Cakes
Store/Bakery Bought –
If you don’t bake (or just don’t want to) a store or bakery bought cake is for you. A lot of grocery stores have a bakery department that makes cakes. Check with ones in your city to see what options they have available.
They will most likely have a book that you can look through but if you don’t see something you like don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you see a design you like but don’t like the border they will likely be willing to change it. Even bigger changes are sometimes able to be made. The woman at my local grocery store bakery always seems happy for the chance to do something a little different.
Also be sure you keep an open mind as you look through their books. You may not like the style of a cake but not the particular theme. It’s possible that you can just change it a bit to suit your needs.
This hamster themed cake for a pet store party was originally a Batman cake that I chose from a book. I added my own hamster made from fondant (more on that later) and some new plastic hamster tubes. A big plus is that when I got rid of the batmobile in the original design the price also went down.
Another store/bakery cake helper is the photo cake. You can use a photo of your child dressed up to match the theme or just wearing a themed shirt. You can also draw a picture of something from your theme and turn it into a photo at one of those photo printing machines that are popping up everywhere. Check first but my local store tells me that as long as you drew it yourself even copyrighted characters can be done.
Photo cake from a drawing turned into a photo - The theme? A Dachshund Christmas, you truly can make a theme out of anything
Another cake made with a drawing I had turned into a photo
Cut Out Cakes –
These cakes are much easier to make then you might think. Start out with a sheet cake and cut it into whatever shape you want. Don’t want to freehand it? No problem, just print out a coloring sheet, cut around the shape you want and you have a template. Place it on top of your cake, stick a couple toothpicks in it to hold it in place and cut around it. You can even cut out extra pieces to put on top to get a 3D effect. After you have your cake cut out frost it all one or two colors and add details with tinted frosting. If you don’t have a frosting bag you can just use a ziploc bag with a hole snipped out of one corner.
This Blue's Clues cake was made by using a coloring page template
Dome Cakes –
Using a domed cake pan (or some round casserole bowls will work) can create many cute cake designs.
The most popular of course is the Barbie cake. For this just make a hole in the middle of the cake to stick the doll into. The cake becomes the doll’s dress. You can leave the shape as is or shape it by cutting off a little at a time. Remember this is the “Barbie cake” but its not just for Barbie. Any kind of small doll will work. I have seen Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Mermaid all in Barbie size dolls. This cake would also work great for a general princess theme.
Here is a Barbie style cake using a Dora bath doll
Domes could also be a soccer ball, sun, baseball, bowling ball, bomb, smiley face, ant hill, just about anything rounded that you can think of.
You can bring more life to your dome cake by using two of them. Just cut off a chunk off the rounded part of one to become a flat bottom, put frosting on top of it (for “glue”) and place the other one on top. This is especially great for pumpkin and apple cakes.
Cup Cakes –
Cupcakes are becoming a popular birthday cake alternative. You can make or buy cup cake toppers in your theme and add them to homemade or storebought cupcakes, bake them into ice cream cones, add small fondant characters or candies to the top, or even arrange them all into one big shape.
To make your own cupcake toppers just glue or tape small pictures onto regular or colored toothpicks. You can also just use small toys or novelty items to stick on top.
To make a big shape of all the cupcakes together draw a big outline of the shape you want to make. This of course works best with shapes that you can easily identify by it’s outline. Arrange your cupcakes inside the outline and then frost the top as if it was one big shaped cake. There are also already shaped cupcake groupings available for purchase at some stores and bakeries.
There are also many different shaped cupcake cups available. A great trick if you happen to need heart shaped cupcakes is to stick marbles between the pan and liner.
Fondant –
There are of course fondant covered cakes but that is perhaps for another blog. What I want to tell you about fondant is that it is very much like clay. If you can mold something out of clay, you can mold something out of fondant. You can make your own fondant or buy it already made (check the craft department of your local Walmart or craft store). You can sometimes buy different colors of fondant but I find it more cost effective to just dye my own. I use paste food coloring. Pull off a piece of fondant for whatever size you think you may need of a certain color (it’s always better to have too much then not enough), poke a small pit into it, add the coloring and knead it until it is all a solid color. Don’t forget to wear gloves!
