Here is the last of the Hungry Caterpillar Cake tutorials…. after this you’ll be able to master your very own VHC Cake 
To make the apple, cut out a red circle of fondant
Cut out a small triangle at the top and then smooth the hard corners with a modelling tool or your fingers
Trace and then cut out a leaf shape from some green fondant and attach to the apple using some water. Using a matchstick, make the leaf indents.
For the pears, cut out two circles of green fondant.
Using your fingers, stretch out the top part of the circle to get that pear shape
Roll out two small sausages of black fondant and attach to the pear using some water
For the strawberries, cut out 4 circles of red fondant and then slightly stretch out the bottom of the circle to get a balloon shape.
Roll out some green fondant and cut out 4 stars using a cutter
Attach using water and mark in some dots using a matchstick
For the oranges, cut out 5 circles of orange fondant
Mark a small black dot on top of each orange using an edible marker or a small bit of edible food colouring, and then make small dots using a matchstick.
I also cut out tiny circles in all the different colours to use as a border for the cake. In the following picture you can see the food all drying out (as mentioned earlier, I made the food a week in advance, but you could easily make it months in advance)
You can also see the 3 plums, which were simply 3 circles of purple fondant.
Happy Cake Making
I have looked forward to every email about The Hungry Caterpillar in my inbox – thanks for the GREAT tutorials! Your work continues to amaze me
Hi Bronnie
Just wondering if you have any great mud cake recipes? or good cake recipes that are better to cover in fondant?
Cheers
tam
Hi Tam
I use this recipe for white chocolate mud cake http://bronniebakes.com/2011/08/27/tiffany-birthday-cake/
This one for caramel http://bronniebakes.com/2011/10/09/pink/
and this is my dark chocolate mud
350 grams dark chocolate pieces
225 grams butter
600 ml water
3 eggs
400 grams castor sugar
400 grams self raising flour
Grease and line a 23cm/9″ round cake tin. Preheat oven to 170C/325F.
In a saucepan over low heat, heat chocolate, butter and water. Stir frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Gradually beat cooled chocolate mixture into eggs.
Whisk sugar and flour into chocolate mixture, continue beating until smooth and well blended.
Pour mixture into cake tin. Bake until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.
Turn cake onto wire rack to cool.
thanks heaps! yum yum yum will definitely try them all!!
Bronnie!! Thank you thank you thank you!! Its so strange that this was the very same cake I had bookmarked on Pinterest to be ‘the one’ I was going to attempt. And then to find its YOU that makes it, AND there’s a tutorial!! Awesome!! I had almost bought the pear, apple and strawberry cutters but that I can just do them of circles is awesome!!
NOW…. can you suggest a good (not to oexpensive) circle set at all? I know I’ll use circles over and over in the future, so I’d love a set that has lots of different sizes.
Thanks, Nat!!!
Hi Nat!!
Thankyou so much for all of your lovely comments… I really appreciate them!! I bought my circle cutters from ebay (can’t remember which seller as it was a few years ago)… I also put a set of mini circle cutters from the UK (kitbox.co.uk)
Xxx
Hi Bronnie,
Those cutouts are beautiful. After the pieces harden, how do you make them stick on the side of the round cake without breaking them?
Hi Tina
The pieces are small enough compared to the cake that you can stick them on, but you are right… The entire piece wont be stuck because it has hardened. I found it didn’t matter to the overall design. Just be gentle as you stick them on and only press the shape in the middle where you are sticking it. If i am ever making something that i want to harden, but want it to wrap around the cake, then I dry it on baking paper around my cake tin so that it gets the slight curve.
Hope that helps!
X
So glad this question was asked and answered as mum and I were just wondering the same thing. We ( read: just my amazing mum as I continue house-work and children-tending) are making this awesome cake for my Leila’s 1st bday this month. Great work there!
I have loved the hungry caterpillar since I was a kid and even now it makes me smile
This cake is the perfect way of honouring the gorgeous book!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
THankyou!
Hi Bonnie,
Your tutorial is fantastic! It has made a very daunting task incredibly easy for me. Just wondering why you didn’t make the chocolate cake, salami, sausage and cherry pie? I would like to make them so I have all the food from the book on the cake, but I don’t know where to start without your help. I thought maybe the shapes didn’t translate well when made into fondant form…
Hi Lee!
Glad the tutorial has helped!
I ‘think’ i didn’t end up making that foood because I thought it wouldn’t fit on the cake… But thanks for the heads up!! I’ll work on a tutorial this week to complete all of the food!
Bronnie xx
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Hi Bronnie! I’m making a very hungry caterpillar cake for a baby shower this weekend and I am SO thankful for your detailed tutorials… so helpful!! I was just wondering about the dimensions of the cake itself? I think I read in earlier comments that the bottom is 8″ and the top is 6″. How many people should that feed? And how many layers of cake are within each of the tiers?? I’m an internet-taught amateur whose cakes typically turn out alright
Thanks!!
HI Jaime
Yes – it is an 8″ and 6″ and that is the standard that I usually make for parties of up to 60-70 people. It really depends on how much other sweet food you serve and also how many people will eat the cake! Sometimes I find people fill up on other foods and just have a small piece, or other times the whole thing goes quickly!
x
Hi Bronnie, firstly thank you for such a wonderful, clear tutorial. I have been playing a VHC cake for my sons first birthday and wondered how I would actually do it! I just found this today and I am so pleased to have something to guide me. This may be a totally stupid question, however I am not a cake baker so I have no idea – but when you make the cake, is there a few layers i.e. I need to make 2 – 3 cakes and then cut them so they are flat and layer them? Also if the fruits go hard etc as mentioned in a previous post, will adding a little water stick them ok or do I need edible glue?
