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Updated on April 30, 2020 by · This post may contain affiliate links ·

Bug-Themed Birthday Cake

Skill level: Intermediate

Today I'm going to show you how I made this bug-themed birthday cake for my daughter Avalon's 3rd birthday party. She loves all things bug-themed right now: caterpillars, butterflies, snails, slugs, but I drew the line at spiders. 🙂

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make not 1, not 2, but 3 mushroom cakes that are fully sculpted from actual cake. You'll learn how to make the beautiful, gravity-defying butterfly with gelatin wings, modeling chocolate snails, a hand-painted caterpillar, and some pretty details that finish the whole cake off.

My bug-loving girl loved this birthday cake and I think you will too!

1:59:11 Minutes of Instruction

What You Will Learn

  • How to create a butterfly topper with wings painted with edible watercolor
  • Liz's way of tiling the tiers for the mushroom cakes
  • How to sculpt snails and a caterpillar
  • Learn how to make 3 different sizes of mushroom cakes

Tutorial Chapters

  1. Painting the butterfly wings 0:55
  2. Assembling wings 6:26
  3. Large mushroom structure 9:24
  4. Medium mushroom structure 14:45
  5. Small mushroom structure 18:12
  6. Prepping cake structure 20:53
  7. Bulking up stalks 23:48
  8. Stacking the cakes 26:33
  9. Building the butterfly structure 38:26
  10. Bulking up the body 43:51
  11. Detailing the butterfly 45:45
  12. Sculpting the snail body 1:01:42
  13. Sculpting the shell 1:11:34
  14. Final details 1:16:06
  15. Sculpting the caterpillar body 1:26:46
  16. Painting the caterpillar 1:31:37
  17. Final details 1:39:52
  18. Paneling the mushroom stalks 1:41:54
  19. Painting the mushrooms 1:45:00
  20. Finishing the mushroom caps 1:48:22

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About Liz Marek

Liz Marek is a professional cake artist, sweet and savory recipe developer, and the founder of Sugar Geek Show, where she teaches cooking, baking and cake decorating through detailed tutorials, food science explanations, and kitchen-tested recipes. She has been creating recipes and teaching baking techniques since 2008, helping bakers of all skill levels gain the confidence to make professional-quality desserts at home.

Liz is known for breaking down complex cooking and baking concepts into simple, approachable methods. Her work focuses on helping people understand not just how a recipe works, but why it works. Through Sugar Geek Show, she shares step-by-step recipes, cake decorating tutorials, and practical baking guides designed to make professional techniques accessible to everyone.

Over the years, Liz has taught thousands of students through online tutorials, classes, and educational content focused on real kitchen results. Her recipes are carefully tested and written to help people succeed the first time they make them.

When she’s not developing recipes or teaching baking techniques, Liz also hosts curated travel experiences for women through her travel brand Soul Sisters.

You can find Liz’s latest recipes, baking tutorials, and food science tips at Sugar Geek Show.