Having a birthday party and do not want to buy a store bought cake? I will show you how to bake and decorate an Elmo shaped cake. With the economy the way it is I know it is always cheaper to bake a cake then to buy one. The total amount of money I spent on making this cake was fifteen dollars.
This tutorial is going to teach you step by step how to make a cute Elmo cake. This is an easy cake to make you honestly do not need any prior experience. If you are able to read and follow directions this cake will be a piece of cake.
There are really not any safety precautions that you need to be aware of except to make sure to not eat the cake batter, use oven mitts, and to not touch the cake until it has had a chance to cool.

Step 1: Supplies

To bake and decorate this elmo cake you will need the following supplies:
1. Elmo cake pan
2. 2 packages of cake mix ( choose any kind you like)
3. The ingredients to complete the cake mix
* 6 eggs
* Vegetable oil
4. Corn Starch
5. 2-3 cans of frosting
6. Food coloring
7. Spatula
8. Decorating bags
9. Decorating tips 3 and 12
10. Cake Board
11. Mixing bowl
12. Measuring cup
13. Mixer

Step 2: How to Prepare the Cake Pan

1.    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.    Grease the Elmo cake using vegetable shortening, make sure all the indentations are well greased.
3.    Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of flour inside the cake pan, proceed to shake the flour so that the cake pan is covered completely with flour.
4.     Turn cake pan over and tap a few times to knock loose all of the excess flour.
5.      Cover any parts of the pan, that are showing with flour.
Make sure that you do not over flour the cake pan. You do not want your cake to taste like flour and also it can make it hard to get out of the pan once it has baked.

Step 3: Time to Make the Cake

1. Pour first cake mix into a large mixing bowl
2. Add 1 1/4 cups of water
3. Add 1/3 cups of vegetable oil
4. Crack 3 eggs into the mixing bowl
5. Use hand mixer on low speed for 2 minutes
6. Pour cake mix into the elmo cake pan
7. Smooth mixture smoothly in the pan using spatula
8. Repeat steps listed above for the second cake mix
9. Smooth out any lumps in the cake batter before putting into the oven.

Step 4: Before Decorating

The cake will need to cook for about 30-40 minutes.
Make sure that you check on the cake at frequently after 30 minutes, because you do not want it to burn by leaving it in the oven to long.
To tell if the cake is throughly done stick a toothpick into the middle of the cake about a inch deep.
Take out the tooth pick. If you see any cake batter on the tooth pick, the cake is not done. Once you stick the tooth pick in the cake and no batter is on the tooth pick the cake is done.
Remove the cake from the oven and place it on top of the stove. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes. Once the cake has cooled for 10 minutes you will need to remove the top layer of the cake . While the cake is still in the elmo cake pan carefully cut off the raised center portion of the cake. This is to help the cake to be level for decorating. Once you slice off the raised center portion of the cake, run a spatula around the inside of the cake pan to loosen the cake from the pan. After that carefully turn the cake and cake pan over and gently tap the bottom of the pan to get the cake out.
If any part of the cake gets stuck to the pan, make sure to run a knife carefully around the cake to loosen. If any part of your cake crumbles or comes unattached from the rest of the cake, do not panic. This is what the crumb coating is for. You can cover any imperfections with a layer of frosting and no one will ever be able to tell.

Step 5: Decorating

Before you start to decorate the Elmo cake , the cake needs to cool at least 1 hour.
Once you allow the cake to cool for 1 hour, carefully transfer the cake to the cake board, making sure to center the cake. The cake will need a crumb coat before you start decorating with the colors. To decorate elmo you will need four colors; red, orange, white, and black. To make the different colors put white frosting into the decorating bags. Adding about 2-3 drops of desired color food die. To assembly the decorating bag put the coupler and the decorating tip together and then attach to the decorating bag.
To make Spatula decorated Elmo:
1. Fill in the mouth using tip # 3 with the black icing.
2. Outline the mouth with the black icing using # 3 tip.
3. Fill in the nose using a orange/red combination.
4. Fill in the eyes using white frosting and the #3 tip.
5. Outline the eyes using the black frosting and #3 tip.
6. Cover face with tip #16 with red/ orange combination.
Once you have decorated the cake wipe off any crumbs or frosting. Easy way to clean up is to put paper towels under the cake when you place the cake on the board. After you are done decorating you can just remove the paper towels and you will have a nice and clean cake board. That is how you make a cute and easy Elmo Cake. Make sure to take a lot of pictures before serving. Any child will be glad to have a homemade cake. Cut and enjoy your Elmo cake.