Real Recipes From Real Home Cooks ®

army tank cake

(3 ratings)
Recipe by
Kim Biegacki
Youngstown, OH

Second Tank cake I have made. My nephew Noah had the first one 3 years ago and Brendan has been asking since then for his own Army Tank. Well, I finally did it! Yeah!!! They are for some reason or other fascinated with the Army Tank cake. They love that they can eat the dirt and sand too. LOL --- I even think the adults like it too. hehe Anyway, I have fun making it! Noah said today that he wants another one for his birthday this year. (Noah, doesn't even eat the cake. He eats the dirt and sand; this year he was creative cause he took his ice cream and rolled it in his plate of dirt and sand!) He just Loved It! They are just too funny. hehe --- IT will be funny if they are still asking when they are teens. I hope I did ok explaining the cake to you. It is not to easy writing out your own directions. I am posting several pics so that you can see just what all was done; upclose and entire view.

(3 ratings)
yield 24 to 28 people
cook time 35 Min
method Bake

Ingredients For army tank cake

  • 3 box
    cake mixes
  • 1 c
    chocolate chips
  • 1 c
    butterscotch chips
  • 1 box
    graham cracker pie crust
  • 1 lg
    bag of fudge filled chocolate cookies
  • 5
    different colors for icing (black, brown, green, tan and grey)
  • 3 can
    of white icing (better yet, make your own if possible)
  • can use tubes of icing too that are already colored
  • several star tips is possible (cuts down on time)
  • DECORATIONS FOR OUTSIDE THE TANK
  • 1-3
    creme filled pirouette (rolled wafers) ----i tried cowtales and they were too heavy
  • 1
    larger army guy
  • 1
    dozen army men
  • 1
    cookie covered with your green icing
  • 1
    bag of chocolate licorice

How To Make army tank cake

  • full view
    1
    Wow, where do I start? Well, I can say I didn't make this in no 45 minutes. lol ---- I used a 9 by 13 pan and 2 oval pans to make the tank. Whatever cake flavors you want is fine, since the cakes sit on top of each other. I also added chocolate chips and butterscotch chips into my cake mixes for flavor and color.
  • 2
    After baking the cakes I did put them in the freezer for a bit so that the icing would work better for me. (My star tip would not work with the tubes of icing I got. They were great colors but I will be going back to making my own icing and not cutting corners there).
  • 3
    While your cakes are baking and cooling you can prep most of your work. Get 3-5 colors made up. You will need a really nice green to cover the entire cake so the bulk of your icing will go for that color.
  • Army men view....hehe
    4
    Cut up your each licorice piece into 3 or 4 pieces and try to make them as even as possible. The graham cracker crust will be your sand that the tank sits in. The crushed cookies will be your dirt. When removing the icing in between the cookies you can save it and make fake rocks out of it if you want. (My friend Shawna's idea; thanks Shawna) You can also write your child's name with the dirt into the sand as you can see in one of my pics above.
  • Brendan the birthday boy on the left and his younger brother Noah on the right.  This is Brendan's 9th bday!
    5
    Save at least 14 cookies aside for your wheels and one for the top of the tank where the men pop out.
  • Hehe, can you tell we had spaghetti and meatballs for the birthday dinner?
    6
    Find a nice sturdy lid or whatever you like to place the cake on and cover with tinfoil or something else. Begin placing your dirt and sand down on the lid. Place the large cake down first and the other two cakes down second; one on top of another. Cut out a section in the front and back to shape the tank as seen above. Cover entire cake with green icing. Now place your tires on the side with some icing on the back of them. Lay out your licorice pieces.
  • Front view
    7
    The Pirouette stick is used for the cannon and can later have a candle placed in it too. (If you make the cake the day before as I did you may have to put a new one in or just wait till the day of the party. It soaks up the moisture from the can and fell down overnight).
  • 8
    Be creative as you want with the camoflauge. You can do 2, 3 or 4 different colors on the green. I really LOVE the black, so I would at least suggest that color to you. I usually use the star tip and put the icing on that way but as you can see I had to improvise on this cake. Do alot or just a little as it will look good either way. The one iced cookie push down in the top of the cake for the lid that opens up on tank. The army guy that I placed inside I used a apple corer and took out a small hole by the lid and placed him inside.
  • full view
    9
    Oh, if you want spell your child's name in the sand too. Place rocks around tank and army men by the like they are shooting. Well, do let me know if you have any questions. It is pretty easy once you get going. I hope you have fun making it! Good Luck
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