Have you ever made a cut-up cake? This was something we used to do all the time when I was little. The idea is simple – you start with normally shaped cakes (usually squares or circles), and then cut them up, reassemble them, and create fun designs. 

This cat is made from two 9-inch circle cakes, and is this year’s Halloween cake. I used the star method to decorate, but you could easily use candy or coconut or just straight frost this guy. If you want to follow along with the star method, I included a decorating template along with the cutting template for those like me who can’t freehand to save their life. 

So without further ado, here’s your cat cake breakdown:

Cat Cut-Up Cake, Step-by-Step

Start by baking two 9-inch round cakes. I use one cake mix and split it in two in order to get both cakes. I also use a doctored cake mix recipe (below) because I’m a tiny bit of a cake snob, but any standard cake recipe will work as long as you can get two rounds out of it. Do avoid angel food or really light cakes though, as they tend to break when you cut them.

I also made a double recipe of buttercream, reserving some of the buttercream before I add the cocoa in order to do the features. 

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Cat Cut-Up Cake

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 50 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes

Servings 16

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cake mix
• 1 small pkg instant pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ⅓ cup butter melted

Buttercream

• 1 cup crisco
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• ½ cup cocoa
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 2-4 Tbsp water

Instructions

• Mix together all ingredients for cake. Split in half and place 1/2 in each of two greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.
• Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
• Remove cakes from pans. Leave one cake intact, and cut the other using the template below.
• Assemble cat shape using template below. Set cake aside.
• In a mixing bowl, whip together shortening and butter. Add vanilla and mix well.
• Add powdered sugar in 1 cup amounts until frosting reaches desired consistency.
• Reserve some frosting to color for decoration.
• Add cocoa to remaining frosting and mix well.
• Use frosting to decorate cake as desired.

Once the cakes are completely cooled, use this template to cut one of the cakes leaving the other intact. 

Now you have your cake cut, assemble it on a cake board (mine’s part of a diaper box covered in foil). The arrangement looks like this:

Now if you’re going your own decorating way, this is where we’ll part. If you’re planning to follow along with my method, here goes!

I included a face on the cutting template to use for tracing. I couldn’t decide on eyes, so there are two kinds there. For this cake, I used the round ones. 

I cut out the eyes, nose, and cheeks, then placed them on the cake and used icing to trace around them and a toothpick to lift them off after I finished.

Once I had the shapes, I filled them in with a Wilton 18 star tip. 

The last step is to fill in the rest of the cake with the star tip and the chocolate frosting. I will not lie, this takes a while and requires some good hand strength. I actually find it soothing…

You’ll notice I moved the tail out of the way to do the body. I actually did the inside edge of the tail while it was away, then moved the tail into position and finished the top and outside edge. 

Here’s the finished product:

And that’s it! Enjoy your lovely cat cake!

Looking for more cut-up cakes? Check these out!

Bat Cut-Up Cake

Bunny Cut-Up Cake

Fish Cut-Up Cake

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