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When it comes to hosting a Bluey-inspired birthday party, you could pop a few figurines onto a store-bought sheet cake and call it a day. That works. But I like the challenge of baking pop culture-inspired treats (see: Baby Yoda, Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh and the like), so I couldn’t resist trying my hand at recreating the star of what’s arguably the most delightful kids’ show on TV for my daughter’s third birthday. It was time to bake a Bluey cake!
And after a few people asked me to share how I did it, I’m posting it here for you. I hope it helps, if you’re considering baking one too.
First, a Few Things You Should Know Before Baking:
While some Etsy sellers make Bluey-inspired cake pans, you don’t need one for this recipe. A simple, 9″x13″ pan will do. There’s no fondant in this either; just a simple, crowd-pleasing buttercream. (Go ahead and use store-bought; I don’t judge!)
The cake can be any flavor, straight from a box mix or from scratch. (Confession: I went boxed, using King Arthur Confetti Cake Mix.) You’ll just want to pour the batter into a 9″x13″ pan, cooking according to the recipe’s instructions (it should be springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, or with a couple crumbs; no goo). Let it cool completely.
Follow the instructions below for a basic walkthrough of what to do. If you’d like more exact instructions, down to how much food coloring I used, jump all the way to the bottom of this story for the recipe card. It’s more detailed.
How to Make a ‘Bluey’-Inspired Cake:
1. Cut the Cooled 9″x13″ Cake in Half
You’re creating two 9″ by 6.5″ rectangles. One will be the base of Bluey’s head; the other will be chopped up to form the snout and ears.
2. Trim & Fit the Snout
The snout should be about 3″ wide (so it takes up about a third of Bluey’s face)—you’ll want to create two 3″ strips, so the snout sits a bit taller than Bluey’s head, creating a more 3-D effect. Place one piece to the right of the 9″x6.5″ rectangle, then add the other on top. You may need to trim these pieces a bit to look proportionate. (I shaved the top piece on one side, so the snout starts out flush with Bluey’s head and gradually protrudes, so it didn’t look so abrupt and blocky.)
3. Make Your Frosting
Store-bought or homemade frosting works here! I used vanilla buttercream. You’ll want to have six colors on hand: white, tan, light blue, medium gray-blue, dark blue and black. I divided a batch of frosting into four bowls: a little for white, a few spoonfuls for the black frosting, about 1/3 cup for the tan, and the rest went into a bowl for creating the shades of blue.
For the blue frosting, I added a tiny bit of food coloring at a time, until I got the right sky blue. Since that’s used first, I covered the cake with it. I set aside about 1/4 cup for the medium blue (which was tinted with a tiny drop of black, to give it a more subdued, gray-blue tone), then used the rest to create the vibrant, dark blue.
4. Frost the Cake, Color by Color
I used a piping bag with a large circular tip to outline the dark blue frosting (a resealable bag with an end snipped works too!) and smoothed it out with a butter knife.
I used a similar method with the white frosting to create Bluey’s big, eager eyes, then filled in his tan snout and ears.
After that, I added the medium blue stomach and eyebrows. (You could go truer to character, adding white instead of black and making this the palest blue, but I liked that the eyebrows/belly didn’t distract from Bluey’s face.)
5. Add that Signature Smirk
Using a smaller round piping tip, I added Bluey’s smiley and pupils.
Annnnd that’s it! You’re ready to pop on the candles and surprise the birthday boy or girl (or full-grown adult with a healthy appreciation for the kookier things in life).
Show me your Bluey cake!
One of the things that keeps me updating this site—and honestly, truly makes my week—is when people DM me the treats they’ve made. I’ve received half a dozen photos of people’s Bluey-inspired cakes, and it’s such a gift. If you made it, please send it my way! You can DM it to me via Instagram (@lifebetweenweekends).
