Perfectly Pinterest: Back to School Candy Pencil Cake

I really agonized this year over what to make for a Back to School treat. I try to do one every year (like my Fauxstess Cupcakes and my Chalkboard Cookies), and they’re always so much fun, but I was pretty stumped this year.

I think with the kiddo going into his Junior year now, it’s not quite the same as when he was little, and back to school time was more exciting for him. Now it’s all routine, and he’s not even worried about backpacks and school clothes. Le sigh.

I decided to hit up Pinterest for ideas. Obviously.

In no time, I decided to make the cake above, which is inspired by another cake. An inedible cake, but an incredibly clever inedible cake, that I had to pin.

This seriously adorable pencil cake, made out of real classroom needs, like pencils, erasers, and rubber bands, was created by Brittany of One Charming Party. This is truly brilliant, people. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it in frosting.

My pencils are a little simpler looking, and I chose to forego the rubber bands, but with a few pink Mike & Ike’s candies, some yellow and tan frosting, and mini chocolate chips, I had a tasty, sugary-sweet version of Brittany’s fun school supply cake.

For your cake, you can make any flavor and size you like. I chose to do a chocolate, three layer 6-inch cake. An average double layer 8-inch cake recipe will give you four 6-inch layers. I made three layers and some mini cupcakes…just because.

Once your cake is cooled, frost it with a crumb coat (I used my favorite vanilla buttercream). No need to add lots of frosting around the sides, and don’t worry about being super neat; you won’t see any of the crumb coat. Put a normal amount of frosting on top, though, as you won’t be covering the top completely.

For the erasers of my pencils, I used pink Mike & Ike’s candies, cut in half. I placed the candies, cut side up, snugly around the base of the cake.

Next, I used yellow tinted icing to draw straight lines up from each of the “erasers.” I used a Wilton #12 tip here. It’s the perfect size to match the Mike & Ike’s.

Don’t be discouraged if your lines are a little wobbly or slightly crooked at first (like mine); you can easily straighten up, and once the cake is completely covered, you don’t notice any pencils that aren’t perfectly vertical.

Before moving on to the next step, I flattened the points at the top of each pencils. I suppose you could skip this step, I just found it a little easier to have them flat at this point.

Now it’s time to sharpen our pencils. I actually used some leftover Biscoff frosting (from my Nutella-Biscoff Snickerdoodles) for this part, because it was the perfect color, but you can just tint plain frosting with a drop or two of brown food coloring.

Using the same Wilton #12 tip, I simply squeezed a small point of tan frosting on to the top of each pencil.

Finally, it’s time to add the lead to these babies. The obvious choice here was mini chocolate chips. All I did was place one on each sharpened pencil while the frosting was still wet. Voila! Sweetly adorable candy pencils.

I kept the top simple by just drawing a circle of more candy pencils on, making them varying lengths.

This is a great photo to show you that, while there are still a couple of wobbly pencils in there, they’re not super noticeable. Plus, you can always just turn those towards the back and no one will be the wiser.

This was such a fun cake to make, and you won’t believe how fast it is! For something that looks like it took a lot of work, it really is done in a flash. Since all of the piping work is simple lines and small dollops, it’s done quickly, and placing the candy is a cinch. I was done decorating this cake in less than 30 minutes.

This would be such a great First Day after school treat, or it would even be perfect to celebrate their 100th Day. Not to mention how fun it would be for a school themed birthday party or a teacher’s gift. I hope you guys give this one a try, because I had so much fun making it, and it’s just sich a happy little cake when it’s all done. Enjoy!

Tagged as: Back to School, Back to School Cake, Cakes, Candy Pencil Cake, Candy Pencils, Frosting, Pencils, Tutorial