I love the story of Noah’s Ark, and as a cake decorator, it is a theme that lends itself to so many creative designs! If you’ve been a part of this site for any length of time, you know that we love cheerful cakes, and that I also have a soft spot for figure modeling & cake toppers. Noah’s Ark cakes with their sweet animals two by two are perfectly suited for many different occasions, but especially for young birthdays and baby showers.
I also love the “surprise inside” rainbow cake! This represents the rainbow that appears at the end of the Noah’s ark story, but also highlights a really popular trend in caking right now. Everyone loves rainbow cakes :0)
In Part 1 of our Noah’s Ark cake, I demonstrate how to make the animals~ hippos, pandas,giraffes, alligators, and a small dove. (The lion and elephant tutorials are in past videos.) —CLICK HERE for part 1.
In this video (Part 2), I demonstrate how to make a cake with rainbow colored layers, and how to make the ark! I hope that you enjoy it!
Materials
Double Batch white almond sour cream cake (doctored mix) . Use your cake recipe of choice that can withstand a small amount of carving. (We used this to make two 6 inch cake layers for the ark, and 6 thin 8 inch layers.)
Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream -Enough to fill and frost a fairly tall 8 inch cake, and to crumb coat the ark.
Chocolate and White Fondant– I used Chocolate Satin Ice kneaded into white Satin Ice to achieve the shade of brown that I wanted for my ark. You do not have to use chocolate fondant at all, but it did make things move a little more quickly.
Scriber Needle, Sharp Knife, Toothpick–Any of these would be helpful in creating the look of the wooden boards that made up the ark.
Rice Cereal Treats–We used 3.5 (pre-packaged) to create the “house” on top of the ark.
Coloring Gels used: We tinted 6 bowls, each filled with 1 ¼cups white cake batter. Colors used (All are Americolor Brand): Americolor Red Red, Americolor Orange, Lemon Yellow, Electric Green, Sky Blue, Regal Purple.
Bubble Tea Straws- I placed four beneath the ark (which was on it’s own cardboard cake circle)
Cardboard Cake Circles- I used two…one beneath the 8″ cake and one beneath the 6″ ark.
***In the video, I note that I first tried making the base of the ark with a Wilton half ball pan. We had completed the ark and placed the animals when we looked over after a few hours and the ark has SPLIT in half and was ruined. (ARRRGGGH!) – As I explained in the video, I think that there were two main contributing factors. The first is that my giraffes and flamingos had long anchors which would have been fine if not for the fact that the cake was tapered and the animals on the outer edge were a little weighty. Perhaps using the “durable” recipe would have made things better, but I didn’t want to take any chances with my second try. With my second try, I did not taper my cake and I used 6″ layers. The final result to me is every bit as cute as the first try, but without the risk!
Let me know if you have any questions! I hope that you enjoy the tutorial!
Excellent!!!!!
Love it! What color did you use for the roof?
Thanks!
@Pamela– We just used a little Americolor Chocolate Brown for the roof.
just today I was asked to make this. Low and behold I check in on your site and here it is. Thank you so much. I love watching your videos. I do have a question.
Is it neccesary to put an 8″ board between the middle of the 6 layers. I know you didn’t for this demo but If I don’t just use long bubble tea straws? It will be stable enough?
Thanks for all the great videos
Wendy
Thank you! Another great video!
Gorgeous work!
Beautiful..WOW! what a coincidence! I had made a Noahs ark diaper cake & theme for my baby shower this past weekend.. My edible cake wasnt Noaks ark But i think i will do this cake for my son’s 1st birthday! Great idea!
I FINALLY got a chance to sit and watch the videos. (I usually watch as soon as you post. lol) Absolutely adorable, as usual. I’ve done a Noah’s Ark cake once, and it was a fun one to make. I love your idea of putting it on top of another cake. Thanx! =)
Love Love Love, just adorable… Thank you for a great informative video… Very inspiring!!….
So sweet!
Beautiful!
Thank you… another great video tutorial…
Amazing ! I was just trawling the net today for ideas. Niece ask for a Noah’s Ark Theme for her Baby Shower. Log on tonight and there it is. Cant wait to get cracking. Thanks
Hi Melissa, loved this cake, it’s so so so cute :)
What type of pans did you use?
I Love It! Great Job! Thank you so much for all the great videos you create!
Hi, I absolutely love this site and spend many evenings just looking through it. Just one general question, what depth cake tin do you use? I need to buy some new tins and didn’t know whether to get the deep cake tins (3″) or the sandwich cake tins which are about half that depth.
Thanks everyone for your comments!!–I really appreciate them!–
@Nan~ We like to use the 2″ pans.
Would 6″ oval pans work okay for the ark and give enough room for the animals? Thanks.
Melissa, I cannot see the video.
@Susan-I’m sorry that I missed your question, not sure if you have attempted the cake with ovals yet! honestly, I’m not sure… I think that you would have to make the “little house” on top of the boat more narrow if you are going to have room for the animals in front. Either that or you could just move the “house” a little further back on your oval cake rather than centering it.
@Splendid~ Are you able to see it now? If not, just send me an e-mail to info@mycakeschool.com and we’ll see if we can figure things out for you!
I love this cake Melissa, I am in the process of making it at the moment. Are you able to tell me what you have done with the lion to prop it up? I assume you have only made the head for this cake.
Hi Jessica, Melissa made a ball of gumpaste for the lion body and flattened the bottom of the ball by tapping lightly on the countertop. She inserted a lollipop into the body to insert into the cake to give it height.
Instructions on how to make a lion are in another video Lion Topper, in the Gum Paste Fondant section of the tutorials here is a link:
https://www.mycakeschool.com/video-tutorials/lion-cake-topper/
Thank you BeBe
Hi Melissa for some reason. I can not see the video!
Hi Guerda- Are you able to see it now? (You may need to refresh your screen first.)
yes I can see it now. Thank you!
Good, you’re welcome ;0)
Did you attach the roof to the rest of the little house with anything? I’m wondering if the rice crispy treats are sticky enough on their own to make it stick. Thanks! I love this cake!
Hi Sara–So funny, I do not even remember–I’m surprised that I didn’t discuss that. Anyway, a little melted chocolate or candy melts would be a sure fire strong glue if you are worried…but I am almost positive that I would have just spread a little piping gel in between (if anything). Because that last row of shingles hangs onto the “house”, it helps to ensure that things stay in place.
Hi Melissa. Love your work!
I have a project for 12″ rainbow cake with rolled fondant. Wonder with the 6 layers of rainbow layered with buttercream able to hold rolled out fondant? What is the suggestible height for each layer?
Splendid work! Love love love!!!
Rdgs,
Jac
Hi Jacqueline!
I’m glad that you are making this! We used white almond sour cream cake (doctored mix) which is stable enough for fondant.
In our video, we used approximately 1 1/3 cups of batter per pan for our 8 inch pans, which gave us final baked layers that were a little under an inch in height. Our final cake was probably around 5-5.5 inches. –
For your 12″ cake, I’m guessing that you would need somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 cups or so of batter per pan. Good luck!
Thanks Melissa