How to Make Unique Birthday Cakes

A simple cake made in round layer pans, square pans or a 13 by 9 pan can easily be decorated to please the one you baked it for.

Things You'll Need

• Cake recipe of your choice
• Frosting recipe of your choice, extra for additional colors
• Food coloring
• Cake pans of the shapes and sizes you will want for the particular cake you want

Instructions

1. For a clock cake, make a one-layer or two-layer round cake. Frost when it is cool, and place numbers and clock hands on the clock face. These can be made from candies or cut out of fruit roll ups.

2. Round cakes can also be decorated to look like a baseball, a basketball, a face--such as Raggedy Ann with hair of tinted red coconut, a yellow smiley face or a jack-o-lantern. Use candies, red licorice whips or tinted snippets of marshmallows.

3. A two- or three-layer cake can be decorated to look like a drum.

4. Square cakes can be decorated to look like wrapped packages.

5. A cake in a 9 by 13 pan can be decorated to look like a man's shirt.

Tips & Warnings

• Take your time to transform your cake into something unique. The money you will save from buying a bakery cake will be worth the time, plus you've made something special with your own hands for your loved one.