A fun birthday cake

by Jenifer Scharpen (Subscribe to Jenifer Scharpen's posts) Oct 10th 2006 7:58AM

Today is my oldest child's birthday -- he's ten now. We had a party for him last night at a video arcade, and I found myself remembering the cake we had at his fifth birthday.

I am a pretty good baker, if you rate on taste alone. But, my cakes aren't generally party-worthy, and so I like to have someone else make birthday cakes for the kids' parties. When Alex was five, we took a drawing he'd made of himself to the bakery when we placed our order. The woman who helped us said it would be no problem to use his design on the cake, and, as you can see, it came out super cute.

Tell us about your creative and fun birthday cake successes!

Comments (9)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Julie Alterio 11-27-2006 @ 1:51PM

Hi,

My tradition started when my daughter was in the NICU. On her four-week birthday, I made a huge batch of cupcakes with her initial on them for all the nurses and doctors.

Then, on her first birthday, I made another batch of the same cupcakes. I plan to do this every year as a tradition.

Laura Snow 10-10-2006 @ 11:48AM

I've done 2 cakes myself and neither came out super good but I was proud I made it myself! Here's some pictures:

http://www.girlonfire.net/sebastian/art/scrappages/84.jpg

I don't have the teletubbies cake pic online but that one was even worse! I probably spent around $50 on this cake since I had to import everything to make it since we're not in the USA and they don't have all of this stuff here.

I decided to stop making them myself and for the last birthday we bought this cake:
http://www.girlonfire.net/sebastian/art/scrappages/234.jpg

Lauri Jon Caravella 10-10-2006 @ 3:56PM

Last year I found a place in Southern California called Paper Cake Designs. I had them do present cakes with four different designs on them. They were the hit of the party! And they delivered for a reasonable price since they were two hours south.

The year before we lived in New York City and used a bakery in the West Village called Polka Dots Cake Design Studio. We had them do individual 3" round cakes with flowers. Each cake fed two people.

Both places I found on the web! Enjoy.

ann adams 10-10-2006 @ 11:32AM

Our parties are always fun because everyone gets to laugh at what passes for decoration on my cakes. I'm with you; they taste fine but never turn me loose to decorate anything.

Our Halloween baby (Rebecca) is the easiest. She expects orange and black sprinkles on a chocolate cake with witches or black cats.

And she always has to retell the story of how she was born in a toilet. She wasn't but it was a very near thing. Her version is much more exciting and I'll never convince her it didn't happen.

Jessica 10-10-2006 @ 1:07PM

My daughter just turned one a couple of weeks ago. This was my first ever attempt at serious cake decorating. The party theme was Blues Clues and my SIL mentioned a cake pan. I jumped on it.

But who knew Blues Clues cake pans are impossible to find? EVERY Michaels we went to was out of them. My SIL finally found one for rent; yes, you heard me, for rent, at a party store. This is all so unbelievable to me but maybe it is b/c I am new to the children's bday party scene.

Regadrless, we stayed up until after 1am on a Thursday night (yes, I work full time) making Blue. That night it didn't even resemble the darn dog, but later after my eyes adjusted to the lack of sleep, I realized it was wonderful! We had a lot of fun. It was labor intensive and verrrrrrrry time consuming, but worth every minute for my munchkin!

I don't have a picture here at work :(

Michelle 10-10-2006 @ 8:49PM

Julie, I also became a baking freak during my son's 88 day stint in NICU. I used it as my way of dealing with the stress. The NICU staff was extremely well taken care of while we were there. I baked for them at least once a week, usually more.

For his first birthday, I baked him a 3D teddy bear as his smoosh cake, and a 3 layer cloud cake with teddy bears sliding down a rainbow. It was my first(and last) experience with fondant. That stuff is difficult to work with, and it tastes nasty. For my daughter's 3rd bday that year, I made her a sheet cake with a color flow Belle. (Color flow takes several days).

For my son's 2nd bday this year, I made a 3D Thomas the Tank Engine cake. For my daughter's bday, which is today, but party Sat, I am making a 3D Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses cake. ( At least that is the plan, I had all 4 wisdom teeth and a molar extracted this morning, so I hope to be feeling well enough by Friday to spend that much time and energy on a cake.)

ann adams 10-11-2006 @ 7:13AM

Michelle

Happy Birthday to your son.

Jill 10-11-2006 @ 1:55PM

I've had a great time making simple cakes in fun shapes. I cut a couple of bread pan shaped cakes to make a train engine, used a Bundt pan to make a space ship/UFO, and used every rectangular pan in the house to make a robot. The easiest was the caterpillar made from a dozen cupcakes for a 2nd birthday. The cake has sometimes been out of a box, frosting too, but they definately have looked "homemade" and been fun to make and decorate together. I generally use candies or other edibles for the decorations. By the time my kids are ten I'll be a pro!

Michelle 10-11-2006 @ 10:08PM

Ann, Thank you. It's hard to believe my teeny-tiny preemie is a big 2-yr old already! And my sweet little girl is 4. Where does the time go?

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