Dog House Cake

I almost had her talked out of a cake, "How about we just do cupcakes and not a whole cake?"  She agreed.  The next morning she said, "Mom, I changed my mind.  I want a cake."  Okay.  We baked two white 9" square cakes for the base and one double chocolate (remaining cupcake batter) 7" square cake to construct the doghouse.

 To see how to make this cute dog cake, keep reading...
My sweet niece piped the grass on the sides and top of the cake while I started constructing the doghouse.

The exterior of the doghouse was made the night I sculpted the dog figures.  I took a strip of white gumpaste and a strip of brown gumpaste and rolled and mashed the two together until I had a nice wood grain look.  I used a same small round cookie cutter as a guide for the arch of the doghouse door and then cut the sides straight with an Xacto knife.

 The ends of the wood planks were poked with tiny holes to look like nail holes.

While the front and back were cut out as individual plank boards, the two sides were one piece with indentations of plank boards.

The interior of the doghouse is double chocolate cake.  I measured 2.5" squares.

 The three layers were stacked with Nutella Buttercream frosting between the layers.

 The plank boards were adhered with chocolate frosting and then the roof was carved with a knife.

The roof of the doghouse was created by layering rows of Wheat Chex with chocolate frosting.