Here’s the Magic Tree House birthday cake that I made for Elise’s 7th birthday party. ?? It’s a number 7 cake (no special cake pan needed!) that looks like the tree house from the popular Magic Tree House book series by Mary Pope Osborne.
It coordinates with my giant cardboard Magic Tree House party decoration. You guys, I spent like $10 on decorations for this party and this cardboard tree house was such a showstopper.
The leaves are made from fondant that I cut out with a mini leaf cookie cutter, and I made the wooden tree house and ladder out of fondant, edible food coloring markers, and a ruler.
The nice thing about using fondant and chocolate bark is that it totally hides all my icing mistakes 😀
I came up with the idea for this cake so fast it was crazy. I was thinking of a cake with a number 7 and thought, what if the 7 is the tree? And then I sketched this cake on the back of an envelope. I couldn’t believe it. It just popped into my head like magical Moran le Fey.
Man, I love this cake. LOVE. And birthday girl Elise thought it was pretty cool too.
Where do you think that she’s wishing to go? To the Amazon Rain Forest? Back to the Ice Age? All the way to the moon?!?
WANNA MAKE IT? Keep reading for my free step-by-step tutorial, template and supply list for making an easy DIY Magic Tree House Birthday Cake for a Magic Tree House 7th Birthday Party –>
Supplies for making an Easy DIY Magic Tree House Birthday Cake:
- 9″ x 9″ x 3″ cake pan (I use the Cakegirls vanilla cake recipe)
- Kathy’s free number 7 cake template and free Magic Treehouse template (PDF)
- Fondant (this brand tastes the best) and rolling pin
- Food coloring set – green, orange, peach/brown
- Food coloring edible markers
- Chocolate candy melts
- Mini leaf cookie cutters
- Parchment paper, freezer paper, jelly roll pan, silipat mat, sharp knife,
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How to make an Easy DIY Magic Tree House Birthday Cake for a Magic Tree House 7th birthday party:
First, make the cake. Once again I used the delicious vanilla cake recipe from Cakegirls, and this time I had a little 4-year-old baking assistant. You can make the cake a week or two in advance and freeze it according to Cakegirls directions.
Now let’s make some leaves! You can do this step a couple of days in advance. Take white fondant (I like this brand because it tastes the best), add a little green food coloring, and pull and knead it like salt water taffy.
Roll out the fondant and cut out your leaves onto a parchment paper-lined jelly roll pan.
When you have about half the leaves that you need, add a little more green food coloring to the fondant and cut out more leaves so you have two shades of green.
Now let’s make a Magic Tree House! I grabbed a tree image and scaled it to fit – print out my free scaled Magic Tree House template (PDF) and cut. Then lay it onto fondant that you’ve colored peachy brown.
After the tree house is cut out, start adding your lines. I eyeballed them using a ruler and food coloring markers. It was fun. I put on some NPR podcasts and felt like an architect.
Roll out some yellow fondant to make the ladder.
And add a yellow window.
Set them all aside on the parchment, cover the jelly roll pan with plastic wrap and set aside. I made mine a day before I decorated the cake.
Now to make the chocolate bark, which you can also do the day before the party. This is the same technique that I used on my Planes Fire & Rescue forest fire birthday cake, so see that cake if you need help. Melt the chocolate and stir until smooth.
Spread it thin on a piece of freezer paper, roll it up, and pop it in the fridge to harden. Again, see my forest fire birthday cake for more details here.
Let’s cut up that cake. Using my free number 7 template (PDF), cut the cake and assemble onto a cake board.
The day of the party, ice the cake using green and brown buttercream frosting. Once again I used the delicious Cakegirls buttercream icing recipe.
While the icing is still fresh, take the chocolate from the fridge, break it up a bit, and put it onto the trunk like bark. See my forest fire birthday cake if you need more details. Also, you’ll see that I needed to add a little bump onto the 7 to hold up the tree house. Just use some of the extra cake scraps …if you didn’t already eat them, that is.
Start adding your fondant leaves, overlapping them a bit here and there.
Use a little icing on the backs of the fondant as yummy sweet glue.
Keep adding leaves until it’s lush.
Add the tree house and ladder and you can head on back to Frog Hollow, Pennsylvania.
Tell me in the comments below, does your child like the Magic Tree House series?
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See more of my Magic Tree House birthday party ideas:
Giant cardboard Magic Tree House party decoration – it’s easy and costs less than $10 to make.
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