Cake Decorating Ideas

Nothing can be more dangerous to your pocketbook than an impending birthday party for your child. Once you’ve decided on theme, and listened to the list of who needs to be invited, you come to the sudden realization that there is just no way you’re going to afford this gala on a shoestring budget. Even shoestrings these days, you think to yourself, cost $2.29 the pair. There’s no question that certain elements really do make the party, the rest is so much icing, so to speak. So, you sit with your youngster and discuss the fine details. How many kids? Any allergies among them? What kind of activities? Cake and ice cream?

Perhaps, just cake. Armed with your favorite cookbook you investigate building the cake from scratch. You’ve watched Ace of Cakes on the Food Channel and decide maybe that isn’t such a good idea. You do find mixes on sale at the grocery store though, and your child thinks everyone just might like chocolate. Okay, so you settle on chocolate cake, get out your mother’s cake pans, read the directions and succeed in getting them in and out of the oven. Two layers, almost perfect, save for slicing that little round top off the layers so you can fill and ice perfectly flat. Your child has some ideas. Crunched up Oreo Cookies, Sprinkles, Hershey’s Kisses, fully wrapped, one per slice. You wonder to yourself if you’ve raised another chef. The afternoon of the party, you and your child decide on one cheap, and tasty solution for the filling — berry jam. Carefully you put the layers together, securing with a couple toothpicks (you’ll have to remove before serving, but at least your cake will not slide apart). Now, for icing. Several packaged icings are available, and this is one area it is better NOT to scrimp pennies. A good icing can really fix a lot of things wrong with a homemade mix cake. Chocolate icing, applied with the proper tool, in this case an icing spreader, will not make a mess, tear the cake, or get all over the kitchen. You’ve built the cake layers on the serving platter, which is a very good idea. Now, iced, it looks beautiful, ready for the party. An aluminum foil kiss on each prospective slice, and it looks very professional. Not that seven year olds will care, but it’s good to have an excellent presentation.

Cost of the cake: $2.00 for the mix, $1.89 for the icing, $1.00 for the jam on sale, and some leftover Hershey’s kisses (negligible). For under $5.00 and a bit of time you’ve saved yourself money over the local superstore bakery, and built an interesting, if unrepeatable memory with your child.

What happened at the party, you ask? The cake was eaten, yea, relished by the crowd, quickly, so that they could play video games. Oh, well, next year maybe it will be Monopoly.

Birthday Cake Decorating On a Shoestring Budget