Baking for My Son's Birthday Party: Tips and Tricks

[kathijenkins]

Here are pictures of the Transformers cake that I made last week for my DS 4th birthday. I think they turned out pretty good. I did an Optimus Prime cake and the All Spark out of cookies and cake. I was going to do a Bumble Bee cake, too, but decided I already had enough cake for the party.

I used the new green lettuce knife for a lot of the cake trimming/shaping and I wrapped wax paper around the apple correr and covered it royal icing to make the barrel things on the bottom by the steps/doors.

WOW!!! Those cakes look terrific! Do you think you could make one for my son & Fed-Ex it here by mid-May??? LOL
Oh, wait...we don't have Fed-Ex here!

 

[fikibiff]

I have a friend who has shipped decorated cakes a number of times and they have all arived in good shape. Of course, they were flat sheet cakes, not 3D like this one, but I am amazed that they got there in 1 piece.

 

[jrstephens]

I found the one for Luke's birthday this year on All Aboard Toys is an online toy store featuring Thomas the Train Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, Disney Pixar Cars, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Sesame Street, Disney Princess, Dora the Explorer and Diego toys and merchandise

I am getting a magazine from Wilton the next time I go to the store. I went to a birthday party this weekend and a girl there had it. It is the 2008 Cake Decorating Book. It has all their pans, molds, and all kinds of stuff in it. I wanted half the magazine just to have in my kitchen!!! It had icing and fondant and different recipes in it. It had every pan you could almost imagine to order too and at good prices.

Here's the book 2008 Yearbook - Wilton

 

[fikibiff]

When we build our new house I am going to have a dedicated cake/cookie cabinet. I need a place to store all of my pans, bags, tips, sprinkles, food coloring, etc.

 

[jrstephens]

So, if any of you have bought the fancy cake pans that are like your kids favorite characters, what do you do after the party? I was talking with a friend about a theme for the twins' birthday this summer, and we were thinking Backyardigans would be fun. But all I can think of to do for the cake is a character cake, for which I would have to buy a special pan. And I am just wondering if there is anything I can do with it after the party? And ideas?

My little boy wants Backyardigans this year too! The only cake pan they have is Pablo. I found it on the webiste I posted earlier. Go to Cake decorating ideas, cake tips, cake decorating articles, cake recipes, photos and more. CakeCentral.com and there are ideas there to do other characters without a special pan. I aslo did a search online for ideas too.

I am a sucker for the character pans though. I am currently pregnant, so, I will save mine for later. A lot of people around here let others borrow their pans and swap them back and forth to help each other out.

Once I do not need them anymore I will probably sale them on Ebay.

Also, they have some CUTE personalize invitations on Ebay for the Backyardigans and matching things like candy wrappers, water bottle wrappers, lolly pop tags and others too.

 

[jbachen]

I saw the Pablo cake there... I have one who doesn't like chocolate and one who does, and we usually have a HUGE shindig, so I was sort of hoping to get two different characters, and make one chocolate and one vanilla, but it depends on price. I guess if I can re-coop some of the costs on Ebay it may be worth $25 on cakes, but I have to see where the budget is. I will probably look into those non cake pan ideas you mentioned, too.So, does anyone on here have a Backyardigans cake pan they can lend me?!?!?So, Jennifer, when is your son's birthday?

 

[jbachen]

This is cute, too: http://cgi.ebay.com/BACKYARDIGANS-in-motion-cake-kit-decoration-topper_W0QQitemZ120248693614QQihZ002QQcategoryZ26392QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[jrstephens]

His birthday is July 19th. When is yours?

The Wilton book that I want has some CUTE Backyardigans cupcakes and the toppers. I am sure you could find the topper somewhere else and follow the pics of the cupcakes. You could then do one cake and surroung with the cupcakes and do two different flavors. Luke loved the cupcakes. I think I am going to do them for the adults that will be at the party since the character pans never serve very many.

When I get that Wilton book I can scan you the page and send it to you. I think you could also do a sheet cake and free hand Pablo or any character on top of it. You could do the fondant on the sheet cake to have a smooth background. The Wilton book has the cardboard cake place decorated so cute in the pic too - you could copy all thath.

There are some Pablo pans on Ebay but the ones I saw would cost more than ordering them new.

I usually check Michael's too for pans that I do not have to order and pay shipping.

If you find another character pan let me know. I think you do do just the heads of them with round cake pans. But you may be like me and want the whole body! HA!

