Bake with Ease: 5 Tips for a Stress Free Kids' Birthday Cake

As parents, we understand the joy and excitement that comes with celebrating our little ones' birthdays. We also know that the thought of baking a cake from scratch each year can feel very overwhelming.

So today, we've teamed up with Ash from Bake it by Giovannellis   who will be sharing her top tips to help you to create a kids' birthday cake with simplicity and ease - no stress required!  These great tips along with some of our favourite easy decorating ideas will make it easy for you to create a kids birthday cake for any age that will steal the show. 

By keeping it simple the focus can be on the smiles and laughter on your child's face when they see their birthday cake. And not all the wrestling with complicated recipes or stress-induced cake making disasters!

Cake Mixes Are Your Friend

Who says homemade cakes have to be made entirely from scratch? We're going to let you in on a little secret – cake mixes can be a lifesaver!

They taste just as good as making the cake from scratch without all the hassle, stress, and trial and error of finding a recipe that works.  They sure make the whole process so much quicker and easier with less ingredients to find and buy too!

Bake Ahead of Time and Freeze

Your freezer can be your best friend when it comes to baking & will save you so much stress and time on the day. We all know as the party date gets closer the stress levels and things to do list, increase dramatically.

Cakes can be frozen up to 3 months in advance, so you can make them weeks ahead of time (when you actually have a moment spare!) and save a whole lot of stress closer to the day.

Simply pop your baked and cooled cake in a container and put it in the freezer. The container helps to protect the cake from freezer burn, and drying out. You can also wrap it in clingwrap and foil if you don't have a container large enough.

Ash (Bake it by Giovannellis) has a great blog post on how to do this in more detail HERE.

Freezing the cake in advance is also a great time saver if you are making more than 1 layer of cake, so you will have it all done and ready to decorate closer to the day.

When you are ready to decorate simply take the cake out to defrost leaving in the foil for about 10 mins to absorb any moisture.

Icing up the Birthday Cake

When making your kids birthday cake you can make your buttercream frosting a couple of days ahead of time too. Just pop it into an airtight container into the fridge. When you are ready to use it, take it out of the fridge ahead of time and give it a good mix to make sure it’s all still nicely combined again.  

Then, all you have to do on the day (or the day before) is just decorate. No last minute baking and  mess trying to make icing at the last minute. It can all be  done ahead of time, so all you have to do is put it together. It really will make things less stressful, and  you will might even actually be able to enjoy making the cake as well. 

 

Rainbow Cake Topper by  Suger Pop Lane 

Think About Your Cake Decorating Choices 

We have all seen that amazing cake that looks simple enough to do - until you try it! You can quickly realise why professional cake makers charge the prices they do. As it turns out its much trickier than it looked! But this doesn’t mean you can’t create a cake that your child will love and looks beautiful too.

Stick to what you know how to do -  or practice first. If you haven’t ever used fondant before, the day of your child's birthday maybe it isn't the best time to try it out.

If you are wanting to add piping with a piping tip, but you haven’t used it before (or you feel your piping could improve), then practice first. Get a piece of baking paper and practice piping on that. You can easily scrape the buttercream off the baking paper when you are finished so it isn’t wasted. And you will feel way more confident when it is time to decorate.  

 

Personalised Cake Topper by Vizzy and Co Creative

Keep It Simple

When it comes to baking your own kids birthday cake the most important step is - keep it simple.

Instead of trying to get perfectly flat buttercream with sharp edges -  try a watercolour or paint style cake, or a textured buttercream look. These looks actually benefit from not being perfect, so will be easier for you to achieve.

Some other easy decorating ideas that are simple to do but give the "wow factor"

- Decorate with smarties/lollys - to make a candy cake or a rainbow cake out of smarties sorted by colour.

- Add a fancy topper to a plain cake.

- Use a small toy as a cake topper, small animal figures or little cars/ diggers. These are a simple but effective way to bring a favourite item into the decorations without spending any extra money.

 

Edible Wafer Paper Butterflies From Flourn Butter

 

Most importantly - don’t worry about being perfect, your child is way more excited that they have a pink cake with sprinkles rather than perfectly straight buttercream and most people are so impressed you made a cake yourself, they will think you are amazing. 

 

Planning a kid's party and need some easy ideas to entertain the kids?

See our blog post HERE - 10 Fun party games to play with no prep needed.