Gluten Free Construction Cake

DIY Homemade Gluten Free Birthday Cake for Kids

Gluten free kids don't need to miss out on fun birthday cakes. My son's first birthday cake request ever was a couple of years ago for his fourth birthday. He wanted a construction cake, which turned out to be far easier to make than you might think. And while my kid has no problems with gluten and I could have bought him a regular cake for his birthday, I decided to make my own GF one instead. Because gosh darn it, sometimes I want a fun cake too!!

And with a cake as simple as this one, you don't need to be a pro to make it look good. 

These photos were quick snaps on my old cell phone, so I apologize for the quality. But I'm lucky to have gotten any shots at all since my son and nephew turned this cake into an ACTUAL construction zone before we could cut proper slices!! 

It was like a smash cake, for 4 year olds 🤣  Be forewarned if you decide to make one for a small child. The temptation to turn that cake into a worksite will be too strong. Cut some pieces before you let them have at it. 

 

A Birthday Cake Request

Since this was my son's first real birthday cake request, I spent a lot of time over thinking this. Like, A LOT. Should I make a tiered round cake? A cake in the shape of a truck? I probably looked at every construction themed cake and truck themed cake picture on the entire internet. 

And in the end decided I was overthinking it and went with the simplest option. 

But I did end up making 2 different birthday cakes. One was a sort of cupcake pull apart cake with construction toppers and truck printables. These went to his daycare to share with friends, and I'll post about those soon. 

The other cake is this one, a simple sheet pan cake made with a sheet pan like this one.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix

 

I confess that I used a store bought gluten free chocolate cake mix to make this cake. After all these years of being gluten free, I don't actually have a regular cake recipe that I make regularly and love, mainly because we don't eat a lot of sweets or cakes in my house. 

 

The rare times in the past when I made cake, I tended to just grab a mix from the grocery store, like Betty Crocker, or whatever was on sale. Especially since a few years ago, gluten free cake mixes were cheap compared to today's prices. 

So just use your favourite chocolate cake recipe or mix. Something like this one or this one would work well. I've used both Betty Crocker and Kinnikinik with success.

For this cake I used 1 box of mix baked in a 9x12" baking dish to serve 8 people. It made a pretty thin cake, so you can easily double the recipe or use 2 mixes to get a thicker cake.

 

Gluten Free Chocolate Icing (for base layer of "dirt")

I've shared my recipe below. This is a modification of the slightly boozy chocolate icing from my book, Cooking and Baking with Gluten Free Beer . 

 

 

Gluten Free Buttercream Icing (for green grass)

See below. I also use this recipe for my gluten free vanilla sunflower cupcakes and gluten free bunny pull apart cake . To make the grass, I use this Wilton Grass Icing Tip .

Decorations for the Construction Truck Cake

I bought a little set of trucks and signs, similar to this one , to use as construction truck cake toppers 

Any sort of chocolate ball shape can serve for the rocks. Since this was near Christmas, I used those foil wrapped chocolate Christmas balls. 

Because my son is not gluten intolerant/celiac, I used kit kat pieces as the logs and just ate from the opposite side of the cake. But to make this totally gluten free you could use something like After Eight Chocolate Mint Sticks or other chocolate sticks.

To make the dirt, I trimmed off a strip of the cake and set it aside. After icing the cake, I crumbled the cake to make the strip of dirt, then added chocolate sprinkles over top.  

Gluten Free Chocolate Icing Recipe (for base layer of "soil")

2 2/3 cups powdered confectioners sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

6 Tbsp softened butter (or vegan alternative)

1/4 cup milk of choice

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a medium-sized bowl, sift together icing sugar and cocoa powder. 

2. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Gradually beat in 1/2 the sugar mix. Blend in milk and vanilla. Add remaining sugar mix and beat until light and smooth. Add more milk or icing sugar if needed to adjust consistency.

Gluten Free Vanilla Icing Recipe (for green grass)

1/4 cup softened butter (or vegan alternative)

1 cup powdered confectioners sugar

1 small shake of salt (eliminate if using salted butter)  

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1-2 Tablespoons water, as needed

2-3 drops green food colouring, as needed

1. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. 

2. Sift in 1/2 the sugar and beat until blended. 

3. Blend in milk and vanilla. 

4. Add remaining sugar and 2-3 drops of green food colouring and beat until light and smooth. 

* Add more food colouring, milk or icing sugar if needed to adjust consistency and colour. 

To Make the Gluten Free Chocolate Construction Cake

 

1. Bake the cake according to your instructions in a cake sheet pan. Let it cool, then move it to a baking sheet wrapped in tin foil or other serving plate. 

2. Using a knife, trim the top and/or sides to make the cake even and smooth. Keep the cut bits to use as "dirt".

3. Cover the entire top and sides of the cake with the chocolate icing.

 

4. Following the instructions that came with your Grass Icing Tip, pipe little bits of grass where you want them. 

 

5. Add trucks and decorations to create your scene. 

It's that easy. The boys had a blast with this, and didn't even mind that they didn't get much cake in the end, lol.

Stay tuned for the construction themed pull apart cake!

 

Have you ever made a themed cake? 

Tell me about it in the comments!

 

 

 

 Looking for more gluten free cake recipes? 

Check these ones out!