Jo and Sue: Taco Cake

This year for my niece's birthday (Sue's daughter), she decided she wanted a taco theme for her party. Sue put on a big taco spread with all sorts of fillings and toppings. I was put in charge of the cake.

I decided that a taco cake was totally appropriate and within my skill level.

It's so fun, am I right? And, it is actually fairly simple to decorate as well. If decorating a cake usually intimidates you then you might want to give this one a try. The only tricky bit is piping the "lettuce". Everything else is easy peasy! I used a margarita flavored cake but you could use any flavor you like. All you need is one 8 or 9 inch round cake and you are good to go!

Taco Cake

Ingredients

1 8 or 9 inch round cake (any flavor)

2 cans vanilla frosting

1 can chocolate frosting

7 Oreo cookies

3 tbsp shredded coconut

2 red jujubes (or similar gummy candy)

3 Tbsp Cool Whip

yellow food coloring

green food coloring

orange food coloring

Directions

Prepare your "toppings": Shredded Cheese - in a small baggy mix a few drops of orange food coloring with the shredded coconut until all coconut is colored. Tomato bits - cut the red jujubes into small squares. Lettuce - dye 1/2 of one of the vanilla frostings with a few drops of green food coloring. Set these aside.

Prepare "taco": Place your round cake on a work surface.

Cut the cake in half and stand it up on the flat side. Cut a small line around the center of each round and then cut off a little cake so the inner half is about 1/4 inch lower then the outer half. See photo for clarification.

Frost the middle of the cake and the inner part of the round with chocolate frosting. Dye one can of the vanilla frosting with yellow food coloring. Frost the rest of the cake with the yellow frosting. Don't worry if the middle part doesn't look pretty - you will be covering it up with toppings.

Coarsely crush the Oreos in a baggy and then add in a spoonful or two of the chocolate frosting - just enough to get it to clump together. Spread this over the inner part of the taco to cover where the chocolate frosting was. This is the "ground beef". See photo below for clarification.

Now it's time to place your toppings! Pipe the green frosting in a wavy motion to look like lettuce. You don't have to use the full amount of icing. You want to leave some of the "meat" peeking through. Sprinkle with the coconut "cheese".