Very Hungry Caterpillar Cookies & Cake Pops

Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a cute and unique theme for a first birthday! Well, for any birthday! My kids love love their Very Hungry Caterpillar finger puppet book by Eric Carle. Nom, nom, nom! That caterpillar is one greedy little bug, eating all that delicious fruit!!

Very Hungry Caterpillar sugar cookies

I got to make Hungry Caterpillar cookies and cake pops for a little girl's first birthday party! Instead of making all the cookies just caterpillars, I mixed it up by making some "fruit" cookies as well. 

I didn't have fruit-shaped cookie cutters, so I used my balloon cookie cutter as a base, and then free-hand trimmed the shapes of the apple, plum, pear & orange with a knife. I just turned the cookies upside down so that the bottom part of the balloon became the stems for the fruit! Hooray for re-purposed cookie cutters. I made sure to add holes in the fruit where the caterpillar has been, just like in the book, using large round piping tip.

lots of fruit for these four very hungry caterpillars to eat

The cookies are decorated with royal icing. Lots and lots of colours for these cookies! The caterpillars were super fun to make, with all the different shades of green for the segments in their bodies. After the base layer of royal icing had dried, I went back in and piped the caterpillar's legs, colourful hair and the face, for a 3D effect. 

details up close

I made the cookies a little bit more whimsical by adding some swirls and dots on the surface, again, after the base layer of royal icing had dried. 

two Very Hungry Caterpillars

The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake pops are made of chocolate cake, swirled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. I dipped them in white chocolate, dyed with powdered food colouring. For the green cake pops which made up the segments of the caterpillars' body, before the chocolate coating had fully dried, I sprinkled on some colourful Hundreds and Thousands for the caterpillar's "hair".  

Pocky sticks for anntenae

For the red caterpillar heads, after the chocolate coating had fully hardened, I drew on the caterpillar's eyes & mouth with more chocolate, using the tip of a toothpick. The caterpillar's antennae are Pocky sticks, which I dipped in white chocolate dyed-purple, and stuck on a little melted chocolate. 

Caterpillar cake pops*

The sugar cookies and cake pops were featured with other yummy desserts on this Very Hungry Caterpillar dessert table, put together by the talented team at Hokey Pokey. I love the bright colours and the outdoorsy-feel that the grass and plants add! The books make the perfect props too! It's a fun and unique set-up to celebrate little Heather's 1st birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday, Heather!*

* pics courtesy of Hokey Pokey