Making birthday party cakes does not have to be a complicated process.  If the thought of baking a cake from scratch, making your own icing and then having to decorate the cake scares you, don’t worry,  There are heaps of ways you can make this process simple and fun.

You don’t need extraordinary baking skills, you don’t need to have done it before and you don’t need practice.

Before we start with the ideas though, you still need to have done some basic research on the type of cake you will make and the theme or character it will have.

Here are 3 simple ways to make your own birthday party cakes, even if you’ve never baked before in your life.

1.  Hire a cake tin in the shape of the cake you want to make.  When hiring, ask what quantity of cake mix is required and buy the required number of packet mixes to fill the cake.  If you like, you can have a go at making your own birthday cake recipe.

After selecting the type of icing you will use and icing the cake, it is time to get decorating.  One of the easiest ways to do this is with lollies or candy – they are a cake decorators best friends.  Choose whatever seems most appropriate and have fun filling out the features on the cake and giving it its own character.

2.  The second option is rather than bake a cake in a particular shape, just go for a good large square or rectangle tin.  The beauty of a big tin like this is you have a big slab to start from.  The cake size is large enough for any design and can be cut and molded to whatever theme is being created.

Alternatively (and the easiest way), the slab can be left in one piece.  In this case, once the cake is made and iced, you don’t have to do anything too complicated to make it totally unique.  Try using cake toppers or lollies to create an original birthday cake.,

An example of a birthday party cake created this way is shown below.  This is an Ice Age 3 themed cake.  The cake has small Ice Age Figures representing the characters over the top (and these were a great giveaway/take home for the kids once the cake was cut).  Special dinosaur shaped sprinkles were used for extra decoration and and some ‘parsley trees’ added.

3.  Now if the thought of still having to bake and ice your own cake is still too much, this last option is for you.  This is the ultimate in easy cake making and basically involves store bought cakes.  It doesn’t just have to be plain slab or round cake, it could also be cupcakes, swiss rolls or even lamingtons.  All of these can be put together to make fantastic birthday party cakes.

For example, cupcakes can be arranged and decorated in a  particular them eg flowers, rainbows, numerals.  Swiss roll cakes make particularly good snakes or rockets.  Lamingtons can be arranged to make a train or building.  So if baking an original cake is not your thing, or perhaps time is a limitation, this is the perfect solution.

Making a birthday party cake can be as complicated or simple as you need.  If simple is the way for you, use one the ideas above and your birthday party cakes will be a great success.