making a camouflage birthday cake {tutorial}

The cake I made for Anton's Bootcamp {Army} Birthday Party was definitely an experiment.

I'm THRILLED that it turned out though, and thought I'd share with you how I did it.

Because I happen to like the taste of boxed cakes more than homemade {ghasp!} and because I didn't want to spend all evening in the kitchen, I started with these two cake mixes.

I chose Dark Chocolate Fudge because I wanted the darkest brown possible.

After preparing the 2 mixes according to the directions, I split them into several bowls.

I added white to one of the dark chocolate bowls, making a lighter brown {next time I'd make it WAY lighter because once cooked, it was difficult to see the difference in color}.

I also separated more of the white into 2 other bowls, dying them different shades of green.

I typically mix my own dye colors {a leftover love from my college days taking color theory & painting classes} but because I began this project around 10pm, I decided to take the easy route and use a pre-made hue.

I really wanted a contrast between the colors and remembered reading somewhere that if you add blue dye to dark chocolate, it turns it nearly black.

It turned out great.

Ben and I worked together, taking turns plopping big dollops of color into the prepared cake pans {first spraying a healthy coat of Pam, then dusting it with flour}.

I wanted to make Anton a big cake to blow out candles from, but decided I also wanted cupcakes...lets be honest, they're just easier for birthday parties.

Especially parties at the park.

This time I used piping bags, each with a separate color {learn to make your own here}.

Bake according to instructions on the box.

Again, because I didn't want to be up all night, I used pre-made vanilla frosting. I added more of the avocado green dye but wanted more of an army green so I simply mixed in a little chocolate icing that I had left over from Ezekiel's birthday party last week.

After mixing it together with my Kitchen Aid, it became exactly the color I was hoping for. Not too dark, not too bright.

Rather than frosting the entire top of the cupcakes and cover up the camouflage cake entirely, I decided to grab my piping bags again and make a little multi-color swirl on top.

I did this by putting 2 separate frosting colors in 2 separate piping bags {without tips on them}. Then, placing both bags together into yet another bag {with a tip this time}, they come out together, giving a multi color effect.

Just like wanting more contrast in the 2 brown colors in the cake, next time I'd like more contrast in the greens I used on top of the cupcakes. They ended up being very subtle.