Has your kiddo ever requested a crazy cake that they wanted for their birthday? A couple of years ago my second oldest was all about the Titanic and a few months before his birthday, he was looking at Titanic cakes on Pinterest. Thankfully, by the time his birthday came around, he wanted something different!
Over the course of 10 years of having kids, I have made quite a few cakes. I know I am far from being a professional at making cakes, but I try my best to make something my kids will like. The following cakes are mostly birthday cakes but there is some variety sprinkled in; a Halloween cake, Easter, Baptism, etc. Sometimes I found inspiration on Pinterest and then made them my own. Hopefully my amateur skills will give you an idea to improve upon!
1. Pick-up Truck
This was for my eldest son’s 2nd birthday. As you can see in one of the photos, it got a bit lopsided. We’ll just say that the truck got a flat tire! The cake was chocolate with a Waldorf Astoria frosting. I made the cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan. I cut it in half the long way and that became the bottom of the truck. Then the other half I cut down to become the top of the truck. The rest of the truck details were:
Windows – frosting
Door handles, front and back bumper – aluminum foil
Headlights and taillights – M&Ms
Tires – chocolate covered donuts
License plate with name – wax paper
Driver in the front – printed picture
2. Paw Patrol Cake
My oldest liked this cake so much that I made it two years in a row for his birthday. The cake was strawberry with white buttercream frosting. I had to double the recipe. Half went into a 9 x 13 pan and the other half into 3 eight inch circular pans. I made sure that the batter in each pan was filled to about the same height. I cut a ¼ section out of each circular cake, and then put those 3 sections together to make the fourth circle on the bone.
The first time I made the cake, I found some paper printable Paw Patrol vehicles that I folded and put on the cake. You can find them here: Nickelodeon Parents Crafts. I would recommend printing them on cardstock rather than regular paper. The second time, Paw Patrol vehicle toys that James received for Christmas were used on the cake. I just put those in place of the paper vehicles. Some red and blue frosting for the trim and a printed Paw Patrol logo and the cake was done.
3. First Birthday Cupcakes
I decided to make cupcakes for Charlie’s first birthday party. The colors for the party were blue and green so I bought green and blue fondant and cut out different sizes of stars. With the leftover batter I made a number one as a separate cake.
For the cupcakes I made cut out faces of Charlie using different pictures I had taken throughout his first year. Then I found some party hats and added them on to his cute little face before printing them. I used some scrapbook paper and letter cutouts to spell out happy birthday and to make the sparkly number 1 on top.
Sidenote: That is a homemade cupcake stand. I used cardboard for the circular tray levels and covered it with scrapbook paper then a coat of Mod Podge. Blue ribbon went around the edges and a can of soup was covered in blue scrapbook paper to make the pillars in the middle. Pretty easy if you want to give it a try!
4. Construction Cake
As a 2 year old, Charlie liked any kind of construction vehicle. So we went with a construction themed cake. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting to look like dirt. Oreos were mashed up in the blender to make the darker dirt for the number 2. I printed out a number two from the computer to trace onto the cake with a toothpick because I didn’t trust myself to get it well enough without some type of guide. I found the construction vehicle set at Wal-Mart and the rocks are Bridge Mix. Yellow frosting completed the trim of the cake and to make the road lines on the number 2.
I made a version of the same cake for Henry’s 3rd birthday. To save time, I kept the cake inside of the pan and only decorated the top.
5. Dinosaurs Cake
Like most boys, James had a dinosaur everything stage, and he wanted a dinosaur theme for his cake. We already had some plastic dinosaurs and the trees came with a train set. I made vanilla and chocolate buttercream frosting. The chocolate frosting covered the cake for the ground and the white frosting was for the blue lake, green patches of grass and trim, and to write Happy Birthday and James on the cake tray. Bridge Mix became the rocks.
Finally, the very small volcano which is not at all proportionate to the dinosaurs is a cupcake that I made from the cake batter. I cut out the top to make the classic volcano opening and once it was frosted, put strawberry jam inside to look like lava. It’s a bit sad looking in my opinion but James loved it, which is really all that mattered!
6. Cupcake Tractor
The cupcake tractor used 42 cupcakes. The picture makes it pretty self explanatory. It was a bit time consuming frosting all the individual cupcakes and it took about 3 batches of frosting. We went with a green tractor but you could do whatever color your little one likes best.
