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!

wow so awesome! love the piped pencils. (does it take long to put the mini video together on the how to’s?)
adorable cake! this is just too cute – it almost makes me wish i was back in school…
Ahhhh so cute!! Love this idea!
SO CUTE!! what a lovely treat, to welcome the back to school season 🙂
Seriously SO SOOOO in love with this!!! Crazy adorable. And creative. LOVE!!!!!
Oh.MY.GOD this is darling!!! I love the “moving photos” how’d you do that?
Incredible and so inspiring. The idea of the pencils as a “fence” for the cake is cool!
Natalie
Darla!!!! I squealed!!! This is so stinkin cute!!!
That’s so clever and cute! I would never be able to make that.
Cute!!! So cute!!!
Holy smokes, this is such an awesome cake. I wow’d in my head when I saw it in my reader. I love your time lapse photo animations too. Spectacular and pin worthy of it’s own pin from yours truly.
Very very cute!!!
aw so cute, love how it turned out.
Love the way you combined frosting with other available candies! Especially the chocolate chip “lead” tips. 🙂
This is just completely adorable. (former teacher here!) Nice work, and I love how you can see it being created. What a fun addition to the post!
This is so very adorable. I also make a back to school treat every year and I think I’ve found this years! Thank you!
Anna
this is cool!!
I love this. So stinkin’ cutes.
I have 1 six inch pan, but I need to get a couple more. Your 6″ cakes are always absolutely adorbs!
I’m in awe. First, you made the cake and it turned out amazing – all that work to make those pencils! And then you took the time to make animated gifs of the images! So, so impressed 🙂 I’m featuring this post in today’s Food Fetish Friday (with a link-back and attribution). I hope you have no objections and thanks for the inspiration…
Oh my goodness! This is one of the cutest cakes ever! Seriously! And I love the little gifs you put up to show your process. I just kept watching it over and over and over, haha 🙂
This is absolutely insane!
That is a wonderful cake. I’m even more impressed though by your animated pictures – that is SO awesome! Both are great ideas! I pinned your cake but would love to know how to do your tutorials!
Please check out my 3d cakes at http://bakemydaycaserma.wordpress.com
Lora
Love love love your website….thanks for sharing! This cake looks amazing any chance on sharing the chocolate cake receipe you used to make it…please 🙂 hope to be able to make it for my girls
I wouldn’t have minded going back to school so much if I got a cake like this every year! Wow! : )