What better way to say “Happy Mother’s Day,” then with a unique and delicious cake? Here’s an easy to make Hat Cake, followed by more ideas to help you design an unforgettable Mother’s Day cake.

Hat Cake

Ingredients

2 baked round cakes (Mom’s favorite type) one 8-inch and one 9-inch

4 cups of buttercream icing (Mom’s favorite flavor)

1, 3-foot roll of strawberry fruit roll ribbon or 3 feet of ribbon made from fondant
(marshmallow is best)

Allow the cakes to cool, and then trim around the perimeter of the 8-inch layer until it is 6 inches in diameter (or, for a wider brim, trim this slightly smaller). Don’t level this layer because the mound will make a prettier hat, but do level the 9-inch, bottom layer.

Place the 9-inch layer on a 12-inch cake plate. Frost or fill. Then place the 6-inch layer on top and finish frosting, smoothing the buttercream over the entire hat.

Then create a ribbon to wrap around your hat like a hatband. If using fondant (marshmallow’s the best tasting), create the ribbon and bow separately and attach with icing. A hat ribbon can also be created with the fruit roll ribbon. Or instead of the ribbon, pipe tiny flowers around the hat to make a floral band.

Finally, pipe your “Happy Mother’s Day” message on the top of the hat.

This Hat Cake (and our marshmallow fondant recipe) is from Volume 2 of our “Cake Decorating Made Easy!” Video Books. Here’s what one reader had to say about them:

“If you are new to decorating or an old pro, you’ll learn something new and helpful from these books. They are WONDERFUL!!!”

T. Gonzales, Tucson, AZ

To learn how to make your Hat Cake’s frosting so smooth, others will think it’s fondant, check out our Perfectly Smooth Buttercream article HERE.

And, here are some more fun and unique ideas for a very special Mother’s Day cake:

“Eat Your Vegetables” Garden Cake

Whether Mom loves working in the garden or has worked hard to convince her children to eat their vegetables, this cake will bring a smile to her face. And if you enjoy playing with Play-Do, making this cake will bring a smile to yours!

Begin by modeling vegetables for the garden with gum paste or marzipan. Make enough to cover the cake with rows of carrot tops and such.

Cover your cake (sheet cake works best) with buttercream, and smooth. Add your rows of sugarcrafted veggies. Then attach a garden fence by placing “lady fingers” or similarly shaped cookies around the perimeter of the layers, adhering with dabs of icing. The fence shouldn’t extend up around the top of the cake, but just from bottom to top.

For a fun, final touch, add a miniature water can, etc. (found at a craft store or modeled).

No room for the “Happy Mother’s Day” greeting? No worries. You can add the greeting on garden signs created with paper glued to toothpicks. And since nurturing a garden is often used as a metaphor for nurturing children, you may want to create a Mother’s Day message that goes with the garden theme. Greeting cards will give you lots of ideas!

Flower Garden Cake

If Mom loves flowers, she’ll love this cake. Begin with a smooth buttercream covered cake. Add her favorite blooms. These may be piped with icing, molded with gumpaste, or cut out from rolled fondant. They could even be real flowers, but do be sure they are edible and pesticide free before you place them on the cake. Then pipe stems and leaves with green buttercream icing. Finally, all that’s left to do is pipe a pretty Mother’s Day message!

Photo Cakes for Mom

Picture cake tops printed with edible icing and paper are very popular, and a picture perfect cake for Mother’s Day would feature her children. This could be a single snapshot or even a collage of Kodak moments with Mom and her children that you’ve created on the computer or scanned from an album.

A picture (scanned or off the Internet) from a favorite storybook or nursery song that Mom especially loved sharing could be used to create a sentimental and charming cake. If you’re feeling really clever, you could tie in a line or verse with your Mother’s Day wishes on the cake.

When considering how you will make your Mother’s Day cake, remember the cake can be sentimental, whimsical, fancy, silly, elegant, or just plain fun. However you design your “Mother’s Day” cake, it’ll be perfect for your mom because you made it.

Happy Mother’s Day!

—————————————————
Samantha Mitchell, Co-Author
Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 1 & 2
The World’s First Cake Decorating Video Books.

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