Dinosaur Cake (with the recipe for the Perfect Vanilla Sponge Cake)

My son wanted to do a Dinosaur Theme for his 4th Birthday! I ordered some balloons, banners, candles, plates, cups etc with that theme. Planned for a little tea party with his friends and their family. I have not made any elaborate cakes before. So the option was to order some fancy cake or to make a simple (no frosting one) at home.

With the new KitchenAid Stand Mixer sitting on my counter, ordering cake seemed wrong. So I was thinking of making something super simple. While looking online to see how complicated making a dino cake is, I saw a lot of 3D ones and I knew they were not for me. I suddenly chanced upon this one and this seemed alright. My husband promised me all the support and so we embarked on the cake making journey. Have to say it was not as bad as I thought it is going to be.

This cake also is for the wonderful group of bloggers part of Avant Garde Cookies (Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Priya M, Radhika, Priya S and Me). We cookies have cooked with each other for a whole year! Can you believe it, A Whole Year of Fun, Cooking, Clicking and Friendship! I am really thankful for having known each of you and all the chit chats that I have shared with you. I would not be writing this post with a cake if it had not been for your support and push! Love you gals!



I have made this Dinosaur cake with 2 round 7" Vanilla Sponge Cakes. You can make the same with other cakes like Chocolate cake. Also can be made with 8" or 9" cakes.

Ingredients (Makes two 7" round cakes)

Large Eggs 3
Self Raising Flour 175gms
Caster Sugar 175gms
Softened Butter 175gms
Baking Powder 1.5tsp
Vanilla Extract 1 tsp

Method of Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).

2. Prepare the cake tins by greasing the bottom with some butter, line the bottom with a parchment paper and dust with some flour. Keep aside.

3. Beat together the eggs, flour, sugar, butter, baking powder and vanilla extract until smooth in a large mixing bowl.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins. 

5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20-25 mins, or until golden brown, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and springy to the touch.

6. Leave to cool a little and loosen the sides of the cake, then lift the cake out of the tin. Cool on a wire rack. 

7. Leave it in the fridge for a few hours (or over night).

Butter Cream Frosting 

I did only a thin layer of buttercream and had about 1/3 of it left over.

Softened Butter 250gms
Icing Sugar 500 gms

1. Add the butter to a stand mixer. Give it a mix till it is softened.

2. Add the sugar a little at a time and mix till it is combined and is nice and creamy.

How to Assemble - use this template from Betty Crocker!

1.  Cut out Head and Tail from one cake (Though I baked a 7" cake, I just used the 9" template).

2. For body, cut 1-inch slice from edge of remaining whole cake. From cut edge, cut out a small inverted U-shaped piece. You can use the template for this as well.

3. Place body on tray; arrange head and tail pieces next to body.

4. Apply a thin layer of frosting called the crumb coat.

5. Apply the remaining frosting on the cake.

6. Decorate with chocolate buttons. Draw in eye and mouth (I was lazy to make a frosting, so just used some Nutella).