To not understand why

[ineedsomeinspiration]

people can't just make their own child's birthday cake anymore. It seems to be the current trend to pay someone a stupid amount of money to make a huge elaborate cake for your child. What the hell happened to a chocolate cake with some smarties on the top or a really bad attempt at Thomas the Tank Engine.
I know someone who recently had a great big three tier affair for a second birthday fgs!

Asda do a fantastic Minion cake Momagain1

I make my own kids birthday cakes

any excuse to make a giant elaborate daft attempt at something!
I dont outsource that sort of fun
am not a professional but am pretty good at cake decorating

Ds1 had to have the first few made so they were egg, dairy and soya free. They still need to be soya free, so it's simpler to make than shop around as so many mass produced cakes have soya flour. I'm converted to the taste of homemade now. It's a oneway process.

I paid someone to make my sons cake, he was 2 it was in the shape of a minion sitting down with a party hat and a slice of cake. Why? Because I wanted a good cake that tasted nice. Not the dry ones with the horrid dry icing on from the shop. Plus It was made in the flavour i my ds liked with rainbow icing.

Seeing as a big cars ones cost £20 in asda paying £70 for a cake that looked lovely tasted sublime and fed 30 and had 30 matching cupcakes it was well worth it!

This was his cake, he knew what It was and he liked it. I'll do the same for his cars birthday next year too

My cakes are always a dismal failure. I am actually a very good cook but not with cakes and biscuits. We buy our cakes because it's easier but they aren't expensive designer ones.

I love making birthday cakes, although when my ds asked for an ice cream cake, what a disaster. It was the absolute ugliest thing you have ever seen. Still chuckle thinking about it. Had to bin it and buy one. I will NEVER attempt that one again.

Kids do remember their cakes - I certainly do!
If parents can't bake/ice (I can bake but I certainly can't ice or decorate it properly!) or work full time or even have children at home, or children with SN or they just don't want too why shouldn't they buy a cake? If a cake has been made for that day I have always found they are fresh compared to shop brought ones personally

Wrapped...what an amazing cake. I would have paid for that one. Very cool (even if he wont remember it since he was 2) but you have picture to show him when he is older. Awsome!

Some threads just stink of jealousy. This is one of them.

I home make every cake and every bun every year. I would love to be able to nip to Asda or Tesco for one, but due to allergies (egg and nuts) I have to make them from scratch using egg replacers.
The kids love it as they get to design their cakes every year, so it does have that up side.
I understand why other parents buy from professionals, a nice cake without the stress and mess in your own kitchen? Apart from the price tag I see the appeal!

The cake is the most important bit for my boys! Far more memorable to them than the presents. They are all homemade by my friend, in his home kitchen. Because if I made them they would be crap!

I always make a cake. But the cake at the party is often bought as I can't bear the idea of making a delicious cake which dries out in a napkin before being squashed and binned. The homemade cake gets eaten by the family on the actual birthday.

I work long hours and DH often works weekends. I make cakes when I can but most years just organising presents and a party is hard enough. YABU. We all have to cut corners sometimes.

My 6yo kept trying to persuade me to do a fancy character cake for DS2's 2nd birthday. I told him that DS2 would get a plain round chocolate cake, same as he did for his first 4 birthdays. He's only had themey cakes (as best as I can manage, anyway) since his 5th birthday. He's tested me a little - the first one he wanted Bumblebee (except he meant the transformer, I told him that was a no go so did a honey cake shaped like a real bumblebee - he was ok with it); and the second one was a tree frog - not too bad. This year he wants Toothless. I can do that - but it will only be the head!

People putting smarties etc on top of sponge cakes, how do you stick them down?

Oh, erm, and YANBU I don't understand it either. What the cake looks like is important for the duration of "happy birthday". All that money for less than 30s.

Everyone I know makes them. They really look down their noses at cakes bought in Tesco. Of course they have to put loads of pictures of their homemade cakes on FB. I think they would consider themselves huge failures if they had to buy a cake.

I sometimes bake, sometimes buy. I don't think it's a big deal. I will buy DD's birthday cake as she wants an ice cream cake but will make the Christmas cake as I saw a really cool recipe in a magazine that looks within my abilities.

My kids are really picky so they care about the flavour more than the design. If they want a character cake I can just buy some plastic figures to stick on the top.

I can completely get why people buy them, when I think of the hours I've put in on 10 birthday cakes now the money would of been well worth it!

But mine love that I make the cake, we plan it together, buy the ingredients and decorations together and they tell all their friends that Mummy made it. Although they are getting more complicated, DS1s 6th birthday this year was a lego chima cake - DH and I spent 4 hours on a Friday night making fondant icing lego pieces and figures, there was a lot of swearing and gin.........!

Haven't seen a homemade cake in over 18 months though, where we live everyone has an entertainer, catered food and elaborate cake. I'm not sure if people were delighted or disappointed by my home made picnic in the garden with musical statues run by DH!

Zumzee you can use buttercream icing and then they stick to it really well. If you are using royal icing you can just put a blob of icing under the smartie like glue.

Kids don't remember tesco cakes, you're right. They do remember home baked ones though

YABU! For starters, lots of people do still make their own children's cakes. I make my sons' cakes because I love baking, I love decorating them, I love making a mess in my kitchen and DH loves clearing up after me ... Lots of people don't like baking, don't have the time, don't want the mess, don't want the hassle - and like to pay people to make them or buy them from Tesco because they want their children to have funky birthday cakes.

What's not to understand about the fact that we all make different choices, all equally valid?

Oh and just because I can:
TIE fighter, Lego bricks and Spiderman. Not shop bought perfect but oodles of fun to make and my boys loved them. And licking the bowl out :)

This year may be more challenging, DS2 has asked for a karate dojo cake...

Has anyone made a car cake before or is that too ambitious?!

The only shop bought cakes worth eating are from M and S. Supermarket cakes are all style and no substance, taste bland and have a weird texture.

I have always made DD's cake, except for her third birthday, when I bought a chocolate train from M and S. As a result slices of supermarket cake in party bags that DD brought home always ended up in the bin because DD just didn't like them.

Girl - a car cake for you :)

I always make DDs cakes because we don't like the taste of supermarket cakes, and I don't like the preservatives they put in them. Sometimes she has plain cakes covered in sweets, other times she has fancy 'look at me' cakes - this year I did a rainbow piñata cake which she loved and was really easy to make.