If you have been a reader of The Exploring Family for a while you will know that I enjoy making birthday cakes. Sure you can go out and buy a cake, but why do that when you create your own easy dinosaur cake.
Now I know you might be thinking where am I going to find out how to make the Best Dinosaur Cakes? And will it actually turn out? I promise you, that you yes YOU can make this DIY Dinosaur Cake at home. I am not talking about big complicated fondant cakes that will take you a week to make. I like making birthday cakes that are creative and fun, yet EASY to make and taste great for any special day!
DIY Dinosaur Cake Ideas
Some of my past accomplishments include Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake, “Diggers” Construction Party birthday cake, Nerf Cake and one of my favorites Kit Kat Cake. For Monkey’s birthday we had a dinosaur party complete with TWO dinosaur birthday cakes, each one had a different dinosaur cake designs: one was a triceratops and the other was a stegosaurus.
Below you will find two different dinosaur cake ideas: Triceratops Cake and Stegosaurus Cake. This post will cover how to make a Triceratops Cake at home and includes video instructions as well. There are lots of dinosaur cake ideas that you can find but many are very complicated or use fondant icing instead of butter cream but my recipe guarantees a delicious cake for every dinosaur lover.
How To Make a Dinosaur Cake
These easy dinosaur cake designs can be make with whatever your favourite cake is. I go all out and use boxed cake mix, but if you prefer a made from scratch cake recipe go ahead and use it. I also use icing I purchased at the store, but you could make your own icing if you have the time.
Personally I think that even when using a boxed cake mix and store bought icing these cakes taste better then many cakes from the stores. There are also no special pans required, just 9″ Round Pans. Plus this easy Triceratops Birthday Cake with have the birthday child smiling from ear to ear with either of these dinosaur theme cakes.
Dinosaur themed party are so much fun, so I have included a dinosaur cake tutorial video and step by step instructions on how to make a dinosaur birthday cake. Every birthday boy or girl loves fancy cakes for their birthday so this is exactly what I made this year with my dinosaurs cake.
Dinosaur Birthday Cake Ideas
Easy Dinosaur Cake – Triceratops Cake
How to make a Dinosaur Shaped Cake – Follow along to learn how to make a 3D impressive dinosaur cake step by step. This DIY dinosaur cake is super simple, even the novice baker can make it for your next dinosaur-themed birthday party!
Dinosaur Birthday Cake Ingredients:
- 2 – 9″ round cakes, any flavour we used a vanilla boxed cake mix
- 2 cupcakes, I just stole a little batter from the cakes to make these
- Icing – I used vanilla with green food colouring
- Coloured sugar – I used green
- Graham Crackers
- 8 Large Marshmallows
- 3 Mini Marshmallows
- 2 Chocolate chips
- 2 Large white chocolate wafers
- 2 Milk chocolate wafers, want ones that are a little smaller then the white chocolate ones
How to make a Dinosaur Cake with Instructions:
Bake your cakes/cupcakes as directed, and let cool completely. Cut one of the round cakes as shown to make the head. Trim the piece that you cut off to be shaped like the tail.
Cut notches out of the second round cake for the cupcakes (to make the feet) and for the head to fit together
If you find that one of the cakes or cupcakes is taller the the other, you can trim off a layer at the bottom to make the all the same height to make it easier to create your easy dinosaur cake ideas.
Arrange cakes on cake board, place strips of wax paper around the edges (you will remove these after icing the cake and then the tray will be nice and clean).
You will want the cake board to be at least 20×24 to help create these dinosaur birthday cake ideas.
Cover the entire cake in white frosting that has been dyed to become green icing, gently remove wax paper strips and then start decorating to make the dino cake. To make the eyes, use some icing to “glue” the milk chocolate wafer to the white chocolate one. Place on your easy triceratops cake for your dino-loving kids.
Dinosaur cake decorating ideas: Cut mini marshmallows in half, and place on the cupcakes for toes. Cut 3 large marshmallows on an angle to create the horns. Place chocolate chips on the face for nostrils.
Cut graham crackers in half diagonally, to make triangles. Cover in a thin layer of icing and the dip into coloured sugar. Cut the large marshmallows in half, using a dab of icing on either side to to secure them to the tray, and then place the graham cracker on top, resting the edge against the cake.
Easy Dinosaur- Themed Cake
I am not going to lie, there were some pretty impressed little boys and little girls at the birthday celebration who loved this triceratops dinosaur birthday cake. I had several requests to make it for their parties as well.
I highly suggest this easy dinosaur cake – as all the party guests will love it! This is only one of the great dinosaur cakes for toddlers – stay tuned for other dinosaur cakes ideas coming soon!
Easy Dinosaur Birthday Cake
Supplies and Dinosaur Party Decorations
Easy Dinosaur Cake Designs
I will be a sharing the instructions on how to make the second dinosaur birthday cake: Stegosaurus Dinosaur Birthday Cake.
Maybe you have ran out of time, or after looking at the instructions are thinking, “No way I can do this”. Then I offer you the suggestion of the dinosaur cake pan or specifically triceratops cake pan, which will easily create dino cakes.
Had the plan to create your own dinosaur themed cake but ran out of time, don’t worry as you can make a simple birthday cake and add a dinosaur cake topper.
