Coolest Handy Manny Cake 14
by Stephanie
(Santa Rosa, CA)
Homemade Handy Manny Cake
My son was in a Handy Manny phase when he turned 2, so the theme of the cake was easy. I shopped the web for ideas and came up with this version of Manny's toolbox for my son's cake.
I baked a 10x15 inch cake (vanilla) for the bottom, which I cut to look like the wood sign for Manny's shop. I covered it in homemade buttercream tinted a soft yellow. Then I tinted piping gel brown, and streaked it through the buttercream to make it look like the wood grain. I piped big dots in the corners and made them look like screws and nails.
For the toolbox, I baked another 10x15 inch cake (chocolate) and cut it into three equal pieces. I stacked and filled it with cookies & cream filling (YUM!), then frosted it with red buttercream. For the handle, I cut and shaped cereal treats to look like the sides (first time doing that) and used a plastic column for the actual handle. I covered the cereal treats with royal icing to get them to be hard enough to hold the handle (thank you cake shows). I used gum paste (another first) to cover the cereal treats and handle. The gum paste was very stretchy and didn't smooth out well at all, and I know fondant would have been a better choice.
I used my son's toys to accent the toolbox, but you'll notice stretch is missing (we found her later). This homemade Handy Manny cake was fun and turned out very cute.
