TV Dinner Sheet Cake! Learn how to make this old school, frozen TV dinner sheet cake — perfect for Father’s Day and/or April Fool’s Day — with a simple step-by-step tutorial by our contributors, Mary and Brenda Maher of Cakegirls.
It’s Father’s Day and when it comes to making a cake, we think we can do a whole lot better than that generic shirt and tie cake for our Dad …ugh. In fact, our Dad never even wore a tie to work. Our Dad is warm and funny and not at all generic, so we thought it was high time to make him a cake that was a tribute to the days when he worked long hours and after evening hugs, he’d sit and relax and have dinner in front of the television while he laughed with us and we filled him in about our day. This cake is easy, retro and so fun to make with kids that the entire family can get involved in this dressed up sheet cake.
We started with a 9″ x 13″ aluminum grocery store sheet pan which really drives home the look of a TV Dinner. Don’t forget to spray the pan thoroughly so that your slices come out nice and easy. We then used a Chicken Drumstick Mold filled with candy coating to make realistic fried chicken with no skill at all and in 10 minutes flat. Sixlets and Starbursts stand in for the peas, corn and carrots and mounds of buttercream make for yummy mashed potatoes.
We used one box mix topped with store bought frosting to make this cake as simple as possible. But, if you’re eager to go from scratch, we recommend this chocolate cake and our American buttercream recipe to kick things up a notch.
We hope you make this clever sheet cake for your “not so fancy” Dad and watch while his eyes light up on Father’s Day.
TV DINNER SHEET CAKE
a tutorial by Cakegirls
Supplies:
- Cake Baked in a 9″ x 13″ Aluminum Disposable Pan
- Chocolate Buttercream
- Vanilla Buttercream, 1 cup white and 1 cup tinted gray
- Green Sixlets
- 6 Orange and 6 Yellow Starburst Candies
- Orange Candy Coating
- Fried Chicken Drumstick Chocolate Mold
- #9 Cupcake Piping Tip
Whether you’re making your cake from scratch or not, you want to start by baking your cake in a 9″ x 13″ aluminum grocery store sheet pan so that it really looks like a TV Dinner. Be sure to coat your pan well so that your slices come our easily. Once cooled, ice the top in chocolate frosting. It doesn’t need to be too smooth.
Set your iced cake aside and work on the other food items to finish. Start by melting orange candy coating on half power in the microwave. Remove frequently and stir until melted. Spoon candy coating into the fried chicked mold. Tap the mold a few times to settle the coating and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden. Pop the chicken pieces out.
Next, cut up 6 Orange Starburst Candies and 4 Yellow Starburst Candies to look like carrots and corn. Mix them with your Green Sixlets.
Next, take two Yellow Starburst Candies. Flatten one with your fingers and pull and stretch it to make it look like melted butter. Flatten the other candy to make a thin pat of butter.
Here comes the fun part. Pipe gray icing using a large open tip (we used a #9 cupcake piping tip) to make the divisions in the pan. Then fill one section with peas, corn and carrots and fill the other section with white buttercream to look like mashed potatoes.
Add your chocolate fried chicken pieces and brush them with a little bit of cocoa powder to add some color.
Voila! Here’s an amazing TV Dinner cake to celebrate the most classic of Dads this Father’s Day. Enjoy!
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cake
Caramel Bourbon Cupcakes
Walnut Cake
Giant Donut Cake
Cupcake Terrarium
christina says
this cake put a huge smile on my face this morning – i needed that!!! thank you!
Ines says
This cake is adorable. You have assembled a cake that is not hard to decorate and resulting in such a unique cake!! Everyone will love this recipe!
I have to add that all your recipes are AMAZING! Thank you for sharing desserts that our families will enjoy!
Indya | The Small Adventurer says
Oh my gosh, I cannot BELIEVE that this is a cake! Every single detail is so incredibly perfect! I love that you opted to make something that represented your father, instead of something generic and over-done. It really paid off! ☺️