birthday cake

[Kiara.I]

Your BIL might even be willing to whip something up for you, if you asked.

And yes, cake decorating is quite easy, especially the basic stuff. If you have a Michaels near you, they often offer classes--that's how I learned. It turns out that I prefer the baking to the decorating part, but I have a bunch of skills in place that I can turn to when I need them, at least...

[esperanza]

Well, I did say in the email not to worry, that I wasn't going to ask him to decorate the cake. He hasn't decorated any cakes since the weddings, not even for his own kids' birthdays, so I'm not quite sure I can ask him. The party is the 19th, and I have a million things to do before then so no time for a class. I'm banking on either youtube, my mom's natural crafty skills, or.... a plain frosted cake?! Even that scares me because you get the crumbs (though I think the trick is putting it in the freezer first). It looks like the icing on the cake you posted would be easy since you just pour it over, right?

[gerberadaisy]

Originally Posted by esperanza

Great ideas everyone!

Good to know about the Costco cakes. We do have one, but we aren't members. Not sure I know anyone who is. I'm guessing you have to be a member to get a cake...

That truck idea is adorable! I'm going to remember that for another year. We're doing a Mexican fiesta theme, so that doesn't really go, but it's super cute!

Cupcakes... that's a good idea! I like the idea of different toppings too. Did you (collective you who have done cupcakes) do anything special with them? It feels like we should do something to say "happy birthday ds" or something other than putting out a plate of cupcakes. But he'll have his one little cake. I did get a candle in the shape of a 1 today for him to blow out. I could just put something on his cake. Or I could line up the cupcakes and put a letter on each one, but then there goes any other decorating... I know there are probably 3 million ideas on pinterest but I'm not on pinterest. For this exact reason. I would get sucked in and spend hours looking at ideas. Can't go there.

Good thought on the cake decorating kit too. My BIL had a short stint decorating cakes for friends' weddings. I'm going to email him to see if he still has anything. I bet he does, and I'm sure I could borrow it. It can't be that hard, right? Or better yet, I could get my mom to help. She'd be much better at it than I am!

Could I turn the previous vanilla cake recipe into cupcakes? Just bake for less time. Should be okay, right?

There are other ways to "say" happy birthday than putting it on the cake. You could do a banner or balloons which would be very easy. You could do a band around a sombrero for him to wear....that would be adorable IMO. You could pipe "Happy Birthday" onto his plate before giving him his cupcake OR you could pipe Happy birthday with sour cream (you did say Mexican right ) some place creative.

[mamaKristin]

For my DH's party, and when I've done cupcakes before as birthday cake, I've done a candle shaped as the number (or numbers, as the case may be )

I've done decorated cupcakes, with fondant flowers, or edible glitter, or candy toppings…or just smeared the frosting on top. For this last party, I had lemon buttercream, topped with a raspberry, chocolate ganache buttercream with sprinkles (because my girls said it looked too much like dog doo ), and salted caramel, with a caramel drizzle.

[esperanza]

I'm waffling between the costco cake or making cake (well, my mom has offered to make the cake!). Costco seems easier, though I've never tried it. We found someone who can get it for us, so that problem is eliminated. I feel like homemade cake is a little more special. But no way am I going to be making all those flavors, Kristin! I'm super impressed!!

In better news, I did a practice run on the no-sugar cake for ds to eat. It tastes a lot like banana bread. I didn't make the icing, which will make it even yummier. I think (hope) he'll like it, since he does like bananas. I'm going to make a second one for the other young ones at the party.