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Kid Birthday Cake Idea Collection - Cake Decorating Without Fear by: Patricia B. Jensen Our kid birthday cake idea collection makes cake decorating fun and fearless. You don't have to be a pastry chef to create a professional quality cake for your child's birthday or other special event. Learn unique and easy cake decorating ideas to make spectacular homemade cakes. Party Cake Concept and Design - The most important kid birthday cake idea is choosing a cake concept which fits with your party theme. You can start with a simple sheet cake topped with small toys or figures, or piece the cake itself to form a unique design. For example, a Construction Party cake could be topped with tiny toy dumptrucks and bulldozers pushing a chocolate chip mountain. Or, the cake itself could be cut, pieced and frosted to look like a dump truck. For a Train Party, set a miniature choo-choo train on licorice tracks atop your cake, or line up several brightly colored frosted loaf cakes to form train cars. For a Luau party, a simple round or sheet cake can be festooned with a silk flower lei, or form a string of cupcakes in a circle and adorn each one with silk or frosting flowers. Connect with a licorice string to make a cupcake 'lei'. Baking cakes in an oven-safe glass bowl or in this special 3D sports ball pan is great for making any kind of perfectly round ball cake, or the dress part of a Barbie doll cake. This wonder mold cake pan makes small single serving doll cakes and other cute creations! Think of the design you'd like to make and what shapes you need to make it - round, sheet, loaf, cupcakes, or a combination. Peruse cake decorating books for a kid birthday cake idea which fits your needs. Many books provide templates for cutting and piecing cakes to create any number of popular designs. You decide just how simple or challenging your cake will be. For a no-fuss kid birthday cake idea, apply an edible cake art image to the top of a frosted cake. Many popular themes and copyrighted images such as Disney are available to provide a professional looking cake design. Themed cake pans are another popular cake decorating option. They provide the shape and visual design to follow for an impressive finished cake. Popular TV and cartoons characters are well represented in cake pans, as well as teddy bears, butterflies, pirates, Tigger, Mickey Mouse, and lots more. Frosting Choices - Homemade Frosting - Dig up that famous family recipe or check out one of the many online recipe sites like Cooks.com and make your cake frosting from scratch. Be sure to plan ahead how much of each color will be needed for both basic foundation and decorative trim. Canned and Tube Frostings - Easiest and quickest, prepared canned frostings are available in grocery stores in the baking aisle with the cake mixes. They generally come in white, chocolate, and a handful of other popular flavors. Keep a few ready-to-use tube frostings on hand in various basic colors to add the finishing touches. Fondant Frosting - Gaining in popularity in this country in recent years, fondant frosting gives a beautiful smooth finish to your cake decorating creation. Fondant can be rolled out and draped over a cake, poured on as a glaze, or sculpted into shapes. It is easily tinted, and can be flavored as well. Ready-made fondant is available through party supply outlets. There are also many recipes online for homemade fondant. (Enter the term 'fondant recipe' in the Google search box at left under the navbar.) Cake Decorating with Candy and Small Toys - Cookies, candies, and other materials can be used for special and impressive effects. Frosted sugar cones can serve as the fins on a space ship cake or the turrets on a castle cake. Make a surprise cake filling with jello. A wide variety of plastic stand-ups or cake toppers are available in craft stores. Or, simply use a toy which fits in with the party theme as a cake topper and give it to the party child when the party is over. Action figures, small dolls, animals and cartoon characters all make good choices. Add cool candy accents with M & M's, licorice pieces, licorice whips, animal crackers, oreo cookies, paper umbrellas, pretzel sticks, tootsie rolls, jimmies, gummies such as worms, bears, etc, gumdrops, mini marshmallows, colored coconut, jellybeans. The Latest Cake Decorating Fads! There are many novel choices for placing the finishing touches on your party cake. Dress it up in style with one or more of these unique special effects: Spray Color Mist - is a fun addition to your baking repertoire. Frost your cake white, then spray on edible color from an aerosol can. Available in many colors, it can be used with stencils to make unique designs, as a highlight to whipped topping - even on your child's mashed potatoes! Luster Dusts - are an edible food safe 'dust' which can be used on any frosting recipe that dries hard and firm to the touch. Brush it on white frosting for a metallic-like glossy sheen or layer it for interesting color effects. Cake Stampers - can be used along with brush-on color for fondant icing. Simply stamp shapes and designs into the finished fondant and tint with brush-on color. Cake Stencils - Place stencil on iced cake and sprinkle edible glitter, confetti sprinkles, or use spray-on color mist. Edible Color Markers - These unique markers are used just like an ink marker. Draw fun designs on cakes, cookies, fondant frosting, even cheese, fruit slices and bread. Decorating marker kits are available for children. Edible sugar-shape decorations, decorative candles, themed cake picks and rings, and edible glitter are all fun tools in your cake baking arsenal. Now you're armed with lots of great ideas for cake decorating success - without fear! Go forth and create... and above all, have fun! For more great cake ideas visit our Kid Birthday Cakes page. Copyright 2005 Kids Party Paradise. All Rights Reserved. About The Author Patricia B. Jensen is a mother of three and kids party enthusiast. She is the webmaster and owner of Kids-Party-Paradise.com - a complete resource for kids party ideas including invitations, cakes, decorations, games, costumes, favors, and food. For all the latest party news, read her Kids Party Blog. This article was posted on August '12
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