Soooo… my baby turned five years old this month.  He could not wait to be five, partly because many of the kids in his Kindergarten class are five or are turning five and as he reminds me every night “they are close to six mommy.”  My young paleontologist originally requested a Spinosaurus cake, then switched to a Baby Groot Cake.  You know Baby Groot from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy.  The little tree that loves to dance… Yup that one.

Don’t worry if you have never heard of Baby Groot.

I happen to know about Groot because I get the honor of seeing all the Marvel movies (eye roll).  Some I enjoy more than others.

Well… I had the task of making this cake and had to decide which version of Baby Groot to make.  Making a cake that looks like a popular character is very hard because if you mess up everyone knows.  I knew I had a huge task ahead.  As always I start with a template.

Making the Cake Template

I settled on the very cute scene from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 when the Fox told Baby Groot “whatever you do don’t push this button.”  My son approved and I went to planning.  I decided to make this cake with a secret compartment that actually sings Happy Birthday as a surprise to the birthday boy.

Getting a good picture to use as a template for the Baby Groot cake was very difficult.  However, I found pictures of a Baby Groot toy that had pictures of all angles on Ali Express.  Once I printed the template to the desired size I was ready to go.  I used this photo as my main template.

Normally I would make Baby Groot out of cake

However, I decided to make him out of modeling chocolate.  I made the box/bomb as cake.  The cake needed to be elevated.  Therefore, I made a structure that would hold the cake in place.  The cake needed to look like it was sitting on a piece of rock.  I made the rock out of Rice Krispie treats then I covered with dark chocolate to save time to work on the cake.

Making Baby Groot

Baby Groot stood at 15 1/2 inches tall.  I made Baby Groot using armature wire.  This was my first time working with armature wire and I loved it.  I loved the flexibility and the strength.  But, I was concerned about whether it would stand up strong and make delivery 15 miles away.

I used the template I printed of Baby Groot to create the initial armature wire structure.  I left a section at the bottom to screw into the wooden base.  Later on, I added foil to build up his body and head.  Then, I made two holes the size of the armature wire into the wooden base then added the Baby Groot structure to the base.  To make sure Groot would not move I made four more holes and secure his feet with a small piece of armature wire and locked them under the cake board.

At this point, he did not look pretty.   However, as I started adding the modeling chocolate it started coming together.   I used a cookie tool to make the lines as a tree trunk.  When I got to a certain point I realized I did not color enough modeling chocolate hence, the reason he has multiple colors.  I painted with brown edible dust later on until I was pleased with the way he looked.

Making the Baby Groot cake

The flavor of the cake was chocolate and vanilla.  I used two square cakes to achieve the length of the bomb.  The cake was 10×6.  I extended the cake a little bit longer than the template because it looked much better that way.  When I was finished carving the cake.  I filled the cake with Italian Meringue buttercream, then added a layer of ganache to the cake.  Making sure I kept the hole in the bottom to attach to the cake board.

Once the cake was chilled.  I attached the cake to structure using ganache.  After that, I colored some fondant grey and covered the cake with fondant.  Sorry, I don’t have a picture of this because I was working against time and did not have a minute to stop and take photos.  I then made strips of fondant added to the cake in sections to match the front and the top of the bomb.  Once this was done, I used edible charcoal dust to make the cake a darker grey.  Then painted silver stripes with silver dust. 

Next, I made the two red button. 

Then added the strings to the top of the box/bomb.  I used my clay extruder to make tiny strings.  This was the easiest part of making this cake, but the strings kept breaking.  I kept having to redo. 

Mind you it is a five-year-old birthday party and no one would know that I was missing the strings at the top.  But, I knew and I kept moving right along.  Finally, I was able to get to the last few things, I made the two silver things and the secret compartment.  I used some grey fondant and covered the bottom of the tape recorder, then made a flap to open and close.  I tested it one last time to make sure it sang Happy Birthday and secured the top.

Finally, when I reached the party location, I adorned Baby Groot with headphones and the Guardians of the Galaxy faux cassette player.  I say faux cassette player because it does not actually play cassettes.  However, my little man loves it and does not care that it only has one song recorded.

This was such a fun cake to make.  If you enjoy this you may also enjoy these other cake posts.

Violin Cake

Giant Macaron Cake

Football helmet Cake

Pineapple Cake

Crocodile Cake

Happy Caking.  Don’t forget to Pin it for later.