DIY Birthday Cake Costume

in Celebrations, Costumes, DIY, Halloween, Holiday on 10/07/13

Let the sweet-inspired costumes continue!! Do you guys have a “type” of Halloween costume you always like to be? Jeff always wants to be a person, but I would so much rather be a “thing”. And usually this “thing” comes in the form of food. Remember last year? So this year, my costume just had to be a birthday cake!!!! I got the idea when I crafted up that birthday cake piñata, and this is really just a giant version! (With me standing in as the candle.) Oh I had so much fun making this, and I even got Jeff in on the act… as the birthday boy (keep scrolling!)! Hey, that qualifies as a “person”!! Yay for compromise!

Since I was going to be gluing my brains out for this project, Elmer’s and I decided to partner up! I mean, it’s the glue I really do use for all my piñatas already, so it couldn’t be more perfect! Now, for that tutorial…

Supplies Needed

Large Sheets of Cardboard (I buy mine for cheap at art supply stores! I used two 40×60 sheets.)
Crepe Paper (One color for the “cake”, one for the “frosting” and several for the sprinkles!)
Elmer’s Glue-All
Elmer’s Extra Strength Glue Sticks
Yellow Cardstock
Headband
Ribbon (For straps)
Hot Glue and/or Strong Tape (For putting together cake base, and for putting together the flame headband)
Scissors (A box cutter is also helpful!)
Stapler

Step-by-Step Birthday Cake Costume Tutorial

You’ll need to cut four pieces of cardboard. All sizes will depend on how big you need/want the costume to be, but I will give you my measurements for reference. First, you’ll need two rectangles to form the sides of the cake slice (mine were 32″x”22″).
Then you’ll need to cut a triangle shape, with a curved bottom. The sides of your pie shape should match the length of your rectangles and it can be as wide as you want. (Mine was 25″ at its widest point.)

Last you’ll need to cut another rectangle, to form the back of the slice. This should be the same length as the curved edge of your pie shape, and the same height as your rectangles.
After cutting this, work your way down the piece bending it so it begins to curve.
Finally, go back to your triangle shape and cut out an opening (so you can stand it!) towards the wider part of the triangle.
Now you need to put it all together! You can use strong tape, hot glue or both for this. Start by putting your sides onto your triangle, then close up the front “point”, and finally, attach the back, curving as you go.

Now it’s time to fringe the whole thing! To do this efficiently, I cut my rolls of crepe paper into sheets that were the same width as the sides of my cake. Then I folded them up and cut 1 1/2″ strips. And then I fringed those strips, leaving about 1/2″ unfringed at the top. For reference, I used about two full rolls of brown for the frosting, and about one and half rolls of white for the cake.
After you have your strips pre-fringed, start at the bottom side of the cake and create your first cake “layer.” Run a line of the Elmer’s glue all the way down one side and adhere a strip of fringe.
Repeat until you have a layer your desired size, spacing each row about 1/2″ above the last.
After you have your first cake layer, then you can do your first layer of frosting in the same manner. Repeat this until you’ve covered both sides. (For mine, I made three layers each of cake and frosting.)

Now it’s time to fringe up the back. Repeat the same process, but only use your frosting color.

Finally, fringe the top. I recommend starting at the point and working your way back. I find it easiest to place a solid triangle shape scrap of crepe paper at the tip and then start fringing above that. I curved each row of fringe slightly to mimic the shape of the slice.
After your cake is all frosted, cut up your sprinkles. Do this by just cutting a bunch of little rectangles in your sprinkle colors (fold up few layers and cut several at a time).

Use your glue stick to adhere a bazillion sprinkles to your cake! I made mine a funfetti cake with sprinkle covered frosting, so I placed sprinkles virtually all over the cake.
And finally, you’ll need to attach your straps (Sorry I don’t have a pic of this!). I simply flipped back a few bits of my fringe and stapled two ribbons to the front, cut them to my desired strap length (Try on the costume at this point to get a good idea of how long you want them) and stapled them to the back. Fold the fringe back down to cover up the staples. You could also add some hot glue for extra security.

Cut out a flame shape from your yellow cardstock, leaving the bottom flat.
Lay your headband on the bottom and trace the shape of it onto your flame. Cut out that piece.
Now hot glue your flame to the headband. I recommend only gluing in the center of the flame so the headband still has room to “stretch” when you put it on your head.

Pair your costume with a solid color or striped outfit and, if you want, add some sprinkles to your shoes (I cut out a circle of cardstock and glued a few extra sprinkles on them, then clipped it to my shoes with a bobby pin.) and BAM! You’re a birthday cake.

Looking for a couples costume, are ya? Well I thought it would be hilarious if Jeff was “The Birthday Boy” and I was his slice of cake! Oh yes, this was a glorious idea. He may not of thought so, but look how cute he is! Just a bow tie and a party hat, and he’s good to go. I also thought about making Bella a birthday gift (She was already a piñata!)… that may need to happen for our actual Halloween festivities!

DIY Birthday Cake (+ Birthday Boy!) Costume

All Photos by Studio DIY

I’m pretty sure I would just die to see a whole birthday family! Just think! A cake, a birthday boy or girl, a piñata, a present… oh the possibilities! If any of you guys do this, you will officially be my favorite family in all the land. I also think the cake would be awesome in other “flavors”… how about red velvet!? Ooooh! Aaah! What flavor would you make?

p.s. Once Halloween is over, guess what!? You can turn this costume into a piñata so easily! Just cut out another triangle shape, cover it with fringe and glue to the bottom! Save that piece you cut out in the top and cover that in fringe too. Then fill up your new super-giant piñata, close it up and you’ve got a whole new use for this costume!

This DIY project is sponsored by Elmer’s. All content and opinions are that of my own! Thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep the Studio DIY party going! Read more about my editorial policies here.

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