Crocodile Cake

I can't believe I have a six year old. He has been checking the mail all month to see if he has any birthday cards (let's be real here... birthday money) in the mail. He has been day dreaming about all the new imaginext toys he was hoping to get. I try to make my kid's birthday really special just for them. They get to choose the meals and activities on their actual birthday and the cake for their party. This year, my six wanted a crocodile cake...

I made two round cakes (from the box) and carved them into a crocodile shape. You could probably get away with making one, but I had some trial and error and enjoyed eating some cake along the way. 

I went the easy route and also used store-bought frosting. I did a thin layer of white on the crocodile (so the cake crumbs wouldn't be all over the green crocodile frosting) and put it in the freezer for a bit to harden. This makes it so much easier to frost. 

Next, I colored some of the store bought frosting green and frosted the crocodile.

Next, I added green lines with this frosting tube from Walmart to make the scales.

Next, I used a toothpick to make the scales. Place the toothpick at the left upper corner of the lines and drag the toothpick down the lines to create scales. Continue this same idea until you finish the scales on the tail. I also used the dark green frosting to color sides of the crocodile belly dark green. 

I also made the arms/legs out of cake, frosted them white and put them in the freezer to harden. I frosted them with the light green frosting as well as dark green.

Use a black icing tube to make the eyes, nostrils and smile. Add teeth from rolled out fondant, cut into the shapes of triangles.

Add pudding and graham cracker crumbs to make the dirt around the crocodile. 

Great toys for a six year old:

My six really loves any type of action figure (especially the villains!) made by imaginext. He also loves junior legos (he got this exact set and built it on his own), anything remote control (this is a great one he got from Gram). But, the toy my boys have been spending hours playing with is this Kingdom Builders Set. You can make different versions of the tower by screwing and unscrewing the screws. The king and villains transform into different things (for instance, the King's sceptor inserts into his head to make a wrench) and there are prisons, trap doors, cannons that shoot, falling balconies, etc.