Easy homemade kids birthday cakes - recipe and decoration ideas

At this time of year, our family celebrates a lot of birthdays. Over the next few weeks, everyone in our household will celebrate their birthday, plus a few other relatives will too. Me and my eldest son even share a birthday. The other thing we all have in common is that we all love cake too!

I love baking and although I may not be the best baker or indeed the best cake decorator, in the world, I do love baking and making birthday cakes. A homemade cake is one of my favourite birthday gifts to give. So in this post, I'm sharing a tried and tested, very simple sponge cake recipe and method, and also some of the simple birthday cake creations I've made over the past few years, just using sweets and chocolate to decorate the cakes. They may not be award-winning designs but they have always gone down well with my boys and their friends.

Easy homemade kids birthday cakes - recipes and ideas

When the boys were little I just chose a birthday cake for them decorated with whatever they were into at the time, however, in recent years they've wanted to get more involved so I’ve let them choose the design. They have tested my creativity I can tell you by choosing Star Wars characters, sport, video game characters and even drawing their own designs. Yes, I love a challenge.

Birthday cakes are a great centrepiece for a birthday party or celebration – but that doesn't mean you have to spend hours in the kitchen. I cook a basic sponge cake recipes, usually chocolate, and then I often use sweets to decorate and create an image on a cake. I have spent quite a long time walking up and down the sweetie aisle in a supermarket deciding on the perfect toppings for my cakes. 

Sponge Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 125g/4oz butter, margarine, or dairy-free spread (softened)
• 125g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 125g/4oz self-raising flour or 3oz flour & 1oz cocoa powder

Method

1. Turn the oven on and set to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Prepare the baking trays – I usually use two round trays and use dairy-free spread and flour to stop the cake sticking
3. The in a bowl cream the butter and sugar together with either a wooden spoon or hand mixer, before beating in the eggs.
4. Next, sift the flour & baking powder into the same bowl and fold into the mixture
5. Finally, put an even amount of mixture in each cake tin and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. To check if its ready I use a metal skewer – if it comes out clean its done
6. Let it stand for a few minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool.
7. And then decorate ...

This year I’m just waiting to see what is in store for me but if you are looking for the best birthday cake to bake? Here are some I’ve made over the past few years.

Snake Birthday Cake

I think it all started with a Snake Cake. Rather than bake to separate sponges, for this, you simply fill bun cases, bake and then decorate with butter icing and Smarties, with some liquorice for the tongue. This was also great for parties as the cake was already portioned for party-goers, I just had to make sure there was enough for each guest.

Spider Birthday Cake

I'm not sure if my youngest was going through a Spiderman phase but he was adamant that he wanted a spider cake for his 6th birthday. So with some Minstrels, gain flumps and liquorice this is what I came up with.

Cat Birthday Cake

Not to be outdone his older brother decided on a cat cake.Again chocolate icing, minstrels and ice cream wafers for the whiskers, is what I used.

Football Match Cake

Aged 7 and my youngest was into football and wanted a full match depicted on a cake. With giant flumps, jelly babies and aero it didn't look too bad.

My Singing Monsters Cake

My eldest came up with a new challenge next, he wanted a character from My Singing Monsters. I hadn't even heard of it, so had to find a picture (below) and with icing, cherry lips, milk bottles and liquorice, recreated it as best I could.

Butterfly Birthday Cake

Last year the boys chose different cakes for their birthday parties and also had an 'on the day itself' cake. This meant two each. First up was a butterfly cake, symmetry was the key and brightly coloured sweets and liquorice helped me out.

Boy's Own Design  Cake

My youngest then wanted to design his own birthday cake and this is what he came up with. It wasn't perfect but this cake was also dairy free, as we used Skittles instead of Smarties.

Star Wars Cakes

Not to be outdone my eldest, a big fan of Star Wars picked two Star Wars characters, Yoda and BB8 for his cakes. Lots of marshmallow, sweets, and again liquorice was used this time.

And a cake for hubby

I was really into baking cakes last year and created another one for my hubby. He's a big fan of Batenburg, because of the marzipan, so I made a chocolate and vanilla Battenburg style cake, with dark chocolate and cherries. Dairy free, if I'd found something to replace the eggs it would also have been vegan too. Maybe this year ...

Lovehearts & Cola Bottle Cakes

Just thought I'd share this one too in case you need ideas. We also did some fundraising for the school last year and cupcakes with Lovehearts or Cola Bottles on top were a big hit!

2018 Birthdays ...

So what about baking birthday cakes in 2018. The boys are getting that little bit older now and I was worried that they may be embarrassed to share a homemade mummy cake with their friends, but no. The still want a cake. My eldest is still pondering as to what but my youngest has already drawn his design (below). It will need to be dairy-free so I'm thinking marshmallows for the clouds and Skittles for the rainbow ... this year's cake challenge is here!

What kind of cake is your favourite?

Deb x

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