Dinosaur Shaped Cake Pans/ Dinosaur Cake Tin
You can also create these dinosaur-shaped cakes using the pre-existing cake pans, however I enjoy creating personalized cake ideas such as the easy dinosaur birthday cake ideas above! No matter which cake you make it will be amazing at the dinosaur birthday party that kids will be talking about for weeks!
Dinosaur Cake Toppers
If you choose to make dinosaur cupcakes then these plastic dinosaurs offer a few different ways to decorate using toy dinosaurs to make a even simpler dinosaur cake.
More EASY Birthday Cake Ideas
Unicorn Birthday Cake
Kit Birthday Cake
Easy Homemade Thomas The Train Cake
Birthday Party Ideas: Easy DIY Construction Cake
You may also be interested in: Birthday Party Balloon Games
Printable version of the recipe:
DIY Dinosaur Cake – Triceratops Cake
Ingredients
- 2 9" round cakes any flavour we used a vanilla boxed cake mix
- 2 cupcakes I just stole a little batter from the cakes to make these
- 1 tub Icing – I used vanilla with green food colouring
- Coloured sugar – I used green
- Graham Crackers
- 8 Large Marshmallows
- 3 Mini Marshmallows
- 2 Chocolate chips
- 2 Large white chocolate wafers
- 2 Milk chocolate wafers want ones that are a little smaller then the white chocolate ones
Instructions
- Bake your cakes/cupcakes as directed, and let cool completely. Cut one of the round cakes as shown to make the head. Trim the piece that you cut off to be shaped like the tail.
- Cut notches out of the second round cake for the cupcakes (to make the feeand for the head to fit together
- If you find that one of the cakes or cupcakes is taller the the other, you can trim off a layer at the bottom to make the all the same height to make it easier to create your dinosaur birthday cake recipe.
- Arrange cakes on cake board, place strips of wax paper around the edges (you will remove these after icing the cake and then the tray will be nice and clean).
- You will want the cake board to be at least 20×24 to help create these dinosaur birthday cake ideas.
- Cover the entire cake in icing, gently remove wax paper strips and then start decorating to make the dino cake. To make the eyes, use some icing to “glue” the milk chocolate wafer to the white chocolate one. Place on your easy triceratops cake.
- Dinosaur cake decorating ideas: Cut mini marshmallows in half, and place on the cupcakes for toes. Cut 3 large marshmallows on an angle to create the horns. Place chocolate chips on the face for nostrils.
- Cut graham crackers in half diagonally, to make triangles. Cover in a thin layer of icing and the dip into coloured sugar. Cut the large marshmallows in half, using a dab of icing on either side to to secure them to the tray, and then place the graham cracker on top, resting the edge against the cake.
Originally posted August 2015
Updated Sept 2023
Very cute! I love how easy it actually would be to make this cake.. very creative
That is very cute, it would bring allot of smiles.
Looks so easy and cute 🙂
Wow, you did an amazing job on these. They are simple, but so nice.
What an adorable cake! Thanks for the step by step directions and the photos! Very helpful!
Oh my goodness! That is just the cutest!!!
Those cakes look great, you did a really good job!
Marvellous, you’ve made a very good job of those dinosaurs 🙂 My grandson would love them, he’s really into dinosaurs at the moment.
great imagines showing how to make this cake , i love it. Definitly something i might attempt in trying for my son or daughter’s birthday ! Thanks for the post ! 🙂
Very cute you did a wonderful job
That is so cute! I have never made a home made cake rather than just a sheet cake, but this has me thinking it may be possible. One day! haha, cute cake and great job!
What a great idea using marshmallows to hold up the spikes!
Kids love dinosaurs and marshmallows so I’m sure this cake would be a hit at lots of parties!
How many boxes of cake mix did you use? I have a 10″ cake pan that I was going to bake 2 rounds separately. Would 2 boxes make it too thin?
The boxed cake mix I buy makes 2 8-9 inch round pans with no problems. I would check the box to see what it says it can make. But my guess is you would be just fine with 2 boxes of cake mix for a larger pan.
happy baking!
Did you ever post about the other cake? I tried looking for it but couldn’t find it.
Love the triceratops! Browsing pictures of dinosaur cause online, my son picked this one as his favorite!
No blog post, yet, but I did do a video, you can find it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YntvdclMaDo
Such cute cakes! 🙂 The triceratops cake is perfect for my little boy. Just wondering how many servings that would give?
Depending on how big you cut the pieces I would say between 15-20, but remember that it is a single layer cake not double.
I want to make this for my sons birthday in a few weeks. Is the icing like a buttercream?
They do have green buttercream icing out now for Easter season if you can pick up colors at your local grocery store just ask the bakery department
This was a huge hit with my husband for his birthday! I made my own cream cheese frosting and doctored up a boxed cake mix, and it was perfect. Thanks for it being such a cute design but still very easy for someone who doesn’t have an artistic bone in her body.
Thank you so much for sharing this cake! I made a pink triceratops for my daughters cake and she loves it! Your directions were great. I’m just so glad you shared!
Amazing cake! Just wondering what dimensions are needed for the cake board? Thanks x
Hello,
I just was stopping by to let you know your picture inspired my sons birthday cake and my step mother did a recreation. I am putting up a blog post and wanted the inspo to get credit! I inserted your picture in the blog post and also the link to this page with directions on how to do so! (: The post should be live in a few days!!!
I could not figure out how to cut the graham crackers without them disintegrating, so I used cut marshmallows to make a crown of sorts. He turned out pretty cute! Thanks for sharing this easy cake!