Kids Birthday Cake Ideas

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These kids birthday cake ideas are great for when you're short on time, or just want a fun, frugal kids birthday cake to feed a classroom or just your family.

You don't need any special decorating skills, or even any special pans or supplies to make celebration cakes that your family will love and remember as some of their best birthday memories.

How to Save on Store Bakery Cakes

When it comes to birthday cake ideas the least expensive cake is one you make yourself, but sometimes your kids have their hearts set on that cake they see in the grocery store. Sometimes you can purchase a special pan and pull it off yourself, but if you don't have that kind of time (or skill) the store bought cake may be your best bet.

photo courtesy Lizespo

My son wanted a Lightening McQueen cake for his 6th birthday, but the ready-made 1/2 sheet cake in the grocery store was $22 . (He wanted the toy that came as a cake topper). I didn't need a cake that big and I didn't want to spend that much.

I called a couple of days ahead of time and explained what I needed.The decorator just made a few changes to the design and put the same little toy car on top of our cake. My cost was $14. This doesn't always work but it never hurts to ask for what you need, especially if you give the store some time to try to accommodate your birthday cake idea.

Homemade Birthday Cakes

There are tons of scrumptious birthday cake recipes on the net, but I'm going to say something here you probably won't see too much.

Use a boxed cake mix....Yes I said it. It's OK to use a boxed cake mix.

If you bake scratch cakes all the time, then yes, it's cheaper to do it that way. But if all you need is a birthday cake, and money is tight, just buy a boxed cake mix and a can of frosting. Follow the directions (most require eggs, water, and/or oil to be added) and you're practically guaranteed a yummy cake for less than $5 in most cases.

Boxed cake mix is great if you don't like to bake from scratch. It makes the process as painless as possible.

if your child is going to celebrate in the classroom.

Use sparkling sugars, confetti sugar or edible hard sugar decorations to decorate the cake. You can also buy little tubes of gel icing and write your celebration message on the cake. If you're unsure about how to do it just stick to block lettering and practice on wax paper first. You can also let your kids help decorate the cake. There is nothing prettier than white icing sprinkled with sugars and nonpareils.

photo courtesy Skweaky21

Check out your kids toys for decorating kids birthday cake ideas. Using small toys like Hot Wheels, Polly Pockets, Action Figures, or any favorite figurine is another fun and easy way to decorate a cake.

If you have some time and would like to try your hand at creating a themed cake based on your child's favorite cartoon character there are tons of character cake pans that will bake the cake in the shape you need then you decorate with a pastry bag and a few simple decorating tips.

You'll need to mix and color your own icing but that's a snap too with a simple buttercream icing recipe, and some food color.

Learn-Cake-Decorating.com has a free tutorial on how to use cake decorating patterns for super easy kids birthday cake decorating.

Visit Coolest-Birthday-Cakes.com to be inspired by photos of thousands of kids birthday cake ideas.

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