Today is the day when one of my favorite people in the whole entire world was born 32 years ago.
And while I do not get to spend the day celebrating with him in person, I was so fortunate to have spent all of last weekend doing our birthdays up right! In my post on Monday, I shared my birthday gift to Jeremy: a birthday cake made out of craft beer bottles and cans. Today I am going to show you exactly how I made it, and how you can do so yourself for the beer lover in your life.
I want to first begin by stating that I in no way deserve credit for coming up with this idea. There are tons of similar cakes on Pinterest, and I actually originally saw the idea on Cassie’s blog. I bookmarked Cassie’s blog post the instant I saw it six months ago knowing that it would be the perfect birthday gift for Jeremy. If you haven’t noticed, he may or may not have a thing for beer.
I originally planned to keep with Cassie’s theme of including the same number of bottles in the cake as the years he has been alive, but then I ended up with more than 32 bottles/cans of beer. Lucky him, right?
How to Make a Beer Bottle (or Can) Birthday Cake
The first thing you need to do is purchase cake boards from your local craft store. I used two 14-inch cake boards and one 10-inch cake board. If you are able to buy them singly, go that route. I, unfortunately, did not have that option so I now have an entire collection of cake boards that will probably never get used.
If your cake boards do not have a pattern to them (mine were just white), you may choose to cover them with foil or festive wrapping paper.
Next up: buy the beer!
I ended up visiting three stores in order to purchase everything seen here. Some stores sell bottles singly, which can be very helpful if they have a good selection. If you have a store in your area that is known for “good beer,” I’d head there. I purchased the bulk of my beer from Beertopia here in Omaha. They have an awesome selection, had quite a few beers that I knew Jeremy would love, and were so helpful in suggesting additional beers that were not already on my list.
I ended up using 37 beers, with 23 being bottles and 14 being cans. This was the perfect amount to create a nice and sturdy cake.
Place the majority (or all) of your bottled beer onto the first 14-inch cake board.
I filled the entire edge of the board with beer bottles, and then filled in the majority of the middle of the board with the remaining bottles. You want to ensure there are enough bottles in the center in order to hold the weight of the top two tiers. I ended up with 23 beers on the bottom layer.
Once your first layer is complete, tie a festive ribbon around the bottles into a bow.
Now, start the second tier by placing the other 14-inch cake board on top of the layer of beer bottles.
Top the cake board with a second layer of beer. You can use beer bottles or cans. Whichever you choose, ensure that they are the same height. I stuck with cans because several of the beers Jeremy likes come in cans. Plus, I thought the cans would be a bit more sturdy than a second layer of bottles. This second layer consisted of 10 cans.
Just like with the first layer, I tied a ribbon around the beer cans.
The third tier was the easiest of them all. I placed a 10-inch cake board on top of the cans.
I then placed the last four cans of beer on top. The third tier is the perfect place for any bottles or cans that are of awkward/different heights from the rest of the beer since you will not be stacking anything on top of them.
I wanted to make the top-tier extra festive, so I stuck a Happy Birthday banner into the third cake board. You can use any type of festive decorations that you like. Sparkly picks and garland would also be great!
When I was shopping for the Happy Birthday banner, I also found these shiny colored cupcake picks that I placed sporadically around the cake for a little extra special touch.
Here is the finished product!
Jeremy absolutely loved it, and I truly enjoyed putting it together. Selecting various beers that I knew he would enjoy was fun, and the entire process of building the cake was super easy. It only took me about 20 minutes total.
If you have a beer lover in your life and you want to make them a semi-homemade gift, I highly recommend putting together a beer bottle/can cake. It’s a creative way to cater to their passion, and I can almost guarantee that he or she will appreciate the effort and thoughtfulness behind such a unique present. Plus, you can always accompany it with some additional goodies or perhaps even include it in one of those charming gift hampers sydney for an extra touch!
Have you ever made a beer bottle/can cake?
If you were making this cake for someone, who would be the lucky recipient?
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Haha, this is awesome! My boyfriend definitely prefers beers to sweets, so this may have to make an appearance at his 27th this year..
