Ann Reardon

Nerf Gun Cake & Party

nerf gun cake ann reardon how to cook that

Jedd turned 8 this year which means this website is turning eight too! Eight years of recipes and video uploads, there is a lot of gold on this site. I have been thinking recently about rearranging the menus so it is easier to find everything. I will get onto that shortly.

 

To make this nerf gun cake for your nerf gun obsessed child you will need:

Cake Cutting Template

 

Cake board covered in foil mine was 28cm (11.02 inches) x 74cm (29.13 inches) mdf

A double quantity of Buttercream in your choice of flavour

Fondant:
750g (26.46 ounces) deep blue
750g (26.46 ounces) bright orange
50g (1.76 ounces) white
50g (1.76 ounces) light grey
400g (14.11 ounces) black
To colour your own buy white fondant, gel food colours and follow this tutorial for colouring fondant

For the vanilla sprinkle cake:
780g (27.51 ounces) or 3 1/2 cups margarine
630g (22.22 ounces) or 5 cups icing sugar
18 large eggs
780g (27.51 ounces) or 7 1/2 cups almond meal
rind of 3 lemons
6 tsp baking powder
270g (9.52 ounces) or 1 3/4 cups plain or all purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sprinkles (optional)

sprinkles cake recipe

Preheat the oven to 180C (356 degrees Fahrenheit).

Beat together the icing sugar and the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the almond meal and then the eggs. Add the vanilla and then the flour. Mix until just combined.

Spread that into three baking trays (mine are 10″ x 15″). Sprinkle on the sprinkles if desired and lightly mix through.

Bake them in the oven for 20 minutes and then let them cool.

Level the cakes and cut around the cake template.

Place the first layer of cake onto the board

nerf gun cake how to

Squirt on a little milk to keep the cake moist. And then spread on a thin layer of buttercream over the top of the cake.

Add the second layer of cake, everywhere but on the handle.

Use a serrated knife to round out the top of the cake.

nerf gun cake ann reardon how to

Then push the knife in towards the board to round it out on the underneath of the top.

Cover the whole thing in buttercream then take some acetate, round it out and drag it along to smooth and round out the barrel.

nerf gun cake buttercream

Cover the top half of the cake and the magazine in bright orange fondant. Use a fondant smoother to make sure there are no lumps or bumps.

Cut a circle of cake out of the end of the barrel so you have a hollow. We don’t want that cake to dry out so add a little melted dark chocolate into the middle hollow and spread it around to seal out the air.

Follow the video tutorial and cover the other parts of the cake in black and blue fondant.

Cut out the fondant details using the template as a guide

nerf gun cake

And add them to the cake.

nerf gun cake how to

Use a knife to make lines and indents. Use a straw for circle indents.

nerf gun cake tutorial ann reardon

Use a letter cutter to add words to the cake, if you dont have one watch this tutorial for other ways to do lettering.

Nerf Party Games

For the Nerf gun party we split everyone into two teams and gave them a red or blue bandana so it was easy to see which team they were on.

Target Practice: The kids lined up in their teams and the first person on each team had 60 seconds to shoot at the cans. They both had the same single bullet shooting gun and a bucket of bullets at their feet. The winner got a small prize and points for their team. After their go they pass the gun onto the next person and quickly collect the bullets that they had shot and return them to the bucket.

Having a visible and audible timer makes all of these games seem more intense, I used this one…

Target 1. Short the cans. Soda cans sprayed silver, three per team. First one to knock them all down or most knocked down in 60 seconds, whatever comes first.

Target 2. Shoot a moving target. I had a moving target on a tv screen and they shot suction nerf bullets. press pause on the video as you here them fire and you can see where it lands.

Target 3. Shoot bullets into a small hole cut into a box. For this game I gave them one shot only and then they passed it on to the next in lone and kept cylcing through everyone. They wanted to keep playing this one for a while.

Target 4: shooting hanging targets , these were just disposable plates and small bells strung up with string, the bell hits were worth more than the plates.

nerf gun party games

Nerf Dodge
For these next two games we gave all the kids protective goggles. You will also need a nerf gun per kid, you can get them to bring their own or do what we did and buy a bulk lot from someone who is selling their nerfs cheap on ebay.
All the kids were outside in a defined area and two adults were on the side shooting nerf bullets at them (a very enjoyable moment of the party). If they got hit they ran to the edge, picked up a nerf gun and helped shoot at those who were left. Last one standing wins a prize and points for the team.

Nerf Capture the flag
I hired wardrobe moving boxes so they had some obstacles to hide behind. Each team has to try and get the other teams flag, if they get shot on the way they have to run back and touch their base. This was amazing fun, they strategised and worked together as a team and did not want to stop playing.

Then it was time for party food and of course the cake.

nerf gun cake how to cook that

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

43 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    I wanted to find out about how many servings this cake has? Thank you in advance 🙂 I have not personally tried the recipe, so the 5 star is for the video and tutorial on how to make this cake 🙂

  2. Rating: 4.5

    Hello Ann,
    happy to meet you on another cake recipe and I am planning to bake this for my son’s 6th birthday. Before that just a quick question, how many guests that I can serve if I follow similar quantities. Also, can I substitute margarine with butter? please let me know. thanks

  3. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann ! This looks amazing and I’d love to make it for my son. I’m slightly concerned that it’s a bit big and we’ll end up eating cake for months. How many kids do you think it would feed (9 year olds).

