(877) 387-8831Laura’s post about her son’s first birthday reminded me that I have not shared with you what I learned from my oldest daughter’s third birthday in early April.
Cake Cut Ups
In 3 Ideas for a Low-Cost Kid’s Birthday Party I talked about my love for cake cut ups. I ran into a problem this year because there aren’t enough patterns online to satisfy me. Victoria, the birthday girl, requested a dog cake. Simple enough, I thought. I easily found one pattern and every way I searched brought up links to that same dog cake cut cup and I didn’t like it. I am not geometrically inclined enough to make a pattern myself from scratch, then I had an idea.
I switched my internet searching from “cake cut cups” to “tangrams” and “origami” and their derivations. There are TONS of examples of how you can use simple geometric shapes, that can easily be cut out of a cake, to make everything from ducks to dogs to horses and everything in between.
I found this image of a dog and was inspired.
From the folding instructions I was able to make a pattern that I could use to cut up a 13” x 9” cake into this dog cake.
Victoria and her cousin posing by her cake.
Birthday Party Food
As we have talked before on Pocket Your Dollars, there are lots of ways to feed a crowd on a budget, but they generally require homemade food. I love to cook, but this year I lacked the time to prepare a homemade menu for the party. Simek’s graciously offered me an array of their products to serve at the party and for my family to enjoy otherwise.
We served both meat and vegetarian lasagnas and meatballs with sauce (for some guests with food sensitivities) and bread. I must say that I really enjoyed the convenience of simply having to pop the food in the oven and serve. It freed me up to finish cleaning my house before everyone arrived.
The vegetarian lasagna was my favorite, but all the food was a hit. Simek’s told me that they have recently lowered the prices on their lasagna at local stores and they hope to continue expanding their presence beyond the Midwest into stores nationwide.
Simek’s provided my family with some other foods that we ate on a few busy nights recently including Chicken Kiev, Chicken Cordon Bleu, burgers and more lasagna. For a family that almost never eats cook-and-serve or heat-and-serve foods (except things I have made ahead and frozen or a once-in-a-blue-moon frozen pizza) having these foods on hand kept us from eating out a couple times. Albeit, my homemade food is healthier, but Simek’s products plus the fresh veggies as a side dish and fruit for dessert is still a better overall meal than dinner out.
Your turn: What do you do to give your kids a memorable birthday cake?
***Disclosure: Simek’s provided me with a variety of food products to try. All opinions in this post are mine.
We have made some pretty cool cakes I am alittle crafty not like some but I can handle it my son Hunter turned 4 in April and insisted on a monster cake, it had to be blue and it had to have horns. You know how 4 years olds can be I looked every where for a cake to copy found none but did find cupcakes so I just inlarged the plans it turned out great, wish I could leave a pic. We have made a rocket cake a firetruck, a rainbow,a train set, a few others I'm sure but drawing blanks Its just fun to make them and see how they turn out! My husband even helps some times but he is very picky so its not always as much fun to make them with him lol. Then I always make the food from scratch a lot more work but worth it, we made homeade corndogs for Hunters party also they tasted like the ones from the fair. The boys are getting old enough to help decide what they want for their parties.
I almost never buy a cake for birthdays, usually just make a layered cake or cheesecake (for the hubby's birthday). But now that we have small children who really like decorated cakes, I have begun to dabble in making them. Last year for my 2nd child's 1st birthday, I decided that I was going to attempt to make a puppy cake and just couldn't find any good ideas for making one online. So I started looking on Google images for cartoons of puppies. I found the perfect image. I then copied the image and placed it in a Word document. I enlarged, printed, and cut out the picture; then I placed it on the cake and cut out the shape. I then covered it with fondant and used food coloring to "paint" the cake. I have some pictures on my blog – http://myweeklymenus.blogspot.com/2009/05/birthda….
Using tangram patterns = ingenious! Thanks for sharing! :)
i ordered cakes for my first daughters first birthday. afterwards i felt incredibly guilty that i did not make it. so since then i have been making all the cakes and all the food for my three kids' parties. i usually don't sleep much the night before but it is worth it. we just had a party for my youngest's first birthday. he had a bath/rubber ducky theme. so i made him a ducky "smash" cake using the wilton 3D mold. then for the other cake i made a huge bathtub. i used fondant to make the tub and bubbles, modeling chocolate to make boats and the faucet and chocolate molds to make rubber duckies. it was a hit! i have also done a princess castle, a volcano smash cake, a dinosaur land, dora's map, a 6 car train cake, a carousel and a tiered airplane cake. i try to make the entire cake out of editable items so it becomes a creative challenge sometimes, but i find it fun. the kids LOVE the cakes. they usually do not want to cut into them.
We have a mandate in our household, now on its third generation—-no BOUGHT cakes!!!! It was decided that the birthday person was to be honored correctly, then a made cake was the only appropriate dessert! As a result there is always a scurry to decide what to make. I have done ladybugs, a jewelry box, a fire engine and more. It is most exciting to see what I will get on MY birthday—its my favorite one of the year!
I have been in charge of my nephew & niece's cakes since they each turned 1, and now I do my own kids… I have bought a lot of the Wilton pans, but more recently have been more creative. Especially as the older kids want to help! One of the easiest things if doing a character is to find an image (coloring book or online) – trace it onto wax paper with a sharpie, then turn it over, pipe frosting around the outline of the image. Then put it on top of the cake to transfer the image. Then fill in.
Most recently, my nephew wanted Goldy Gopher. I simply printed an image of Goldy on to cardstock and cut it out, then took it to Kinko's and had it laminated. I drew the Minnesota 'M' on the cake and then stuck Goldy in behind.
Next up I am attempting Minnie Mouse for my daughter's birthday. Cake pans were going for over $50 on ebay, so we're going to be creative with that one too! :)
Making cakes for my kids is always my favorite project. I love the challenge of coming up with something that fits for that year. Lately I have just found a picture online and then use that as a guide. I draw in the frosting with a toothpick first incase i mess up and then decorate away. Some of my favorites have been a cake cut into a dog bone shape for a clifford themed party, a layer cake decorated like a volleyball, R2D2 from star wars (this was the best one). My sons 6th birthday is Saturday and I am going to make legos using loaf pans and mini oreos. Hopefully it will turn out.