My Favourite Novelty Cakes as a Beginner

One of my favourite hobbies is baking and I’ll often bake a cake for friends and family on their birthdays. Whether that’s a single tier cake, cupcakes, cheesecakes, or even experimenting with novelty cakes. It’s a great way to learn more about my hobby, especially as a beginner, and do something nice for my loved ones, too.

My first novelty cake was a snooker cake for one of my friends birthdays. It was my first loaf cake, and still remains one of my favourite cakes to decorate. I think that’s because it was my first attempt at something like this. As a beginner baker I was certainly proud of it!

The cake itself was a simple chocolate sponge and the decorations (snooker balls and cues) were made from marzipan. I covered the cake in fondant which I dyed green with food colouring – remember, I was a beginner – , and the sides were covered with chocolate butter cream.

I think my cake turned out pretty good for a first try. But unfortunately, the cake cracked during transit. 🤦‍♀️ Which I’ve since learnt was due to the curve in the plate I used to decorate it on! Since then I always use a cake board for my cakes.

My Favourite Novelty Cakes as a Beginner

Needless to say that first novelty cake sparked a new love of baking, and I tried my hand at other designs over the years. I love being able to teach myself something new, and I’m constantly learning new baking and decorating skills, too.

Novelty Penguin Cake – December 2011

This novely cake was baked for Christmas 2011 and remains one of the most fun to decorate. I loved sculpting the penguins and fishpond out of fondant. Again, I used food colouring to dye the fondant. Then covered the cake with icing sugar to resemble snow.

Unfortunately, I didn’t let the cake cool before decorating it! So, all my fondant decorations and the icing sugar melted. As shown in the photo – I forgot to take a photo beforehand. Now, I make sure my cakes are fully cooled before any decorating!

Christmas Pudding Novelty Cake – December 2012

This cake was designed to look like a Christmas pudding – since none of my family really likes Christmas pudding. So, I thought a chocolate cake sandwiched between two layers of raspberry jam was the perfect alternative. I used Lakeland’s medium sized hemisphere pans, and a 4-egg chocolate spong recipe. We enjoyed tucking into this on Christmas Day… and again on Boxing Day. You can never have two many sweet treats over Christmas.

Gingerbread Bread Houses – October and December 2013

I bought myself a Halloween gingerbread house kit for Halloween, and my dad kindly bought me another one to make him over Christmas. OK, so these aren’t technically cakes but they are novelty bakes… Although, I didn’t actually bake the gingerbread myself either. 🙊 Still, they’re certainly two of my favourites – I loved assembling and decorating them!

Betty Boop in the Bath Novelty Cake – August 2014

One of my mum’s favourite cartoon characters is Betty Boop

Minnie Mouse Giant Cupcake – December 2013

Despicable Me Minion Novelty Cake – July 2015

My dad loves The Minions.

Magic Roundabout Novelty Flake Cake – August 2015

My mum loves The Magic Roundabout, so much so that she has a tattoo on each calf. One Zebedee the spring toy and the other of Brian the snail, which was the inspiration for this cake. I had so much fun making Brian out of coloured fondant – doesn’t he look cute?

If you’re looking for some other great novelty cakes or recipes, I’d highly recommend the Cut Out + Keep craft website. It’s full of great ideas! I’ve been a member since 2017 and have even written a few articles there myself: Buffy’s Room (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and how to plan a Star Wars Day themed party.