I’m sure he would appreciate this SO much more than a real cake!
I love this! It’s a diaper cake without the diapers. My husband would go for this, for sure. Thanks for the idea!
You are so welcome! It is definitely much more adult focused than a diaper cake, huh? 😉
haha that’s funny and would def make a great gift for a beer drinker!!
You bet!! It’s kind of like a beer lover’s ultimate dream cake 😉
Ahahahahaha! This is so cute! Someone should build me a cake of nut butter jars for my birthday 😉
Oh my goodness, how awesome would that be??? That’d be even more expensive than a beer cake!! 😉
Ahhh I am so glad you posted this! I somehow had never seen this before on pinterest or anything and am sooo pumped to make one for my husband’s birthday! I couldn’t think of anything to get him! Problem solved 🙂
It is the PERFECT thing when you have no clue what to get him! I was in the same boat and then saw this idea. He absolutely loved it!
I have always wanted to make one of these for my husband! Yours turned out so well! Glad Jeremy loved it. Really, what guy wouldn’t though?
No kidding!! I hope you make one for your husband and that he loves it!! Be sure to share the picture if you do!
This is so awesome! Vegas would love it… gotta remember to make it next year!
Anyone who is a beer lover basically HAS to love it! I don’t know how they couldn’t! It’s definitely a keeper. I hope you try it and that she LOVES it 🙂
This is such a fun idea! Josh would love it!
He most definitely would!! Maybe for his next birthday? Or any holiday for that matter. If you need some cake boards, I have PLENTY!
Happy birthday to your sweetie!! This was such a creative gift idea and I bet he’s going to love drinking every last one. 🙂
Oh yes.. he has more beer than he knows what to do with right now! 😉
Have a great weekend, Sarah!
This is SO fun!! My husband (and I) love beers, I will have to do this for his next birthday for sure! 🙂
If he is a beer lover then he will LOVE it! You really cannot go wrong. Send me a picture if you make one!
This is a really neat idea! MY brother turns 21 in May, so I may do this for him, I’ll probably mix in some candy, he’s a gummy worm lover 🙂
Oh this would be the absolute PERFECT 21st birthday gift! You really cannot go wrong!
That’s so cute! Cute enough to *drink*. 🙂
Haha, you are so punny! 😉
Did you transport this at all? I want to do something similar, but we are having the party an hour away from house. So, I’m not sure if I should assemble it at home and transport, or do a practice run, un-assemble to transport and then reassemble at the restaurant. Thoughts?
I did not transport, and honestly I would not try to. It was HEAVY and not super duper sturdy. I think you would be better off doing a trial run, disassembling it, and then assembling it again once you arrive. I hope that helps!
I love this idea and can’t wait to make it for my hubby’s birthday since he likes beer better than cake. I especially like your beer choice for the top layer!! (My hubs is the head brewer at Summit Brewing and that’s a special beer brewed by one of his brewers, Eric Harper. So fun to see Summit represented in your cake!!)
That is SO cool!! I bet y’all are drinking great beer all the time! 😉
I did this for my bf two years ago for Valentines day … I was the best girl friend EVER! His friends were in awe, and I was the best thing since sliced bread.
Now … my problem is … how do I top that? I need to figure something out for this Valentines as I can’t reuse this idea!!! LOL
If you figure it out, let me know! It is hard to top this!
Were can i get single cake boards??…
every store sells them as packs and that’s too many!!?
I’m not sure. I had to buy them in packs too 🙁
DOES THE BEER HAVE TO BE COLD OR ROOM TEMPERATURE?
It doesn’t necessarily matter, but I prefer it to be room temperature just so you don’t have to worry about condensation, etc.
I am making one of these for a benefit to be raffled off. I make diaper cakes all the time for baby showers and always thought about making one of these
That sounds like a great idea! It is definitely a fun, more “adult” way to make a cake!
This is excellent information. It is amazing and wonderful to visit your site. Loved this content on the wine bottle cake idea!!! for a wine lover like me.
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Did you transport this? Wondering how to do do. Or if it’s an option. Would not want it to fall apart on the way.
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