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 right now.

To that end, I gave myself two requirements for this Bluey-inspired cake: It had to use buttercream frosting (no fondant!) and it couldn’t require any fancy cake pans or tools. I wanted something that’d be adaptable for everyone. Plus, with a toddler at home, I don’t have time to fuss.

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.

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).

Update: 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).

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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

How Do You Make the Bluey Duck Cake?

Ah, the glorious duck cake Bandit made for Bingo’s birthday, complete with popcorn hair and a potato chip beak? With some bamboo skewers and a little ingenuity, you can totally pull this off. The official Bluey website offers a tutorial, but the easiest way to learn may be through watching it come together first, like in this YouTube video:

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.)