Candy Land Cake

From Taste of Home Kids' Party Food cookbook. Pen Perez from Berkeley, California says, "My friend asked me to make her son's 5th Birthday cake. I asked her what he wanted on it, she said, "Oh, just gobs and gobs of candy." Instead of piling on candy haphazardly, I made it like the Candy Land board game. The birthday boy, his friends and family members loved it!"

• Ready In: 3 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 30-40
• Yields: 30-40 pieces of cake

Ingredients

• 2 (18 1/4ounce) packages  cake mix, of your choice
•  vanilla frosting
•  chocolate frosting
•  green food coloring, spray (optional)

• ASSORTED DECORATIONS

•  Starburst candies
•  red fruit roll-up
•  red  coarse sugar
•  dots  candy
•  regular and  miniature peanut butter cup
•  chocolate sprinkles
• 1  large  and small  gumdrop
•  dum dum pops  candy
•  miniature candy canes
•  clear and blue rock  candy
•  cake and waffle  ice cream cones
•  multicolored  candy sprinkles
•  green  colored crystal sugar
•  miniature marshmallow
•  round  peppermint candy
•  conversation heart  candy

Directions

1. Line two 13-inch x 9-inch baking pans with waxed paper and grease the paper. Prepare cake batter; pour into prepared pans. Bake according to package directions. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely; remove waxed paper.
2. Level tops of cakes; place side by side on a covered board. Frost top and sides of cake with vanilla frosting; mist with food color spray, if desired.
3. With Candy Land game board as your guide, form a path using Starburst candies. With vanilla frosting, pipe "Happy Birthday" on candies. With chocolate frosting, make an arrow, pipe "Start" on the arrow with vanilla frosting.
4. For the Mountain/Gumdrop pass, use a red Fruit Roll-Up, red coarse sugar and Dots.
5. For the Forests, add peanut butter cups topped with piped chocolate frosting, chocolate jimmies (sprinkles), gumdrops, Dum Dum pops, candy canes and rock candies.
6. For the Castle, pipe vanilla frosting into ice cream cones, garnish with Dots and sprinkles.
7. Between the pathways, add green colored sugar, sprinkles, miniature marshmallows, peppermints and conversation hearts. Pipe additional frosting to fill in spaces; top with sprinkles.
8. Pipe vanilla frosting around base of cake; place peppermints around the top edge of cake.
9. NOTE: This cake is best eaten the day it's prepared. Do not refrigerate.