Bluey-Inspired Cake
Equipment
- 1 serrated knife (for cutting/carving cake)
- 3 small bowls
- 1 mixing bowl
- 4 spoons
- 1 butter knife or small offset spatula
- 5 piping bags or resealable plastic bags with a corner snipped
Ingredients
- 1 cake, baked in a 9"x13" pan and cooled
- 4 cups vanilla buttercream frosting (any recipe or store-bought)
- 1 yellow gel food coloring
- 1 red gel food coloring
- 1 blue food coloring
- 1 black food coloring
Instructions
- Prep the Frosting: You'll need to create six colors: white, black, tan, light blue, medium gray-blue and dark blue. Reserve 3 cups for the blue details; the other cup can be divided first in half—with half going to the tan color, and the remaining half split to become the white and black shades.
- Place the white frosting into a piping bag or resealable bag and set aside.
- Create the Black Frosting: In a small bowl, add vanilla frosting and a couple drops of black food coloring at a time, stirring until you reach the shade you want. Place in a piping bag or resealable bag and set aside. If you have a small round piping tip—with a hole about the size of a Magic Marker—use that for the black icing, or try cutting a hole about that size into your plastic baggie when the time comes.
- Create the Tan Frosting: In another small bowl, combine the vanilla frosting with half a drop of yellow and the tiniest smidge of red—I dipped a toothpick into red to get the tiniest amount at first—stirring to create a tannish orange color. (You may need to add vanilla if it turns out too orange-y at first.) Gradually add color until you get the hue you want, then bag it up. (NOTE: You can skip the mixing and get a very reliable tan if you use tan or copper gel food coloring instead; it can just be harder to find.)
- Create the Pale Blue Frosting: Place the 3 cups of frosting for the blue tones in a large mixing bowl. Add 2-3 drops of blue, stirring until you have a light sky blue. After you've used this to frost the head, we'll return to this bowl and the remaining frosting within it to create the darker shades!
- Shape Bluey's Head: Take the 9"x13" cake and cut it widthwise, creating two 9"x6.5" rectangles. Set one on a cake stand or large plate to be the base of Bluey's head. We'll use the other to create the snout and ears.
- Create Bluey's Snout and Ears: Cut two 3" strips to form the snout, and use the remaining piece to cut out two triangles for the ears. You'll place one snout piece next to the rectangular cake, frosting the whole thing in pale blue, then place the second snout piece on top and frost that. This gives the snout a more 3D effect. (Before placing the top piece, I also carved the left side, so it looked more like a wedge. That way it'd be more flush with Bluey's head, gradually sloping upward once frosted.)
- Frost Bluey's whole head pale blue. With the remaining frosting, set aside about 1/4 cup for the medium blue, placing it in another small bowl. Add a tiny drop of black gel food coloring—or squirt a tiny bit of black frosting—and stir together to create a slightly darker, almost grayish-teal shade. Place in a piping or resealable bag.
- Use the rest to create the dark blue shade right in the mixing bowl, adding a couple drops of blue food coloring, stirring in between, until you reach your desired shade. Place in a piping or resealable bag.
- Decorate Bluey's Face: I started with her dark blue ears, patches around her eyes and nose, piping the color on and then smoothing it with a butter knife. (An offset spatula works too!) Then, I added large white eyes, then filled in the tan inner ears and snout, before drawing Bluey's medium-blue stomach and eyebrows.
- Add Bluey's smile and pupils with black frosting. That's it! You did it!
Want Even More Bluey Birthday Cake Ideas?
Other bakers (and stores) have put their own riffs on the look as well. Here are some of our favorites:
- If you’re not a baker: Try adding a custom Bluey-inspired cake topper
- If you’re a newbie baker: Frost a classic round cake with blue icing and crushed graham cracker sand, then add cocktail umbrellas and Bluey figurines for a Bluey at the beach theme, like this cute cake
- If you’re an advanced baker: Enjoy dabbling with fondant? Bluey’s official website offers a tutorial for making a fondant-covered, two-tier cake that resembles Bingo and Bluey’s faces
This article originally ran in June 2022. It’s been updated to include more inspo & ideas for fellow Bluey fans. (Also, a quick disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Bluey, its creators or the BBC/Disney+. This is purely an homage.)