7. Transformers Cake
At 6 years old, James was into Transformers so that is what he wanted for his birthday theme. This cake was pretty simple. I actually ended up making it twice because we had two separate parties since only one side of the family could make it at a time. As you can see, we switched up the colors of the bottom of the cake. The Autobot logo was made out of red fondant that I bought. I printed out the symbol and cut it apart for a template. Then I cut the fondant to each of the template shapes and put it back together on the cake.
8. Dirt Cake
At 4 years old, Charlie was obsessed with, of all things, garbage trucks. So, it only made sense for him to have a dirt cake. I used the smallest garbage truck I could find at a store. Then we used the classic gummy worms along with M&Ms, Milk Duds, and Swedish Fish to look like garbage.
9. Pokemon Cake
By his 7th birthday, James had discovered the world of Pokemon and requested that to be his birthday theme. This Pickachu cake turned out super cute in my opinion. For the cake, I used two different sized pans and made two layers for each section – the Pokemon ball and Pickachu.
I had planned to cover the whole cake in frosting using the large tip that was used on the bottom, but I was quickly running out of frosting and did not want to make more. So I decided to just frost the top smooth. In the end, I think it turned out better that way.
I printed out the Pickachu face and ears along with the Pokemon ball piece. Pickachu’s tail is also sticking out the back of the cake. The ears and tail I attached a white candy stick to with tape so that I could stick them into the cake and the stick on the back would help them stay up. The other pieces I just pressed gently into the frosting before it set and they stayed on just fine. The black section on the bottom is black ribbon that I placed around the cake and the frosting helped hold it in place.
10. Easter Dirt Cake
Once my kids discovered dirt cake, they LOVED it. One year I had to bring dessert for my family Easter party, so I decided to make a dirt cake but with an Easter theme. It was pretty easy to do, I just added rabbit Peeps and some candy eggs. Of course all the kids at the party wanted a Peep with their piece. I brought the extras so everyone could have one!
11. Easy Bug Themed Cake
Once I discovered the world of Costco cakes I wasn’t sure if I would ever go back to the stress of making my own cake.
Henry is a boy ALL ABOUT bugs! To personalize this Costco cake that already had a pumpkin on it (Henry is born in November) we added some plastic bugs that Henry had, and I printed out a picture of him from Halloween in his monarch butterfly costume. I added words right on to that picture. Super easy but it also made Henry very happy!
12. Baptism Cakes
I have made this same style Baptism cake for all 5 of my boys. It’s pretty easy to see the decorations from the picture. I used ribbon to make the two crosses on either side of the picture. The pictures were printed onto cardstock and placed on the cake once the frosting had set.
13. Ocean Dirt Cake
I apologize that I do not have a very good picture of this one. Normally I take a picture of just the cake but I guess I did not do that this time.
James wanted dirt cake but he wanted it to look like an ocean. Therefore, instead of using chocolate cookies, we bought the Golden Oreos. That made up the “beach” area. I found a bag of tropical Swedish Fish for the fish (rather than just the classic red), and I used blue food coloring to make the pudding layer on top blue.
14. Easter Bunny Cake
This one’s a tradition. My mom made this cake when I was little and I knew I wanted to carry on the tradition with my kids. Plus, who doesn’t love extra sugary candy on top of their cake? You only need to make one batch of whatever kind of cake you would like. Bake it in two 9 inch or 8 inch round pans. One of the round pans will be the bunny’s face. The other pan you need to cut to make the 2 ears and the bow tie. See the image below.
When I can find them, I use big gum drops for the eyes. Usually M&Ms go around the outside of the bowtie. I color part of the frosting pink for the inside of the ears and the bunny whiskers.
15. Minecraft Cakes
This was a pretty easy cake to make. I love that the chocolate buttercream frosting was supposed to look messy for the block of grass. It was the easiest frosting job I’ve ever done! I made vanilla buttercream for the top and used green food coloring. The secret to this cake was the tip to make it look like grass, which was a large Wilton No. 233. The trick was to make sure to pull straight up as I squeezed the frosting out of the piping bag.
We finished off the cake with Minecraft characters that were printed out and attached to white lollipop sticks.