    Thanks so much!
    Sam

  4. Rating: 4

    Hi,
    Bought the template but the size might be too big for my party. If I print it by scaling down, will it work?

    • Hi Lynn, yes you can scale down the template but keep in mind the recipe quantities for cake and buttercream will still be too large. You could roughly calculate how much you will need by printing it out in the size you want and then putting it on the baking tray to see how many trays you will need.

  5. Rating: 4.5

    Hi Ann

    I want to make this using your choc cake recipe due to nut allergies – how many quantities of the choc cake should i bake? https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/best-chocolate-cake-ever/

    btw this is the second time i’ve bought your template, the last one turned out to be fab!!

    thanks

    • Hi Josie, You will need 1 and a 1/2 x the chocolate cake recipe baked in three trays. ?

  6. Rating: 2.5

    Paid for the nerf gun template and did not receive it. Can you help?

    • hi fred, i will email it to you directly.

  7. Rating: 2

    Hi, I have several questions – 1. I have a family favorite cake recipe, can any cake recipe work? 2….I usually make my cakes ahead and freeze them, will the fondant be effected being upon a frozen cake? 3….How far ahead could I make the cake completed with fondant?

    • Hi Stacey, Yes you can use your own cake recipe, you will just need to calculate the amount of cake batter needed yourself as obviously I am not sure how much you’ll need to fill the trays. You can freeze your cakes and cover them in buttercream while they are frozen. But you should not add fondant unless the cake is completely defrosted. As the cake defrosts condensation forms on the fondant and makes it wet, sticky and saggy (imagine it looking like the cake was melting). I like to complete the cake the day before the party, at a push you could complete it 2 days before, but obviously fresher is better.

  8. Rating: 5

    Thank you- I usually use the chocolate one- it is super good but since I have 9 grandkids and I make them all cakes, I thought the family might want a change. I may give this one a try. Thanks for this website!!!! You have helped me create some great memories for my family. Even though they don’t quite look like your creations. ?

    • There is always something special about a homemade cake, the artwork and effort that go into making it are part of the gift

  9. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann, I am planning on making this for my grandson but would like to know if I can substitute a 1:1 gluten free flour mix for the all purpose flour?

    Thanks!!

  10. Rating: 5

    Hey!! I was just curious what the lemon rines are for? I scoured the recipe but couldn’t figure it out when making the cake so I omitted it.

    • Hi Mary you can add them into the cake batter if you want a lemon flavoured cake. I left it out in this bake because I was adding sprinkles.

  11. Rating: 5

    Amazing

    • thanks Molly

  12. Rating: 4

    Thank you very much for this tutorial! I was not able’ to find the color you used to get the deep blue. Please let me know which brand it is. Thank you!

  13. Rating: 5

    Thank you for an awesome cake! My 6 year old son absolutely loved it. Went perfectly with our laser tag party!

    • Amazing, well done Kylie and happy birthday to Rhys ??

  14. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann,
    I know that the recipe says the sprinkles are optional, so would it change the consistency of the cake if I left them out?
    Thanks x

    • Hi Katie, the cake consistency will be very similar just without the coloured bits through it.

  15. Rating: 5

    Hello Mrs. Reardon, hope you’re doing well.
    I’ve been a subscriber for a couple days of years now, and am about to graduate from high school. After watching your videos and learning about health/diet/nutrition, I’m really interested in becoming a food scientist and/or a dietician. Any help/advice is appreciated. I’ve taken biology in A levels and would love to have your guidance as to which subjects you took/I should take in university, and what degree you have.

  16. Rating: 5

    Cool

    • thanks Jaygo

  17. Rating: 5

    How many quantities of your chocolate cake recipe would you recommend. My boy is not a fan of sprinkles.

  18. Rating: 4.5

    Ann, I‘ve always refused to buy a Nerf gun for my Son. But reading Jedd‘s Party games ideas.. I got excited. Oh my Gosh! I think I really have to get one for my Son and try to make this Cake for his Birthday soon. It‘s amazing as usual. How lucky your Kids are to have such a cool & good baking Mum?. Ann I have a question regarding your rolled fondant. Do you roll your fondant through a Maschine or over a Mat? Since I couldn‘t see any trace of Maizena or powdersugar. Thank you

    • Hi Faridha, the nerf guns are lots of fun. I roll my fondant on a silicone mat with a rolling pin. I don’t use any powdered sugar or cornflour because I think it dries out the fondant which makes it crack more easily. I spray the mat and rolling pin with canola cooking oil (the stuff you buy in an aerosol can at the supermarket).

  19. Rating: 5

    AWESOME looking cake Ann! I bet Jedd and his friends had a great time!

    I do competitive shooting where I live, and one of my favorite target setups is called a swinger. I bet it could be duplicated for Nerf guns as well. The idea is to have a weighted target that will swing back and forth (like a pendulum on a clock but with wider swings). It is held to one side and supported just barely by the trigger target, could be a paper plate attached to a stick just barely wedged under the pendulum. When you shoot the trigger target the pendulum starts swinging, and you then try to shoot the pendulum target as fast as possible. Once it stops swinging time is up. Extra points for hitting it on one of the first couple swings.

    • That sounds awesome Mark, I think even my teenagers would like to give that a go.

  20. Rating: 4.5

    Do you have to use almond mill or can I substitute it for something else?

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