This post is sponsored by Joann Fabric and Craft stores. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep the lights on and the crafts coming. All ideas and opinions are my own. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this cake pop up back in August. I originally made the cake for the Joann Fabric and Craft store blog, The Creative Spark, but wanted to share it here to in case you missed it. It is probably one of the cutest cakes that I have made (well, second to my pom pom cake). While I can usually make a cake that tastes amazing, the looks are far from perfect. But this cactus cake is easy enough that even a beginning baker can get a decent looking cake. All you need is the right pan and piping tips to bake a cactus cake.

Materials:

• Wilton Ball Cake Mold
• Wilton Food Coloring in shades of green and pink
• Wilton White Jimmies
• Piping bags
• Wilton easy Bloom piping tips
• Plastic wrap (available in-stores)
• Scissors
• Wilton piping tips (199 for the small cactus and 106 for the ball cactus)

Ingredients:

• 1 Box white cake mix
• Oil, water, and eggs according to cake mix
• 4 batches buttercream frosting (die two batches one shade of green for the large cake, die one batch another shade of green for the small cactus, and the last batch divide into 3 bowls and die different shades of pink for the flowers)
• Non-stick baking spray

Begin by mixing your cake mix according to the package directions. Spray your ball cake mold with the non-stick spray and pour in your batter about 2/3 of the way up in each half. Pour the remaining batter into any shaped cake mold. Bake at 350 F until golden brown and when a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool and then unmold. Trim off the tops of the cake to level them and a slice of a small section of the base of one-half of the ball so that the cake sits flat.

Take the extra cake pieces and trimmed off pieces from the ball and crumble and mix with icing to create a large oblong shaped cake ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge.

While the cake ball cactus is chilling, being to frost the ball cactus. Fill the cake with icing and then icing around the cake with the double batch of green frosting.

Once iced, transfer the remaining green icing to a piping bag fitted with the #106 piping tip and pipe lines on the cactus from the bottom to the top.

Repeat all the way around the ball. Then add a few white jimmies to the cactus as the thorns.

For the blooms on top of the cactus spread your pink icing with a bit of left over green icing onto a spread out piece of plastic wrap. Roll the plastic wrap together and cut off the tip. Insert it into a piping bag fitted with the small easy bloom piping tip.

Pipe flowers onto the top of the cactus by gently touching the tip onto the top of the cake and squeezing while slowly bringing the tip up and away from the cactus.

For the cake ball cake, remove it from the fridge and use the other color of green icing in a piping bag fitted with the #199 tip. Repeat the process of piping the green icing up the cactus all the way around, adding the white jimmies, and adding a few easy bloom flowers to the top.

To serve, transfer the cakes to a cake plate and surround the cakes with crushed up graham crackers.

See how cute they turned out?! And trust me when I say that I am by no means a cake expert, but between the piping tips and cake mold, the cactus cake came together relatively quickly and much easier than I hoped! Which means you should definitely try to bake a cactus cake of your own for any celebration or just because.