Sesame Street is a popular theme for a kid's birthday cake, especially a first birthday - check out two tiered designs and more easy cake ideas for your celebration.
Sesame Street cakes are always a hit at kids' birthday parties. Who doesn't love seeing Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird in cake form? I've made two tiered versions myself: one covered in smooth fondant and another with soft buttercream.
They're fun to make, but not everyone has the time (or patience!) for a multi-tiered masterpiece. That's why I'm also sharing simpler, stress-free options, like a sheet cake, an Elmo-shaped cake pan, or decorating a batch of themed cupcakes. Whether you want a show-stopping centerpiece or an easy, crowd-pleasing treat, there's a Sesame Street cake idea here for you.
Fondant Sesame Street Cake with Tiers
This is a vanilla cake with chocolate ganache filling. The entire cake was covered with plain white fondant and fondant cutout decorations. I made all the cakes in advance and froze them and then spent the entire day before the party decorating the cake.
The bottom tier is an 8 inch square and the top tier is a 6 inch square. Both cakes are made with three 1-inch thick layers.
Because the fondant decorations are flat, they were simple to make from rolled out fondant. Fondant pieces can be stuck to the fondant by applying a thin layer of water or pasteurized egg whites for a stronger hold.
Buttercream Sesame Street Tiered Cake
This cake is an all vanilla Italian meringue buttercream filling and frosting and all the color decorations are made with fondant. The eyeballs and mouths on the monsters are done with black piping gel.
FYI, piping gel does NOT stick well on fondant for an extended time! Elmo's mouth was falling off so I replaced it with black fondant. It did not look right (as you can see from the difference between Elmo's mouth and Cookie Monster's mouth) so I ended up replacing the Elmo mouth with piping gel again just before the party.
Fondant or Buttercream Cake? Not sure if you want an all fondant or all buttercream cake? Read more about the pros and cons of both in my Fondant vs. Buttercream post.
Sesame Street Sheet Cake
A sheet cake is the easiest way to feed a crowd, and it's a great canvas for this theme. Bake your favorite cake in a 9x13 inch pan, frost it with a smooth layer of vanilla buttercream, and pipe the character faces right on top. You can pipe Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird faces side by side with a small star tip, or keep it even simpler with a green "Sesame Street" sign and a few fondant cutouts.
Use the fondant designs from these tiered cakes for your inspiration. Since everything is decorated flat, there's no stacking or structural work involved, making this a very beginner-friendly option.
Using an Elmo Cake Pan
This is probably one of the easiest homemade Sesame Street cake options. It's the perfect size for a first birthday smash cake too. This Wilton Elmo cake pan is available online and you may even be able to get a used one on ebay.
Once the cake is baked, simply decorate with colored buttercream to create the eyes, nose, mouth and rest of face. You can carefully spread the buttercream in the sectioned off areas or use a small star shaped piping tip to make a more three dimensional look and have better control of the edges.
Sesame Street Cupcakes
Cupcakes are another easy, stress-free option, and there's no cake cutting at the party. Frost each cupcake with tinted buttercream in a character color, using a small star tip to pipe short stars all over the top.
The piped stars mimic the fuzzy fur texture of the monsters: red for Elmo, blue for Cookie Monster, and yellow for Big Bird. Start piping around the outside edge and work your way in toward the center.
For the faces, add candy eyeballs or small rounds of white and black fondant for the eyes. Elmo gets an orange fondant oval for his nose and a wide black fondant smile, Cookie Monster gets a small chocolate chip cookie tucked near his mouth, and Big Bird just needs his eyes and a small orange fondant triangle for a beak. A mix of all three characters looks great arranged together on a platter.
If decorating individual faces feels like too much, frost the cupcakes in the character colors alone and finish them with homemade edible cupcake toppers or store-bought Sesame Street cupcake toppers or picks. The colors instantly read as Sesame Street, and it takes just minutes.
Looking for more kids' party inspiration?
Take a peek at my John Deere tractor cake for another fun themed birthday centerpiece, or try a batch of train sugar cookies if cookies are more your speed. My cut-out sugar cookie dough is the perfect starting point for making your own character cookies in any theme.
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