Fun Birthday Cakes YOU Can Make

I'm not sure how I got interested in making my children's birthday cakes. As far as I can recall, my mom never made ours; we had standard-looking cakes from the grocery store. I also don't recall any of my friends having home made cakes. But I'm glad I took the plunge into birthday cake making. I call it my special gift to my kids, and they look forward to it every year.

But please do not assume I have any real cake making skills. I really don't! I never make the cake from scratch, and if I had to come up with the designs myself, I'm sure they'd be pathetic. But with the advent of the Internet, anyone can make a birthday cake that's special.


This is the very first birthday cake I ever made. I came up with the construction based on a photo I saw in a magazine. I used a dome-shaped cake pan (similar to the half pan shown here), then frosted it to look like a ladybug. Red Vines (in red...I couldn't find any black) made the bug's antenna. Generally, I avoid buying specially shaped cake pans. For one thing, many rely on careful application of frosting - which I'm not good at. But in this case, no special frosting techniques were needed, and I felt I could use the same pan again for other, totally different cakes.

Another hit cake was the Curious George/monkey cake, shown at the top of this post. I found the directions here; it was one of the simplest cakes I ever made, relying on clever use of donuts and candy to make the cake unique.
This last weekend, I made this exavator cake for my son. It's not perfect (none of my cakes are!) but it delighted the birthday boy and our guests. The directions are here, but basically I made a chocolate cake (my children know no other kind) in a loaf pan and cut off the domed top; then I cut off one section of the loaf and placed it on top of the other. I used candies, Twinkies, and donuts to create the effect of heavy equipment. (The cones are candles, which you can found here.)

I think this pirate ship cake is the best cake I've made so far. And it wasn't hard at all. Again, careful use of candies and pretzels made it a winner. I found the directions here.

And so, I've already given you links to my two favorite go-to sources for making fun kid's cakes:

* Parenting magazine online. Of every place I've searched for cake designs, this is my favorite. The directions are very clear and the cakes are so cute.

* Family Fun magazine online. This is my second favorite source. There are more cakes to choose from here, but the directions aren't always quite as clear. Sometimes I Google the cakes found at this site and find personal blogs that clarify the instructions. Family Fun also has some nice ideas for birthday cupcakes.

Once you have a little experience making shaped cakes like these, you can also Google your idea (for example: "Airplane birthday cakes") and look at the images for ideas. Sometimes the images lead to websites that offer instructions.

Do you make your children's birthday cakes? What are your favorite cake making tips?

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