When it comes to kids’ birthday cakes, there are three types of people:
- Those who are willing and able to pay someone else to make the cake.
- Those who are creative enough to make elaborate cakes themselves.
- And those who are too frugal to pay for a cake but not creative enough to make an impressive one. This is the category into which I fall.
I want to make sure you understand that I have NO cake decorating skills and very few baking skills. This is why the notion of birthday cakes has always intimidated me.
The problem is, buying a cake is just plain expensive. Even if you just buy one from the supermarket bakery, you’ll likely spend $20 or more. If you go to a specialty cake maker or independent bakery…well, you can expect to shell out $40 or more. Sometimes MUCH more.
See, I have a hard time justifying that cost when I get my cake mixes for free with coupons and tubs of frosting for a $1 or less. Add in some eggs and oil for a few cents and you’ve got a cake for less than $2. The problem is, these cakes just aren’t very impressive–at least not if you don’t have decorating skills. And if you’re anything like me, you want your kids’ cakes to be something special.
Well guess what? I have learned that I can make a cute cake all by myself–no special skills required. Sure, they still have that homespun look but so what? I think that makes it that much sweeter. I’m going to share with you a couple of sites that have great cake ideas for the creatively challenged. First though, let me show you a couple of cakes I have made in the last year:
This ladybug cake was for my daughter’s 2nd birthday. With the food coloring gel and candy embellishments, I still paid less than $5 for the whole cake.
The dinosaur cake was for my son’s 5th birthday. Again, I just needed some food coloring gel and candy decorations which didn’t cost much. This was another $5 cake.
I forgot to take a close-up picture of these cupcakes but I’m hoping you can still get the idea. This was for my son’s “friend party” (Curious George theme) and I needed to feed a crowd. I baked up two boxes of free cake mix, divided up two tubs of frosting and colored it with food coloring gel. I topped each cupcake with a banana-shaped Runt and put a Curious George cake topper on the top cupcake. The picture doesn’t do it justice but the presentation was adorable. All total, including the Curious George topper, I spent about $8 on 46 cupcakes (cake mixes are supposed to make 24 each but I can never get more than 23 out of a mix). Anyway, try getting that many cupcakes at the bakery for $8!
Again, nobody’s going to think that the Cake Boss made these cakes but they were cute and most importantly, my children loved them!
If you are like me and think you can’t make a cute cake yourself, check out these sites for some great ideas:
- Coolest Homemade Birthday Cakes (I LOVE this site!)
- Betty Crocker Birthday Ideas
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Just do a Google image search for the cake theme you want–e.g., “my little pony cake ideas” or “butterfly cake ideas.” Be prepared to be inspired!
