Birthday Cake Round-Up

My sister Bethany asked me to do this -- round up pictures of all the birthday cakes I've done for my kids. She has a friend doing a birthday cake round-up on her blog. I must be honest here; none of these cake ideas are "original"! I am a lean, mean, googling machine! I get a theme idea, and then I hit the internet, looking for ideas which I can adapt for my own. I'm more of a crafty, copying type, not a creative type. My favorite cakes to do are the ones that don't HAVE to look exactly like a particular character. I can't tell you how many times I had to "erase" Pooh Bear's tummy because I couldn't get the curve just right! :)

My girls and I had fun looking through all our old pictures today; hope you enjoy them, too! Now I'm off to plan Claire's next birthday party...

Tea Party Cake

Elise's nursery was Classic Pooh, so we used that for her 1st birthday, as well.

The pink stuffed elephant, Ellie, was Claire's favorite "lovey." This was my first attempt at using fondant, though I only used it to mold the elephants, not to cover the cake.

I loved this construction cake and it was super-easy. The dirt is a mixture of vanilla-creme cookies with a touch of oreos.

Elise is my summer baby, so she wanted a beach themed cake. Here we have teddy grahams bobbing in gummy life savers and lounging on Zebra gum towels!

I could NOT get the face right on this Minnie Mouse cake, but my husband came to the rescue. He "drew" the face in the purple icing with a toothpick, and I just filled in the lines.

Gordon was 2 weeks old when I made this for Claire. My pastor's wife had offered to bring dinner over that night, and thank goodness, or we would have been eating cake for dinner! It took me all day to do this, in between feedings and changings and feedings and changings... It was worth it to see her face, though! I traced the picture onto wax paper, froze the iced cake for 30 minutes so the icing would be hard, then "transferred" the design by poking a toothpick through the wax paper onto the iced cake. Labor intensive, yes!

Belle and Sleeping Beauty Cakes -- I did these one summer for Elise and her cousin, Nicole.

Gordon's Train Cake -- I iced this sucker right on the table so I wouldn't have to move it!

St-st-st-st-strawberry, Strawberry Shortcake!

Elise's Butterfly Cake

This isn't a cake, but I thought I'd include it. It's our "April Fools" dinner: the meatloaf is Coco Puffs marshmallow treats, the mashed potatoes are ice cream with caramel "gravy", and the green beans are softened and molded chewy jolly ranchers. (Idea courtesy of Family Fun)

This cake took me the longest of any of them. All the colors, and trying to make the characters look like themselves...ugh! My sister Sarah was keeping me company all those HOURS I was working, and as I put the finishing touches on it she said, "Hmmm, 'happy birt-day?'" Yes, I'd left out the "h"!!! Thank goodness I was able to scrape and salvage it!

These were Gordon's preschool treats for "D" week. They are 2 oreos stuck together and dipped in white chocolate bark, then decorated.

I love Hello Kitty...simple, but sweet!

This was for my Earth Science co-op. We used a cake to demonstrate an earthquake.

Elise's Flip Flop Cake -- the sand is vanilla creme sandwich cookies with a few oreos thrown in.

I loved this cake, and see, I'm getting smarter! I'm incorporating toys right on top, so that I don't have to spend hours "drawing" Lightning McQueen...!

Claire had a Prairie Girl Cake for her Little House on the Prairie Party.

This Treasure Chest Cake was for Elise's Pirate Pool Party. I made my own marshmallow fondant for this cake. I'm still learning to work with it, but thankfully the dark color hid my errors! All the "jewels" are edible, including the marshmallow pearls.

Gordon wanted to go bowling for his birthday, so I adapted this from one at Family Fun. The score card is marshmallow fondant, and the pins are white candles covered in marshmallow fondant. I know they make bowling pin candles, but I'm usually coming up with my cakes rather last minute, so I didn't have time to order them or find them locally.

Claire had a Clue Party, so we made her a Magnifying Glass Cake.

Another Family Fun idea -- these Popcorn cupcakes are made from marshmallows clipped on one end and painted with a little yellow food coloring. Then I wrapped the popcorn container band around the base of the cupcakes.

Gordon wanted Indiana Jones, so I borrowed this idea from something I saw online. Nice and easy, which was good, because I was sick the week of his birthday.

And that's it! Claire's birthday party is next, but she hasn't settled on a theme yet. One of these days I'm actually going to take a class in cake decorating so that I can learn proper techniques and build up my speed. Until then, I'll keep googling!