Simple Cake Decorating » Birthday Cake Ideas

Super Mario Bros Birthday Party

lindaf — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:26:00 +0000

My son wanted a Super Mario Bros themed birthday this year and when I asked what kind of cake he wanted he said “A 1UP Mushroom!” After some research on the internet and a little creativity I was able to put together a fun party for him and his friends.

To make the 1UP Mushroom I used a Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan and for the star a Wilton Star Pan. For both cakes I just used cake out of the box and frosted them with icing I bought and colored with food coloring. For the eyes and spots on the mushroom I used store bought rolled fondant and cut the shapes out. I don’t like to completely cover cakes with fondant because in general people don’t like the taste of it. So to get a smooth look with butter cream I use the paper towel trick. My cupcakes were bought from Sam’s Club and I placed gold coins that I bought from a party store on them.

For games we had a Boo Ball Bounce, which is basically like beer pong I painted white ping pong balls with boo faces and covered plastic cups with silver paper to resemble pipes. The kids had to bounce balls into the cups to earn gold coins. We also played pin the mustache on Mario and Yoshi Egg smash. I modified the game from the video I linked to make it more challenging. My son created a poster with Shy Guys on it in random places. Each Shy Guy had a point value assigned to it. The kids were awarded gold coins based on which ones they hit.

At the end of the party the child with the most gold coins one a treasure box with small prizes in it. All the children received yellow goody bags with question mark boxes glued to them. The winner of each event got a framed award and a ribbon.

Pirate Ship Cake

lindaf — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:39:14 +0000

September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day. In honor of that very special day I’m sharing a Pirate Ship Cake from Family Fun Magazine

To learn how to make this cake visit Pirate Ship Cake Recipe | Themed Cakes | FamilyFun.

Marshmallow Fondant Spongebob Cake

lindaf — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:05:22 +0000

This lemon flavored SpongeBob cake was made by a friend for her son’s 6th birthday. She made her own marshmallow fondant and swears it is fairly easy to make and work with. I look forward to trying it soon.

If you search the internet you will find different versions of Marshmallow Fondant Recipe, here’s one from All Recipes:

INGREDIENTS

* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
* 4 tablespoons water
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, divided

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2. Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners’ sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3. Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners’ sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

Star Wars Cake from The Happy Housewife

lindaf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:49:45 +0000

For the Star Wars lovers in your family, The Happy Housewife posted pictures an easy cake decorating idea from the e-book Pretty Cool Cakes. The cake took under an hour to make and she used canned frosting. Now that’s a simple cake!

Baked by The Happy Housewife

Thanks to her post and pictures I was eager to see the other cakes in this book, so I downloaded my copy. At just $4 it’s a steal. The e-book is well-written and the cakes follow my Simple Cakes Philosophy. Even better, the ideas are all inspired by children.

Check out the original Happy Housewife Star Wars Cake post for more pictures, decorating tips and information.

Pokemon Cake from Mom’s Fridge

lindaf — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:16:36 +0000

My son is a Pokemon freak so I was delighted when I found this easy but great Pokemon cake and cupcakes from the Mom’s Fridge blog.

Pokemon Cake

You’ll need the following ingredients:

3 cans frosting (one chocolate, 2 white)
2 cake mixes, prepared as directed
red and white M&Ms.
icing bag and frosting tip ( #3 tip )
1/2 bottle red food coloring

For detailed instructions on how to make this cake visit Mom’s Fridge – Pokemon Cake

If you have an easy cake decorating idea you would like to share, email simplecakes at gmail dot com.

31 Birthday Cake Ideas from Parenting.com

lindaf — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:50:01 +0000

I’m always on the lookout for easy cake decorating ideas and at Parenting.com they have 31 great ideas with step-by-step instructions.

Spongebob Squarepants Cake

lindaf — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:54:09 +0000

This cake is an example of how you can create something unique and special without having any baking or decorating skills at all.

For my son’s 5th Birthday party I baked a large chocolate sheet cake and created a Spongebob SquarePants scene for him using Crayola’s Model Magic clay to make the Pineapple and jellyfish. The characters are from the top of special edition PlayDoh cans and the “sand” is crushed graham crackers.

SpongeBob Cake for Cameron

Everyone complimented me on how the cake looked, but close friends and family confided that the cake itself was pretty dry and bland. I realized that I could have saved myself a lot of time if I would have just ordered the cake from my grocery store and added the models before the party.

So keep in mind that toys and other non-edible items can be incorporated into your cake design. Just make sure that your material are non-toxic.

3D Hershey Kiss Cake

lindaf — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:18:26 +0000

This cake is much easier to make than it looks!

Select your cake pans

You will need at least four, maybe five cake pans. I used a 9 in., 8 in., and two smaller baking dishes. However, the size of your cake will vary depending on how many people you need to serve, or what cake pans you actually have! You can stack your pans upside down to get an idea of the shape.

Alternatively, you could use the same size pans and layer them, then carve out the shape. That’s a lot of wasted cake batter though.

Carve out the shape

For tips on cake baking you can visit my Preparing to Decorate Your Cake series. Otherwise, I’ll assume you know enough to get on with the decorating! I would like to stress that leveling your layers is important. Also, I carved the shape after I had placed my cake on the cakeboard (a strong plastic serving plate covered with aluminum foil and turned upside down).

Have a picture of a Hershey Kiss or a real on on hand to use as a guide for carving. Make sure you have a long, sharp, serrated knife and start off slowly cutting just a little at a time. Remember you can always slice more off, but it’s hard to put it back on.

Ice it!

As you can see, it starts out looking pretty sloppy. The great thing about a giant Hershey Kiss though, is that it has to be chocolate! Chocolate cake, chocolate icing, so you don’t have to worry so much about a few stray crumbs mixed in with the icing.

Read my tips on icing cakes if you haven’t already. I placed this in the freezer for about an hour before I began icing it because I wanted as smooth a surface as possible. You will want to be very generous with the amount of icing you use. The very top of the kiss is completely built up with icing.

Finishing touches

What really sells this cake is the “wrapping”. The birthday message was printed out landscape on regular paper and then cut. The wrapper is two sheets of aluminum foil taped together. You could probably use silver foil wrapping paper as well. I crumbled the aluminum foil and then smoothed it out to give it a more authentic look.

7 Great Websites for Cake Decorating Ideas

lindaf — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 08:00:46 +0000

There is a cake for every occasion. Here’s a list of seven websites that can help inspire you to design your own Simple Cake version!

Bake Decorate Celebrate

Woman’s Day Silly Cakes

Parents.com