For our kids, picking the theme of their birthday party is a very important decision.  And of course the cake is a big part of the celebration.  At first, I considered myself lucky if our party theme was included in selections offered by our local supermarket bakery.  I found out pretty quick that what was shown in the picture is often not what ends up on your cake (I guess that falls under artistic license).  Although the kids initially loved the little plastic trinkets that were scattered on the top of the cake, they were old news by the end of the week and they would get tossed in the trash.  What was getting the decorations, the cake or the landfill?  The next year I began to customize the cakes myself and the decorations were either edible or they were useable.  Here are a few options for decorating your child’s birthday cake:

Order the cake, add your own toy for the decoration

If you already have a toy that you were planning on giving your child as a present, this option is the least amount of work for you, but it could also be the most expensive.  This will work for almost any birthday theme, just take the toy with you when you order the cake and have any frosting decorations colored to match.  We have used the same style of store decorated cake for three separate parties and customized them with the following toys:

• Pirate party: Pirates of the Caribbean pirate ship (and pirate candles).
• Thomas the Tank Engine party: New engine for your little one’s collection placed on a piece of track wrapped in plastic wrap.  Use a bit of sticky-tack or tape to keep the engine from rolling.
• Underwater Adventure party: Scuba diver and treasure chest bathtub toys.

Bake your own cake, use a cake mold and concentrated icing paste

You will need to take the time to bake your cake, but if you watch for those 40% off coupons from your local craft store you can go beyond the basic round layer cakes for less than the cost of a store-bought sheet cake.  Many companies give several cake ideas for each mold, so there is the potential to reuse them for future parties.  A friend showed me the beautiful and vibrant frosting colors you can make using the concentrated icing paste available at many craft stores.  A little goes a long way with these colorings, so I’ve been able to get a lot of mileage from the small containers.

• Outer Space party: Make a Saturn cake from a soccer ball cake mold.  Use extra cake batter for cupcakes (moons, asteroids or stars).  Saturn’s rings are made from melted chocolate wafers (craft store).  Spread melted chocolate on waxed paper in a half circle and let harden.  Slice cake and insert chocolate rings.  Add a bit of frosting to the rings so they stick to the inside of the cake.  Frost planet with base color and add swirls of accent color.
• Crayon Box: I saw this cake at a party several years ago.  The idea came from a cake decorating book, and this is where I learned that you need concentrated icing paste to get rich frosting colors.  Use a rectangular tray to bake the crayon box, cut out a notch for the box top opening, and cover ice cream cones with frosting for the crayon tops.

Bake your own cake, cover cake with fondant

Jump in and try fondant to give your cake a unique look.  Little Red Hen shared an easy recipe for making your own fondant.  Her rocket ship cake turned out beautifully, and after her assurances that it wasn’t that hard to make, I was ready to give fondant a try.  It was pretty easy, I just needed to use a lot of cornstarch to prevent the fondant from sticking to the table when I rolled it out.

• Rocket Ship party: Use a football mold for the body of the cake and cut the fins from a circular layer cake.  Cover body of ship with one color fondant.  Cover fins with accent color fondant.  Place covered pieces together to assemble cake.  Cut out letters with cookie cutters and add cinnamon dots for rivets.
• Monsters vs. Aliens party: Can you guess what movie hit theatres before my son’s birthday?  Turns out fondant is the perfect “cover” for this B.O.B. cake.  In case you’re wondering, B.O.B. is a “gelatinous mass”.  Use a soccer ball mold for the top of the head, and round cake layers to stack up the body.  Offset the cake layers to give the body an irregular shape and place head on top.  Push wooden skewer vertically into cake to prevent layers from sliding.  Note: Cut the skewer an inch shorter than the stack as the layers will compress due to their weight.  Drape with fondant, leaving folds along the base.  Color a ping-pong ball for the eye and push into cake.