Cicada Invasion Cake

Living here in Missouri, I am very familiar with these nasty, terrible, annoying, little creatures.

While they might not be MY favorite things, my boys, as well as most other little boys around here, love them.

The little cutie that got this cake for his birthday might ‘take the cake’ for cicadas biggest fan.

Really, I’ve never seen a child so in love with cicadas.  Ever.

Anyway, I’m always looking to expand my experience with cakes.  So this was something fun for me.

I did a little carving to a 5 layer cake to make it look like a tree stump.

I carved the circles in the top to look like rings on the inside of a tree.  Then I hand painted all the carving to add a little more color and give it some dimension.

“What you lookin’ at?”

The cicadas were made from pitted dates, black candy melts, red sprinkles, and homemade candy for the wings.