Do you celebrate your pet’s birthday? Tell me I’m not alone on this one. My kids insist on having a party for our cat every year. She’s a very sweet, but very large, calico cat. And last week, she turned three. What’s that in human years? According to calculatorcat.com: 3-year-old cat = 29-year-old human. Interesting.

So, what do you make for a cat named Cake? Well… cake, of course. I was quite surprised at how easily this silly dessert came together. Just sandwich together two simple pound cakes, do a little carving, then swirl on some calico-colored buttercream icing.

My favorite part was making the accessories. Nothing says “birthday” like a party hat and balloon. Ironically, our cat is deathly afraid of balloons and wouldn’t come near the cake when it was done. Too bad. It was delicious.

Maybe next year we’ll have to make her a cake out of beef jerky. She loves beef jerky.

• 2 pound cakes
• 5 cups vanilla buttercream frosting
• Brown & black gel food coloring
• 1 graham cracker
• 1 Nutter Butter cookie
• White, green, brown and pink candy melt wafers (2 each)
• Black licorice rope
• Hat box with upholstery or floral foam inside
• Parchment paper
• Small balloon attached to a thin metal wire
• Small paper party hat

Step 1
Bake two pound cakes. I bought Betty Crocker pound cake mixes and baked them according to the directions on the box in 9″x5″ loaf pans.

Step 2
Make 5 cups of vanilla buttercream frosting. Split the frosting into three bowls. Add black and brown food coloring to the smaller amounts (about 1 cup each.) Put the the black and brown frosting into separate piping bags with 1/2-inch round tips.

Step 3
Put a piece of upholstery or floral foam inside of a hat box that you can use for a cake stand. (The foam will be used to keep the balloon wire in place later.)

Step 4
Cover the top of the hat box with a sheet of parchment paper to keep it clean while you shape and frost your cake. Trim the sides and bottoms of the pound cakes and frost them together, upright.

Step 5
Carve the the cake into an elongated dome shape.

Step 6
Cut triangle shapes from a graham cracker and insert them into the cake for cat’s ears. Cut a Nutter Butter cookie in half and attach them to the bottom of the cake for the cat’s paws.

Step 7
Frost the entire cake with a thin layer of white frosting. Place in the refrigerator for an hour. Put the remaining white frosting into a piping bag with a 1/2-inch round decorator tip.

Step 8
Remove the cake from the refrigerator and begin piping and swirling black and brown spots. There’s no special pattern. All calico cats are different. Be sure to save some of the black and brown frosting to pipe the tail, later.

Step 9
Make the eyes and nose with candy melt wafers. Use frosting to stick the shapes together. Add the eyes and nose to the cake.

Step 10
Pipe around the calico spots with more white frosting – blending and swirling all over the cake.

Step 11
Cut three small pieces of black licorice rope for the mouth and add them to the cat’s face.

Step 12
Make a tiny paper party hat and place it on top of the cat’s head.

Step 13
Gently slide the parchment paper out from under the cake, positioning the cat on the hat box with enough room to make the tail. Pipe the cat’s tail with the remaining frosting. Poke a hole in the hat box and insert the balloon attached to a thin metal wire. The foam inside the hat box should help keep it upright and in place.

This cake will keep in the refrigerator for a week, or covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Meow! Now celebrate like you’ve got 9 lives.