How to Make a Meat Cake: The Cake *is* a Lie, But No One Will Care Because It’s Also Delicious

Looking for the perfect DIY cake to celebrate your gamer dad or grad? Look no further. The ever-popular meat cake is:

• A lie (it's made of delicious meat instead of delicious cake)
• Decorative (yet edible) bacon
• Pretty darned easy to make

Want to surprise your guests or a special someone? Read on, and I'll tell you how to make this meat cake featuring bacon cheddar potato filling, mashed potato frosting and bacon decoration.

What you'll need:

• A meatloaf recipe: This cake used beef, but could also be made as turkey loaf for a slightly healthier take. I haven't tried tofurkey loaf, I'd caution against using any substitutes that might be a bit on the watery side.
• Instant mashed potatoes: The creamier the better. Don't go homemade unless you are really good at making smooth mashed potatoes.
• Round, square, or rectangular cake pans: Whatever shape you want your meat cake to be.
• Bacon: Unless you don't want bacon. But that would be silly.

Optional:

• A plastic bag or piping bag: For piping on the "Frosting" decorations. 
• Cheddar: If you like cheese. (Who am I kidding, of course you do.)
• Food coloring: If you want "Frosting" colors other than white, you'll need food coloring
  

[Next slide: building your delicious meat cake]

Looking for the perfect DIY cake to celebrate your gamer dad or grad? Look no further. The ever-popular meat cake is:

• A lie (it's made of delicious meat instead of delicious cake)
• Decorative (yet edible) bacon
• Pretty darned easy to make

Want to suprise your guests or a special someone? Read on and I'll tell you how to make this meat cake.

What you'll need

• A meatloaf recipe: This cake used beef, but could also be made as turkey loaf for a slightly healthier take. I haven't tried tofurkey loaf, I'd caution against using any substitutes that might be a bit on the watery side.
• Instant mashed potatoes: The creamier the better. Don't go homemade unless you are really good at making smooth mashed potatoes.
• Round, square, or rectangular cake pans: Whatever shape you want your meat cake to be.
• Bacon: Unless you don't want bacon. But that would be silly.

Optional:

• A plastic bag or piping bag: For piping on the "Frosting" decorations. 
• Cheddar: If you like cheese. (Who am I kidding, of course you do.)
• Food coloring: If you want "Frosting" colors other than white, you'll need food coloring
  

[Next slide: building your delicious meat cake]

This is it folks - the moment when we take our yummy meat-cheddar-bacon mountain and turn it into a cake fakeout... By making it even more delicious.

How to decorate your meat cake:

1. Do you want a contrasting color for piping decorations? If so, set aside some mashed potatoes for that. The small portion will be for piping, the larger portion for base frosting.
2. Decide on the color of your base frosting. If it's white, then you're good to go. If you want to go chocolate like I did above, add brown food coloring to your potatoes. [Tip: If I had it to do again, I'd go all white or all brown. While it looked good when it was first done, after a day or so in the fridge waiting for the party the white piping got discolored.]
3. Take a big glob of your base frosting and put it on the center of the top tier. Smooth out the frosting, then spread it to the sides. You can manage it with a knife, but a rubber spatula is easier.
4. After the cake is frosted, add your bacon lattice. If you went with a square cake, you're good to go. If you went round, snip the lattice into shape with scissors. (Clean ones.)
5. Pipe your cake! Fill your plastic bag or piping bag with the mashed potatoes you reserved for decorations. Snip the end off the bag, and get creative with your designs. I did a diamond pattern on the sides, and a loopy edge pattern, Super legit.
6. Refrigerate your deceitfully delicious masterpiece. You can serve cold, or heat slices after the jig is up and the cake has been cut. It tastes awesome.

Tip: Your unsuspecting recipient will not be expecting that much resistance when they go to cut the cake (mine thought I'd simply plopped some bacon on a bakery cake from the store). Be kind by arming them with a decent knife that actually stands a chance of cutting through this behemoth.

Enjoy! Questions I didn't cover? Ask below and I'll be glad to help.