Tip: You can find Minecraft font and download it to your computer for free. I found the one for these cakes on DaFont.com.
16. Fall Themed Cupcakes
The theme for Henry’s first birthday was a fall theme since he was born in November. I had done cupcakes for James’s and Charlie’s first birthdays, so I decided to stick with cupcakes. I ended up with three different design ideas. Overall they turned out better than I thought even though my “pumpkin” cupcakes were a bit of a flop – literally!
I wanted the pumpkins to be rounded and up. When I couldn’t get that to work, I just went for a flat pumpkin top. I think they still turned out pretty cute. I cut apart Sweet Tarts rope for the pumpkin stem.
Next, the leaf cupcakes were made out of pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. I kept the frosting white and used red fondant to cut out leaves using this really nifty tool: Leaf Stamper.
The turkey cupcakes were chocolate cake with buttercream frosting colored brown. The eyes are made of Oreos with a brown M&M. I cut off the white and yellow part of the candy corn to be just left with the orange for the beak. The tail is a striped cookie with buttercream used to “glue” on the candy corn feathers. I found the idea for these cupcakes here: https://kellystilwell.com/thanksgiving-turkey-cupcakes/
17. Farm Cake
My biggest gripe whenever I make cakes is how hard it can be to get the right color that you are imagining in your head. For this cake the dirt was difficult to get the brown color I had pictured. I didn’t have any brown food coloring so I tried to mix colors to get it right. It ended up okay, but it’s not what I was picturing. After adding so much food coloring, I just called it good enough!
I made the lines in the dirt with a wooden bamboo skewer. I had to clean it off after every swipe and even in between sometimes. The fence came from the same set as the tractor that is on the cake, and the trees came from a train set. Unless you are a purist, I say make your life easier and use what you already have!
18. Halloween Graveyard Cake
I saw this cake on Play Party Plan and knew I had to recreate it for Halloween.
You can find all the directions and recipe here: https://www.playpartyplan.com/halloween-dirt-cake/
Tip: One thing I found was that I did not put nearly enough pudding inside the cake. I thought I was putting in plenty with my syringe but it was not enough. When you are filling it, put in more than you think. We ended up putting the extra pudding on top of the cake and it really added to the flavor.
19. Northern Lights Cake
Charlie is my child that continually really gets into a certain topic. Over the years it has been garbage trucks, the Titanic, tornadoes, dinosaurs, and currently waterslides (to name just a few). Everything he does revolves around that topic – pictures, playing, videos on YouTube!
Last summer Charlie was all about the Northern Lights. I tried my best to create a Northern Lights cake. I thought my attempt was pretty poor but Charlie really liked this cake so that made me happy.
Part of the problem was I find it nearly impossible to get frosting to look black. I do not like the idea of putting lots of food coloring into our food so I usually go for lighter colors. So, to make the night sky, I tried going for a dark blue that ended up being not too dark.
Next, I separated the frosting to make red and green (the colors Charlie wanted the Northern Lights to be). I basically took globs of each color and started smearing them together to get it to look like the lights. During this step, I had to be careful not to mix too much or the colors would blend together and make a new color.
I put green along the bottom to look like the ground. Then I put yellow gel food coloring on a spoon and splattered little specks to look like stars in the sky.
This cake is not one of my best, but I still wanted to include it in case someone else wants to make a Northern Lights cake and you can take this idea and make it better.
20. Praying Mantis Leaf Cake
While Charlie was all about the Northern Lights, last summer Henry was all about praying mantises. We started calling Henry the bug whisperer because of how many bugs he was able to catch, especially praying mantises. He somehow found a tiny praying mantis (probably less than an inch tall) after sunset, in our yard. I never knew there were SO many praying mantises around our house until Henry caught so many!
For his birthday, Henry wanted a cake with a praying mantis on a leaf. I frosted the cake green and then printed out a leaf to cover the cake while piping on the “grass” using the same Wilton tip that I had used on the Minecraft cakes.
When I lifted up the paper leaf, we had a nice leaf impression left on the cake. I added some veins with a knife and put one of Henry’s plastic praying mantises on the leaf and it was done!
More to Come?
My days of cake making are long from over. I’m curious and a bit nervous about what future cake requests I will get. I hope you found something to inspire you. Best of luck on your cake making!