I have seen people take the napkin and laminate it and use it as a cake topper in the center of a sheet cake too.

 

[jbachen]

Mine is July 13th. I guess we won't be sharing pans! Oh, I saw a picture of a topper used to decorate a cake surrounded by cupcakes, but it didn't even occur to me to do the cakes in one flavor and the cupcakes in the other. Thanks for the great idea! I am still in the mindset of I-have-plenty-of-time, and will hopefully get out of it and get cracking on this party thing soon. My biggest challenge is that I am in Wave 2, and we are driving to conference! So I will most likely be leaving on the twins' birthday to start the drive! So I need to decide if I want to plan the party for the day before I leave, which might just leave me too wiped out! Big decision here! What would you do? I suppose I could hold the party the week before, but the other benefit is that Grandma can come for the party and stay for the few days I am in Chicago so DH doesn't have to take off from work. But that won't help me be any less wiped out...

 

[jrstephens]

Could you hold it just a few days before, if you did not want to do it an enitre week before? That would give you a day to rest in between. Parties are exhausting!!!! I am one that everything has to be "perfect" - I drive myself crazy when no one else cares, ha!!!!

I am so worried about the Pablo cake! It looks hard and has different colors with the bow tie and the hat. I did see a kit with the dye that is specifically for Pablo that I am going to get. That way you do not have to try to mix or get the right color. I did Clifford last year and had the hardest time getting the red the right shade. I was at Walmart at 11 PM the night before getting more icing!!!!

Let me see if I can find the cupcakes online. They were very simple. They had a topper in the middle with a white background and then 3 plain line circles in three different colors to match.

 

[jrstephens]

This is not the Wilton ones, but these are cute too!

Backyardigans Cupcake Toppers

http://www.nickjr.com/party/cake_finder/backyardigans-cupcakes.jhtml

 

[jrstephens]

Here's the Wilton cake you could copy on a sheet cake

http://www.wilton.com/cake/shapedpans/pdf/2105-7515backyardigans.pdf

 

[jbachen]

I was thinking about this, the one in the upper left:http://cgi.ebay.com/BACKYARDIGANS-Pablo-Uniqua-Birthday-Cake-Topper-Set_W0QQitemZ120251754477QQihZ002QQcategoryZ46281QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemThanks for all the help! We will have to swap pictures of our finished cakes!

 

[Kitchen Diva]

Carolyn, you have an adorable family- and how creative are you? Little miss cake decorating diva!

I'm making a 6 layer Princess castle for my niece's party this weekend. Here is a link to what the cake will (should) look like when I'm done: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50200

I'll take a picture of it when I'm done. I pray it turns out- I've never done anything fancier than a 3 layered checkerboard cake (when you cut it open, there are two colors of cake that make a checkerboard pattern)

 

[jrstephens]

I was thinking about this, the one in the upper left:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BACKYARDIGANS-Pablo-Uniqua-Birthday-Cake-Topper-Set_W0QQitemZ120251754477QQihZ002QQcategoryZ46281QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for all the help! We will have to swap pictures of our finished cakes!

That is cute! I saw one kind of like that at a party not too long ago, just a different theme.

We will definitely have to swap pics!! And we are so close togethen on when the birthdays are. Luke's party will be on his actual birthday since July 19th is on a Saturday. I love getting to have them on the day! If we do not have them on the day, we usually go out for pizza and invite family to go with us on the actual day.

I plan to get the Wilton book this weekend. When I get to work on Monday (I have DSL there) I will scan and post the cupcakes in it for you to see.

 

[jbachen]

That would be awesome, Jennifer, thanks!So how old is Luke going to be? Mine will be 3...

 

[Jennie4PC]

Kacey
That is a way cute cake wish I saw that for my DD's bday. I think I could have managed that.

 

[jrstephens]

That would be awesome, Jennifer, thanks!

So how old is Luke going to be? Mine will be 3...

He will be 4.

 

[jrstephens]

I ended up not getting the Wilton book. It was $11!!! And I could not make myself pay that for a catalog to order out of, ha!!! Especially when that would almost pay for the cake pan, ha!!! And they have all the stuff online to order. I may end up getting it though b/c it had icing recipes and told you what colors to use for the cupcakes and lots of stuff on fondant and different tips and things. I am going to keep trying to find them somewhere online.

 

[Jennie4PC]

I made a few cakes for my friends DD's birthdays. I did copy the ideas off here but I just wanted to show you.

