also added some hot glue between the chainsaw and tree to make him extra stable. After the party, I was able to easily peel the hot glue right off the plastic toy without any damage so it was still something my son could play with afterwards.
LEGO Minifigure Roasting a Marshmallow
I thought he was so cute and it got even more fun once the candle was lit!
- I purchased the LEGO Minifigure on Amazon.
- I kept the axe to place next to him on the cake and since he's clearly on his lunch break, I went into the backyard and found him a stick that would snap perfectly into his tiny hand so he could enjoy some s'mores.
- The mini marshmallows were actually too big so I cut one down to a smaller size and stuck it to the end of the stick.
About Meagan
I started out with a passion for creating unique recipes and decorating cakes. In June of 2012, I discovered I was severely gluten intolerant then later learned of multiple food allergies. Fortunately, my love for trying new recipes, ingredients, and cooking methods made re-learning how to cook seem more like a fun challenge than an unfortunate circumstance. I'm so happy to say that my dietary restrictions haven't stopped me from doing what I love. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I do.
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