How do you say happy birthday to a far away friend or relative? Do you call? Send an email? Maybe mail them a card or gift? How about sending them them their very own piece of birthday cake? In. The. Mail! A mailable slice of birthday cake! And we all know I love mail.
There are some ideas that are just GENIUS. This is one of them. My friend, Renee,told me about this idea on Pinterest. She got together with some friends and made them and I loved them so much, my daughter and I went on a birthday cake postcard frenzy.
What a great card idea too! We sent one to my brother and one to my niece. I would have loved to have seen their faces when they opened their mailbox. The text messages I got from them were great! They loved them.
Supplies you’ll need:
* Utility Sponge
(yellow works the best) found in any hardware store
(yellow works the best) found in any hardware store* Serrated knife
* spray paint
* Acrylic Latex Caulk 
(you can get about 3 slices from a tube of caulking)
(you can get about 3 slices from a tube of caulking)* card stock paper or card board
* Spray Adhesive
(although I just used craft glue
)
(although I just used craft glue)Cut the sponge into a wedge shape. I used a bread knife and it worked pretty good. And electric knife would work better (but I don’t have one of those.) Each sponge makes 2 slices of cake.
Cut a center groove into the sponge. Again, I just used my bread knife. An x-acto knife would work great too. It doesn’t have to be perfect. This is for the center line of “frosting”.
Paint the sponge with your spray paint. Make sure you get a good, even layer. Brown was my favorite. My daughter loved pink. But a fun deep red would be fun for red velvet.
When the sponge wedge are completely dry, trace the sponge onto your card stock and cut it out. Again, it doesn’t have to be exact. This is the piece that you will write the address and your note on. You can color coordinate your card stock to match your cake slice, or add a new, fun color.
Attach the postcard to the back of the sponge. Make sure it’s not the side with the wedge cut out of it. I used a tacky craft glue but you could use a spray adhesive. (It didn’t work for me, though, for some reason.)
Now the fun part – the “frosting”. You can squirt your caulking into a piping bag. I bypassed this step and just used the caulking gum to squirt the frosting out onto the sponge. Put a line of caulking down the center of the sponge (in the groove). Use a toothpick or a paint brush and help spread the caulking out to make it look more like cake frosting.NOTE: Caulking comes in lots of colors. So you don’t have to just have white. I found different shades of brown at the hardware store by my house. Next time I’ll look to see if I can find pink =o)
Squirt caulking on the top and side of each cake slice. Again, using the toothpick or paintbrush, spread it/swirl it around a little to help make it look like frosting.
Make sure you overlap a little of the caulking onto the postcard to help it stay in place.
We balanced each cake slice onto cans or glasses so they could dry. They will take awhile to dry – like several days if it’s warm where you are.
What do you think?
Aren’t they awesome?
It was a riot when I went and mailed them. The lady at the counter just stared at me for a minute and then asked “do you want to put that in a box?”
Here was our conversation:
Her: Do you want to put that in a box?
Me: No thank you
Her: Really? You want to mail it just like that?
Me: Yes, please.
Her: I don’t think I’ve ever mailed anything like this before. Okay. Can I touch it?
Me: Of course.
Her: Ah! It feels so weird! What if someone tries to eat it?
Me: That wouldn’t be very good.
Ha!
Then the ladies in the line behind me asked if they could touch it too. =o)
It was a hit! And they were less than $3 to mail!And they looked great when they arrived. Everything stayed together. So no worries about them falling apart.
Here are some other great ways to send some love in the mail.
How about sending an Easter Egg filled with goodies?
Or a bottle filled with candy or other treats? This was a fun Christmas package but you can do it for any occasion.
We mailed some of the Oregon Coast to friends that live far away and don’t get to see the beach.
If you love to send fun things in the mail, this is the project for you. If I had been thinking, I would have made more pink ones and used them as invitations for my daughters birthday party. How fun would that be?!
Thanks for reading!
I’m linking to the parties on my sidebar.
I love it! I’m so going to do this. Thanks!!!
Well that’s the most fun! I’m so filing it away for ‘soon.’
How do you get brown caulk for the chocolate frosting?
I made these before they are soo cool! I used white caulking and then I just spray painted the whole thing again so the white caulking turned brown.
Kristin – caulking comes in lots of different colors.
This is too fun! I have 14 grandkids all over the country. I love to send them ‘happy mail’! Great idea.
How did they handle transit through the USPS? We’re they still intact?
What a great idea! This is great Erin!
So cute! I love this! I thought it was real cake when I first looked at it. You are the best mom for doing all these great things with your kids:)
This is brilliant! I love your conversation at the post office! I bet the faces of the recipients were fabulous as well!
Those are super cute!! We’ve make sponge cakes for our play kitchen before 🙂 mmm yummy yummy cake 🙂
Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
great idea, and the result is very cute! Tina
This is SO SO cute! I love it and I’m sure the bday kid would too! You are a Featured Favorite this week on Saturday Show & Tell on Cheerios and Lattes! We loved having you join us last week and can’t wait to see what you have been up to this week! Have a great weekend!
Mackenzie 🙂
ok, I’m definitely making these. I wish I had thought of it.
you have such creative ideas…so glad you share them with us!
These are great! I have never thought to mail anything that wasn’rt in a envelope or a box. I love the Easter eggs. That would make a great card/gift. I am going to have to come up with something fun to mail to my sister. Love these!
an awesome ideal, everybody would love these
Nice idea. The chocolate one looks so real.
Wow it looks so real! Neat idea!
What a great idea. Thank you for sharing.
Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com
Wow, they look so real! I really thought they were pieces of very sponge-y cake! This is such a clever idea and would make for a real surprise to receive in the mail! The acrylic caulking really does look so much like frosting, it’s unbelievable! Thanks for sharing this excellent idea!
That is so cool I thought it was real cake and now im hungry..lol
Haha this is unique. My friends would love this. And I can imagine the look on every single mailman/woman when they think they just grabbed a real piece of cake from the outgoing stack =P
Wow, that is so cute and so funny! I had no idea you could put something like that in the mail.
Very coll idea, great way to spend time with the kids creating them and eating
What a cute idea, I love your crafts!
I so love this idea. I must try this!