Also dont know if I put this one on here but this was for my DD's 1st birthday

 

[AnnieBee]

Cute cakes Jennie! The frog is just adorable, my DS would just love it! If I'm remembering, that was a Linda cake, right?!

Here are my latest creations! I am having a great time right now taking a cake decorating class, and I'm just a little bit proud of myself!

 

[Jennie4PC]

Those are awsome cupcakes you did a great job. When I move to a busier city I want to take some cake decorating classes.
Yes the frog was from Linda's post.
Also the frosting on the turtle looks kind of sad cause I had it a bit to runny and it was out in the 100 degree heat wich didnt help it much at all.

 

[AnnieBee]

Thanks! BTW, I thought the turtle was pretty cute too, and I guessed that the droops were due to heat . Here's a tip about frosting and heat I learned in my class. If you use crisco instead of butter it will hold up way better to heat and humidity. If you want frosting that looks and tastes good, you can use a mixture, and also you can use a powdered butter flavouring too. It just about kills me to put crisco in frosting, but it really does help for decorating! If you want a recipe I can find one to post, otherwise you can just start by substituting a bit of crisco for some of the butter. I think there is a recipe on the wilton web-site too. HTH!

 

[Jennie4PC]

Thanks Annie that is great information especially since I will be doing another party I am sure outside. 2 of my kids bdays are in Jan the other one is July.

 

[rebeccastt]

Annie,
Those cupcakes are so cute! I'm learning to make those flowers in my cake decorating class right now too. What color(s) did you use to make the green? The combination of the green and white/yellow looks great!Here are the cupcakes I made for my mom, mother-in-law, and sisters-in-law for Mother's Day. Wilton makes really cute cupcake boxes that have a see-through top window for transportation/gift giving that I put them in. They were a hit!

 

[AnnieBee]

Hey Rebecca, those cupcakes are really cute too! Which tip did you use for the leaves? Giving the cupcakes in boxes is a great idea. I don't have ANY family anywhere near here, but my church had a ladies lunch on Saturday, so I made mine for that. I borrowed a Wilton cup-cake stand from a friend, which was so cool, it looked so much nicer than just putting them on a flat plate (and no, I don't have any tiered SA pieces!! LOL!). The colours I use are AmeriColor "soft gel paste food color". They are more gel than paste though! The green was made with a lot of lemon yellow (#107) and a little royal blue (#102). I got them through the teacher of my class, so I'm not sure where else you can buy them. They are nice to work with though. The green was to match the theme colours of the lunch, which were the bright green and hot pink!! We had a spring garden theme, it was really fun!!

So what course are you taking? Definately post more pictures, I love seeing everyones work.

 

[Jennie4PC]

We had someone bring cupcakes to a church thing once and she had them in the chillzane. They looked really nice in there.

 

[rebeccastt]

Hey Rebecca, those cupcakes are really cute too! Which tip did you use for the leaves?
So what course are you taking? Definately post more pictures, I love seeing everyones work.

I used tip #352 for the leaves.

I am taking Wilton's Course 2 through Michaels. My first class in Course 2 was last Thursday. We learned how to make the mums. ) It has been really fun!

 

[AnnieBee]

Rebecca,

I love the 352 tip! I almost did the wilton courses, but the one I am doing is through a local vocational school that also does adult ed. and some fun courses too. It is an 8 week course, and I think we cover wilton 1 and 2 and maybe a bit more. We did the roses/pansies/mums with royal icing last week. I had a hard time with the mums, they look more like sea anemones!! I hope you are taking pictures of what you do, I'd love to see them. My second week we did baby booties, clowns and christmas trees (all on one cake!) but about 5 minutes after I got home the cake slid off my cake carrier base and as I tried to save, it it got smooshed into the back of one of my kitchen chairs. It was completely destroyed. It was pretty funny, but I just couldn't believe that all my hard work was gone just like that!! And I was just about to get my camera to take a picture... At least it wasn't for someones birthday or something like that!

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Annie, you're making me nervous Tomorrow our son commits and signs to the University of Houston which requires a party at school afterwardsSince he is going to be on the track team I'm making a sheet cake with a red border and bought a round cake pan (not like a regular pan) but the 2 halves will make a ball I will be frosting it gray for a shot put.I will do cupcakes and form them in a circle to make a discus. now, I can just see my shotput rolling off the middle of the cake!! I will level it a little and secure it with skewers.