Clue Jr. The Case of the Missing Cake Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Clue Jr. The Case of the Missing Cake is to figure out who ate the cake, with what drink, and at what time.

Set Up

If the labels aren’t applied yet, apply the green crumbs and the five time labels to the bottom of the white bases. Apply the yellow drink labels to the bottom of the yellow bases. Finally apply the square labels to each side of the die.
Set aside the white base that has no label on it and the base that has the crumbs on it. Then mix up the rest of the white bases and randomly pick one. Place the base you picked in the middle of the gameboard. The time on this white base is when the cake was eaten. No one should look at this white base or any other other white bases.
Add the two white bases you set aside earlier to the remaining white bases. Randomly place one character pawn on each base. Place each character on their corresponding spot on the gameboard.
Find the two yellow bases that don’t have a label on them and set them aside. Then mix up the remaining yellow bases. Pick one and place it in the middle of the gameboard. No one should look at this yellow base or any of the other bases.
Add the two yellow bases you set aside to the rest of the bases. Mix all of the bases up and place one piece of furniture in each base. Each piece of furniture should be placed in the corresponding room in the mansion.
Each player takes a Detective Notepad sheet and a pencil. To keep your sheet secret from the other players, you should fold it in half.
The last player who ate a piece of cake starts the game. Play moves left/clockwise throughout the game.

How to Play Clue Jr. The Case of the Missing Cake

You will begin each of your turns by rolling the die. What you roll on the die determines what you will do on the rest of your turn.

Should you roll the yellow side of the die, choose a piece of furniture. Turn it so you can see what is on the label on the bottom of the base. You should turn it so only you can see the label. You will make a note on your sheet based on what you see. Return the furniture to where you took it from. See the Taking Notes section below.

If you roll the white side of the die, choose one of the character pawns. Turn it over so only you can see what is on the label on the bottom of the base. Make a note on your sheet based on what you see. Return the character to the space you took it from. See the Taking Notes section below.

Finally if you roll a number, you will move one of the characters. See the Moving Characters section below for more details.

After you have taken the corresponding action, you turn ends. Play passes to the player on your left.

Moving Characters

When you roll a number, choose one of the characters. You will move your chosen character up to the number you rolled. You don’t have to move it all of the spaces you rolled. When moving a character you will follow the paths printed on the board. You may not move through a space that another player is on or land on an occupied space. You also can’t move a character back to the space that they started the turn on.

Moving a character on the board — The current player rolled a four on the die. They have chosen to move Colonel Mustard four spaces to the yellow space in the nearby room.

After you move your chosen character, you will take an action based on what space they landed on.

Should the character land on a yellow space, you will look at the piece of furniture that corresponds to your current location. Turn the furniture so you can see the label on the base without letting the other players see. Then make a note on your sheet based on what you see. See the Taking Notes section below.

Looking at a yellow base — After landing on the yellow space, the player turns over the corresponding piece of furniture. On the bottom of the yellow base is a glass of water. This shows that the culprit did not drink water along with the cake.

If you land on a white space, you will look at the base of the character that you moved without letting the other players see. Make a note of what you see on the base.

Looking at the bottom of a white base — After moving to the white space, this player turned over the character they moved. 4:00 is under the base which means the cake wasn’t ate at 4:00.

Should you land on a footprint space, you do not get to take an action on your space.

Taking Notes

As you play the game you will look at the bottom of the bases. Anything you see on one of the bases gives you information about the solution to the case.

Whenever you look at a yellow base you likely will see a drink. Should you see a drink, you know that drink couldn’t have been used when the culprit ate the cake. Cross off the drink on your detective sheet. Also make sure to cross off the piece of furniture you looked at so you know not to look at that piece of furniture again.

Crossing off information from a yellow base — Underneath the chair piece was the glass of water. Since the water is under the chair, it can’t be the beverage drank along with the cake so the player can cross it off. They should also cross off the chair so they know not to look under it again.

Should you look at a white base you will likely see a time. If you see a time, you know that the culprit didn’t eat the cake at that time. You should cross that time off on your sheet. Also make sure to cross off the character you looked at since that character is not the culprit.

Crossing off white base information — After looking under the Mrs. Peacock pawn, the player sees 4:00. They now know that the cake was not eaten at 4:00. They also know that Mrs. Peacock didn’t eat the cake because there aren’t crumbs under her pawn. 4:00 and Mrs. Peacock can both be crossed off.

If you look at a white base and you see the crumbs, you now know that character is guilty of eating the cake. Make a note by that character so that you remember that they are responsible for eating the cake.

Finding the culprit who ate the cake — Looking under Mrs. White’s pawn, the player can see crumbs. This player now knows that Mrs. White is the culprit.

If you see no label on the bottom of a white or yellow base, you gained no information this turn. Make sure to cross off the corresponding character/furniture so you don’t look under the base again.

Winning the Game

As you play the game you will start to cross off times, drinks and characters. Eventually you may cross off all of the options except for one in each of the three categories (characters, times, drinks). When only one option remains in a category, you know that option is part of the final solution. In order to win the game you need to figure out all three parts of the solution.

If you think you know the solution, you can make an accusation at the end of your turn. When you make an accusation you will tell the other players the character, the drink and the time that you think are the solution. You will then look at the bottom of the two bases in the middle of the gameboard. These will tell you the correct solution for the drink and the time. You will also have to look under the base of the character you suspect. If there are crumbs under the base, that character ate the cake.

Should all three of your choices be correct, show the other players the bottom of the bases. You have won Clue Jr The Case of the Missing Cake.

Solving the case of who ate the cake — This player guessed that Mrs. White ate the cake along with apple juice at 2:00. They turn over the two bases placed in the middle of the board along with Mrs. White’s pawn. These three bases match what the player guessed. They successfully solved the case and win the game.

Incorrect Solution

If one or more of your choices are incorrect, you did not solve the case. Since you now know the solution to the case, you are eliminated from the game. You shouldn’t tell the other players what the solution is or give any sort of clues. The rest of the players will continue playing the game.

Incorrectly solving the case — This player guessed that Mrs. White ate the cake with apple juice at 1:00. Since the cake was actually ate at 2:00, the player was wrong. They are eliminated from the game.

The game ends when one of the players correctly guess all three parts of the solution, or only one player remains. If all but one player guesses incorrectly, the remaining player wins the game.

Clue Jr. The Case of the Missing Cake FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play Clue Jr The Case of the Missing Cake, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

Gameboard
6 Clue Character Pawns
6 Furniture Pawns
7 White Bases
7 Yellow Bases
Detective Notepad
Die
Instructions

Year: 2003 | Publisher: Hasbro, Parker Brothers

Genres: Children’s, Deduction, Roll and Move

Ages: 5+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 20-30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.