31 Simple Solutions :: Cake Cheating

Are you anything like me and when your kid’s birthday rolls around you want to be Super-Mom and bake them this beautiful, customized, one-of-a-kind cake? But….between diaper changes, milk spill clean ups, and late for nap time meltdowns, you find that you need to run to the store for a gift, go back because you forgot the card, go a third time because Christmas wrapping paper is all you have on hand…{etc}…and so you ditch your Pinterest cake dreams and go for the first cake you see in the store’s bakery {surely your son won’t mind those roses and daisies!}?

Anyone else been there?

When T turned 1 {remember he’s my oldest}, I baked him a cake {homemade icing and all} and shaped it into a frog. Cute!

When T turned 2 I had plans to bake him a cake and carve and decorate it to look like a car. At that point I had a 2 year old and a newborn. Not a fun combo when it comes to baking customized cakes!

And…when I tried to get the cake out of the pan…Can you guess? It was stuck. I guess I didn’t grease the pan well enough because that cake had to be pried out in chunks. Not exactly the car cake I had imagined. And of course, there was no time {or patience} left to try again. So here’s when we ended up with…

After that cake fail, we resorted to picking cakes out at the grocery store cooler. Not so exciting, but at least there wasn’t a hassle!

{Mr B’s 1st birthday cake.}

Now – if you love baking your kids cakes and you can do it and keep you sanity – fantastic!

But if you’re like me and it’s just too much as this point in your life, please give yourself grace and buy the store bought cake! I felt like such a failure as a “cool” mom when I gave in and bought them at Publix. But really…it’s not a big deal! My kids had a more relaxed mom on their birthdays instead of a frazzled mom trying to bake and ice and decorate their cakes.

T’s 3rd birthday cake was actually leftover wedding cake from my sister’s wedding the day before! We were in Nebraska and enjoyed it in the hotel lobby. You do what ya gotta do! {Isn’t that cake plate amazing!? Lol!}

But if…you’re like me…and you’d still like your kid’s birthday cakes to be slightly customized without the hassle of baking and icing yourself… lean in a little closer…here’s a simple solution I’ve learned…

Let the store do the hard part, and you do the fun part!

At Publix {and I bet other grocery stores will do the same}, I can order a cake and tell them not to decorate it. No balloons, no roses, no loop-dee-loops, nada. And then I take it home and decorate it!

So far I’ve kept it simple. But you could do whatever you want!

For Miss M’s birthday in November, I asked them for a plain cake iced in ballerina pink. When I got it home, I stuck white candy melts all over for a polk-dot look and put edible pearls around the bottom. So sweet and pretty! Customized and easy!

Here’s a close up…

I served it with cupcakes to make it go farther.

For Mr B’s birthday in June, I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. His answer – white cake with chocolate chips and sprinkles. So… I asked for a vanilla cake iced with brown {which was chocolate buttercream} and asked them just to do a little border around the bottom.

I did want his name on it, so when I picked it up, I showed them exactly where I wanted them to write.

I was gonna do sprinkles, but thought I’d go with a construction theme. {And he was totally fine with not having sprinkles.} So I picked up a small dump truck at Toys R Us, mashed up some Oreos, and loaded the Oreos and chocolate chips into the truck and dumped it!

Easy, easy, easy, easy, easy!

But…. Soooooooo cute for a little boy’s cake! Mr B LOVED it!

My mom and sister thought Publix had decorated it. How about that?!

When T’s 6th birthday rolled around in July he wanted Army men and a boat. Huh… I realllly wanted  a sail boat, but here’s the boat Nolan picked out.

So here’s where we ended up.

T loved his cake!

The sky’s the limit!

So, Super-Mom, there’s my secret, simple solution for easy, customized birthday cakes. Some might call it cheating, but I call it smart.

And if this idea is still too much for you – give yourself the grace you need! Buy a cake, buy cupcakes, buy Oreos and milk. A cake will last for a day or two {maybe}, but a mom who loves them on their birthday is the most important thing!

What do you do for your kids birthdays? Got any other creative “cake” alternatives or ideas? Have you made anything cute for a birthday? I’d love to hear!