Thanks again – Ellen-Marie
Hi Ellen-Marie
Thankyou for stopping by!
You can bake two cakes (which is what I did for that cake… a 8″ and a 6″) and leave them as is… or you can cut them into as many layers as you like and fill them with something – ganache, or buttercream, or even just a lovely syrup).
I use water now to attach my fondant decorations to a cake. You can attach them when they are soft, but some of those decorations will need to dry and harden so they will stick together. It’s also easier to have everything already made in advance so all you need to do at the last minute is to stick everything on.
Hope that helps! Feel free to ask me as many questions as you like
xx
Thanks so much Bronnie. I am totally in love with your blog! And I just realised your in AUS, which is very cool. I am in SYD.
Another stupid non cake professional question – but say I want to make your chocolate mud cake and then I need to ganache it so I can put fondant on it. Would you recommend chocolate ganache or is that just too much chocolate? Also your IMB recipes looks amazing but I think it may be out of my league so thinking I will just put ganache in my layers. Would that be the same flavour as what goes on the outside? or would a buttercream be better do you think?
I am just trying to understand what works best (and easiest given my lack of cake making ability)!
And thanks so much for answering these posts. It is so nice to comment on a site and actually have someone get back to you
– Thanks Ellen-Marie
Thanks for your lovely comments Ellen-Marie!
I always use dark chocolate ganache (ganache is just chocolate plus cream, so it is either dark choc, milk choc or white choc) as it is the most stable. You can add flavourings to the ganache, but I have never done it. I don’t think it is too much chocolate, but sometimes I use a buttercream filling if I have the time!
If you use ganache in between the layers then yes, definitely use the same as the outside. If you can try the IMBC then give it a go – it is delicious!!
xx
Hi Bronnie,
I’m so glad I have found this fabulous tutorial for a VHC cake. I am planning a VHC theme for my son’s 1st birthday and I was a bit worried how I would do the cake until I found this fabulous tutorial. Just wondering did you end up doing a tutorial for the chery pie, salami, sausage and chococlate cake?
HI Jacinta and thankyou so much for your lovely comment
No – I have promised that i would do it, but I haven’t found the time and I keep getting side tracked with other projects!! I’m sorry about that. I will add it to my list and try and get it done soon! When is your son’s birthday?
x
Thanks Bronnie, It’s not until October!! So plenty of time. I always do a big 1st birthday so the planning has started early this time.
Hi again Bronnie,
It’s 3 weeks before my son’s birthday and I am having a practice making some of the decorations. I was wondering if they set really hard how you would go about cutting the cake up? Would I remove the decorations first or is there a way I can soften them a bit on the day or should I just leave them hard? Also I have pre-prepared fondant and gum paste and was wondering about the amounts I should use of both to mix in? Would you say 1/4 gum paste to the amount of fondant?
Thanks!
Hi Gina
I always have hard decorations on my cake and just cut straight through them when slicing up the cake. Or I find the kids take the decorations off first and eat them!!!!
I would use gumpaste for the decorations and save the fondant for covering the cake. I use fondant for decorations but add a hardening agent like tylose to turn it into gumpaste (so because you have gumpaste, just use that by itself)
All the best and don’t forget to send me a pic of the finished product!!
x
Thanks bronnie, how do I stop them from cracking though? I made the lollipop and when I started to curl it up it started to crack.
I used some water on it and rubbed it with my finger which helped a bit but I was wondering if I was using too much gum paste. Also just wondering if I can paint food coloring onto the decorations, for example I made the cheese but I don’t think it’s yellow enough since it lightens when it dries and wondered if it would look ok if I painted more yellow over it?
Is your gumpaste a little dry? If so, mix in some vegetable shortening. Usually it will crack if the fondant is bad quality or a little dry.
I’ve never had a problem with bakels fondant once I mix it with tylose powder.
Yes – you can definitely paint food colouring onto the gum paste. I do that all the time! You can mix it with a little alcohol and then paint it on.
I love this cake so much! I googled what feels like thousands of VHC cakes looking for the perfect one to try for my sons upcoming first birthday, and this is most certainly the best one I have found. I really wanted to make all the food from the book, any advice on how to tackle that?
Hi Laura
You mean the extra food, like the cake, pie etc? I have been meaning to do a final tutorial for those items but haven’t had the time recently! So sorry about that. Hopefully over the next few months I will be able to do it
x
This cake is amazing, exactly what I want to attempt for my son’s 1st birthday! I just wondered whether you think it would be ok to just cover the cake with either buttercream or a ganache and not fondant? Obviously it would look quite different but are there any other reasons why the fondant layer is needed? Thanks so much for your tutorials and advice!
Hi, I’m sorry I sent a question yesterday about whether the cake needs to be covered in fondant but then this morning found that you have already answered that on another page – sorry I didn’t read through all the questions thoroughly first!
Claire.
Hi Claire!
No worries at all
But yes – you can easily just use ganache or buttercream. I guess the reason for using fondant is that it gives a smoother finish. Thanks so much for following my blog and all the best!
x