Once you have the colors you need just mold whatever you want the same way that you would with clay. You will want to keep your finished product covered so that it doesn’t dry out. Keep in mind that fondant can be a bit heavy so don’t place on top of your cake too early.
Spongebob characters made from fondant with a gummy Krabby Patty
Here is a fondant pig sitting in a mud cake
If you don’t bake (or just don’t want to) a store or bakery bought cake is for you. A lot of grocery stores have a bakery department that makes cakes. Check with ones in your city to see what options they have available.
They will most likely have a book that you can look through but if you don’t see something you like don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you see a design you like but don’t like the border they will likely be willing to change it. Even bigger changes are sometimes able to be made. The woman at my local grocery store bakery always seems happy for the chance to do something a little different.
Also be sure you keep an open mind as you look through their books. You may not like the style of a cake but not the particular theme. It’s possible that you can just change it a bit to suit your needs.
Another store/bakery cake helper is the photo cake. You can use a photo of your child dressed up to match the theme or just wearing a themed shirt. You can also draw a picture of something from your theme and turn it into a photo at one of those photo printing machines that are popping up everywhere. Check first but my local store tells me that as long as you drew it yourself even copyrighted characters can be done.
Cut Out Cakes –
These cakes are much easier to make then you might think. Start out with a sheet cake and cut it into whatever shape you want. Don’t want to freehand it? No problem, just print out a coloring sheet, cut around the shape you want and you have a template. Place it on top of your cake, stick a couple toothpicks in it to hold it in place and cut around it. You can even cut out extra pieces to put on top to get a 3D effect. After you have your cake cut out frost it all one or two colors and add details with tinted frosting. If you don’t have a frosting bag you can just use a ziploc bag with a hole snipped out of one corner.
Dome Cakes –
Using a domed cake pan (or some round casserole bowls will work) can create many cute cake designs.
The most popular of course is the Barbie cake. For this just make a hole in the middle of the cake to stick the doll into. The cake becomes the doll’s dress. You can leave the shape as is or shape it by cutting off a little at a time. Remember this is the “Barbie cake” but its not just for Barbie. Any kind of small doll will work. I have seen Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Mermaid all in Barbie size dolls. This cake would also work great for a general princess theme.
Domes could also be a soccer ball, sun, baseball, bowling ball, bomb, smiley face, ant hill, just about anything rounded that you can think of.
You can bring more life to your dome cake by using two of them. Just cut off a chunk off the rounded part of one to become a flat bottom, put frosting on top of it (for “glue”) and place the other one on top. This is especially great for pumpkin and apple cakes.
Cup Cakes –
Cupcakes are becoming a popular birthday cake alternative. You can make or buy cup cake toppers in your theme and add them to homemade or storebought cupcakes, bake them into ice cream cones, add small fondant characters or candies to the top, or even arrange them all into one big shape.
To make your own cupcake toppers just glue or tape small pictures onto regular or colored toothpicks. You can also just use small toys or novelty items to stick on top.
To make a big shape of all the cupcakes together draw a big outline of the shape you want to make. This of course works best with shapes that you can easily identify by it’s outline. Arrange your cupcakes inside the outline and then frost the top as if it was one big shaped cake. There are also already shaped cupcake groupings available for purchase at some stores and bakeries.
There are also many different shaped cupcake cups available. A great trick if you happen to need heart shaped cupcakes is to stick marbles between the pan and liner.
Fondant –
There are of course fondant covered cakes but that is perhaps for another blog. What I want to tell you about fondant is that it is very much like clay. If you can mold something out of clay, you can mold something out of fondant. You can make your own fondant or buy it already made (check the craft department of your local Walmart or craft store). You can sometimes buy different colors of fondant but I find it more cost effective to just dye my own. I use paste food coloring. Pull off a piece of fondant for whatever size you think you may need of a certain color (it’s always better to have too much then not enough), poke a small pit into it, add the coloring and knead it until it is all a solid color. Don’t forget to wear gloves!
Once you have the colors you need just mold whatever you want the same way that you would with clay. You will want to keep your finished product covered so that it doesn’t dry out. Keep in mind that fondant can be a bit heavy so don’t place on top of your cake too early.
