How to Make Easy Homemade Kid's Birthday Cakes

Your kids will love a homemade cake--and they won't know how easy it was to make.

You don't need to be a professional cake decorator to make interesting birthday cakes for kids. Many designs incorporate creative arrangement of individual cakes in relationship to each other that will yield a unique overall shape. Truly easy cakes for kids utilize an artful placement of assorted candies for decorating details.

Things You'll Need

• Cake mix (or cake recipe)
• Cake pans
• Waxed cake board (or cardboard and aluminum foil)
• Kitchen knife
• Canned frosting (or frosting recipe)
• Food coloring
• Spatula
• Assorted candies

Instructions

1. Select a design that reflects your child's personality--for instance, a lion-shaped cake for a young animal lover--or stick with a simple round cake that's decorated with vibrant colors. This will appeal to most kids.

2. 

   Pour or spread cake batter evenly into pans.

   Use a cake mix for convenience. Unless you are set on the idea of using a special scratch recipe for the cake, a mix will save time--and your child probably won't know the difference. Bake the cake according to the directions, in a large enough batch to fulfill your chosen design, and allow it to cool.

3. Purchase or make a waxed cake board in the size you need. To make one, find a cardboard box with one side that is large enough and use a utility knife to cut away this section. Cover the cardboard with overlapping lengths of aluminum foil and use masking tape to secure the foil to the underside of the cardboard.

4. 

   Create vibrant hued frosting with food coloring.

   Prepare your frosting, or simply add food coloring to pre-made frosting, if desired. Separate portions of uncolored frosting and add food coloring based on how much of each color you'll need to decorate the cake and tint them accordingly.

5. Remove the cake from the pan. If you are making a layered cake, spread frosting--or the filling of your choice--between layers.

6. Transfer the cake to the board. Cut, stack place and frost it according to the directions that are provided with the design you are using.

7. 

   You may need a variety of candies to create the design.

   Decorate the cake with candies and other edible accessories that fit your design. Marshmallows, licorice whips, fruit leather, or gumballs will help you to decorate quickly, and you won't need to use a cake decorator's piping bag. For instance, you can easily create a castle-shaped cake by stacking layers and using upside-down ice cream cones as turrets. A lion-shaped cake needs whiskers--thin licorice whips merely need to be cut to size and positioned.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a specialty kids cake mold for special cakes. Though using a piping bag will probably be necessary, most come with clear diagrams and directions for decorating, and can be used to bake three-dimensional cakes that would be difficult to make using round, square or rectangular pans.

• Avoid running out of frosting in the middle of your project by preparing more frosting than you think you might need before you begin.

• If you are making your own cake board, it is important not to include any box flap creases in the section you cut away. These creases will not be rigid enough to hold your cake. In the case of a large, heavy cake, you may need to tape two to three sections together for enough added thickness to properly support your cake.

• Some homemade kids cakes may require that you cut or carve away portions of a whole cake to create a specific shape. Depending on your baking experience, you may choose to avoid such designs as they tend to be more advanced.

References

• Parenting: 31 Awesome Birthday Cake Designs
• Parents: Easy Birthday Cakes
• Country Living: Decorating a Cake With Sweets

Resources

• Bake Decorate Celebrate: Candy Lover's Cottage
• Bake Decorate Celebrate: Flowers & Candy
• Fun Kid Birthday Parties: Kid Birthday Cakes Decorating Candy