Bugs for Birthdays

My youngest son was turning seven, so a couple of months ago I gave him a choice of themes for his party. After some discussion, we narrowed his choices down to sports, gymnastics or bugs. Bugs won the draw. Spencer loves bugs—any kind of bugs…the slimier and scarier, the better. So I contacted Bugs without Borders, a local company run by a group of female scientists who offer educational programs for children to teach them about bugs and other critters. I hired them to come and give a presentation at his party last week.
As with all of our parties, the birthday cake has to match the theme of the party. A couple of times I admit, I sought professional help for the dessert, but this time I figured that I could take care of the bugs myself. So instead of a traditional cake, I went for a ‘Dirt Cake’, complete with gummy worms and ‘real’ crickets. It was a huge hit! And, much to the other mothers’ surprise (and disgust), most of the boys actually ate the crickets.

With universal appeal, Dirt Cake is a perfect dessert to bring along to a potluck, picnic or cottage weekend.

Dirt Cake

Serves 8

You’ll Need

• 1 package Oreo cookies (no double-stuff)
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1 cup icing sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 3 cups milk
• 2 packages (114 g) instant chocolate (or vanilla) pudding
• 1 small tub Cool Whip
• Gummy worms, frogs or flower candies
• Crickets (with salt & vinegar seasoning)

Prep and Cook

1. Place Oreo cookies in a food processor and blend until crumbly.
2. Remove crumbs from processor, set aside and rinse processor.
3. In clean food processor, mix butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until smooth and set aside.
4. In mixer, combine milk and pudding mixes and mix until pudding mixture begins to thicken.
5. Fold in whipped cream.
6. Add the butter mixture to the pudding mixture.
7. Sprinkle ⅓ of the cookie crumbs in the bottom of a rectangular glass pan or any other serving dish (lined flower pots, bowls).
8. Top with ½ of pudding mixture and then arrange a handful of gummy worms on top.
9. Add another ⅓ of cookie crumbs and continue layering until Oreo crumbs are the top layer.
10. Top the dirt cake with additional gummy candies.
11. Chill for a few hours or overnight before serving.

Good to know: Depending on your birthday party theme, you can use individual mini-flower pots or buckets and a trowel to serve the dirt cake. Edible crickets can be found at specialty candy stores such as Sugar Mountain.

What is your favourite birthday cake idea?