To be sobbing over a birthday cake

[meepmoop]

DS is having a birthday party on Sunday so I'm making him a car cake. 2 tiers and everything.

I've spent ages making it as only have space in the oven for one cake. I've just gone to cut the base cake in half and it's not cooked so I've got to do it all again and still need to buttercream and ice it.

I'm literally crying over cake,

Im going to tell you a story about my DDs 2nd birthday cake. She liked rainbows so I decided to do a rainbow cake. Weeks of trials and hours of stress making it. On the day everyone admired it. It looked and tasted fab.

Except Dd doesn't like cake and asked for a digestive. i have a fab picture of all the kids tucking in and DD munching on a biscuit.

I still lovingly stress over her cakes. Icing in a heateave is no fun. Take a deep breath you have plenty of time.

That has happened to me too, I just didn’t serve the bit that included the undercooked section (cut rectangles instead of segments). I have also done a piñata cake and it was fab!

Oh been there! It'll all be ok.

LyingWitch genius! I love ice cream cake 🍰
But you will have to serve it very cold, although not quite frozen....

I've done so many cakes I've forgotten them all. Some were so shit they made me want to cry, but my kids still talk about them now. Tricks I learned over the years: make actual sponges the day before; buy plain sponges if they don't work out and ice them; buy icing where possible and cleaning icing sugar takes forever; icing is like cement- you could glue a house back together with it so do what you need to do with the icing to make it look ok. Decorate it at night, when the kids are in bed. Drink GOOD wine whilst decorating and have good tunes on. Then it will be a pleasure and not a chore. Good luck OP

Honestly it's really not worth the stress and tears. It's way too hot to be in the kitchen stressing out.

Either buy a supermarket one or buy plain sponges to ice and decorate.

If anyone questions you about making your own just say it was too hot and you didn't feel upto doing it.

I feel your pain! I like to make my kids birthday cakes and this year added the icing and all the decoration with the baking paper still on the cake! Spend hours, and didn’t realise until we cut into it! It’ll be a funny story eventually!! X

Some excellent suggestions already. I'd buy about 6 cheap Madeira cakes and cut those into a car-shaped base, then drape ready-made fondant over the shape and use writing icing to draw on windows/handles/headlights.

I used to have a cake business. I've made some very elaborate, fancy birthday cakes in my time. My daughter gets a fabulous cake in a theme of her choosing every year.

Last year her party was not on the date of her actual birthday so I threw together a tiny, 6" coconut cake with a bit of coconut buttercream and loads of sweets stuck in it that I found in the cupboard. Haribo, dolly mixtures etc. It was the work of ten minutes to throw it into the oven and another ten minutes max to mix up a bit of buttercream, spread it on and stick some sweets on top. She is still talking about that cake, it's the best and most delicious cake she has ever had, she wants another one exactly like it this year. She has completely forgotten about the beautiful My Little Pony cake she had for her party.

TL:DR - kids don't care, they only want icing and sweets and to blow out candles. Don't waste your energy fretting about it. Buy a plain cake from a supermarket, spread some buttercream on top, stick some sweets in it, job done.

Pinata cake is the way forward

I bet you dont do another one. Seriously, this is not worth the stress.

I always get the huge, photo traybakes from Asda........it's become a bit of a family tradition between the kids worrying wondering over which baby pic is going to be on there. 🙃

Oh, don’t worry! It will all work out. I learned an important lesson after I insisted on sculpting an aeroplane and clouds out of fondant for my twin boys’ second birthday. They were so overwhelmed by the candles and the singing that they didn’t even notice the lovingly crafted cake topper. Took things down a notch the next year.

I have a reputation for being a decent baker, but when it came to my husband’s birthday this year I just couldn’t face doing the cake myself from scratch with the help of two three-year-olds and a three-month-old baby. I’ve never mastered chocolate cake anyway, so I used a box mix and a tub of ready-made icing. The boys decorated it and it was, genuinely, delicious. I tried to hide the box to hide my shame, but my husband saw it when taking out the recycling. He innocently asked if I’d used a mix for the cake, and I promptly burst into tears.

So I get you. Cake can be so emotional, and it represents your baby turning another year older, plus you’ve got all the pregnancy hormones. But I promise that it’s going to be fine. Also, the Betty Crocker devil’s food cake mix really is delicious.

I made a car cake for G'son's 2nd birthday. I can honestly say it was the most difficult cake I have ever made and it looked awful. Tasted fine but looked dire.

But you know what, he didn't care and didn't notice. Neither will your little boy. He will be so excited and full of blowing out candles. At 2 they don't have any expectations of how it should look/taste.

For future years, you can buy silicone car cake moulds as I discovered far too late!

Op your son won;t care.

Buy a cake from ASDA.

Being pregnant and hormonal in this heat is trying, let alone trying to make a cake. However I would 100% say to you, just go and buy a cake this year do not fret over it. I now make cakes as a living and I tell you, the amount of disasters and trouble we 'pro' cake makers have had over the last few days with the heat and humidity has been horrendous. My Facebook is filled with disasters, melting buttercream, sticky sugar paste, and crys of getting up at 2am in order to work when it is cooler. It has not been pretty!!
If you do need any help however I am happy to answer any questions you have in relation to cakes.

Scoop out the undercooked bit, city with sweets and ice as you would have

This is what bloody Bake off has done to us!!! Piniata cake or Supermarket sponge is def the way to go. Your son will just remember that you threw a nice party for him.

I once asked the local baker to make me some sponge rectangles for a cake and then iced it.. it was cheap, easy and the right size and the sponge was lovely. Plus did you say your Mum was coming round She will sort it out for you. Just make life easy for yourself and take care xxx

This has brought back memories of DH and I staying up until 1am trying to make a silver Vauxhall Zafira cake because DS1 wanted ‘our car’. For some reason we decided that grey was the same as silver and used black food paste colouring, which went all streaky and made us look like corpses from the elbows down. Nightmare.

Make up a mousse/Angel Delight/whisked milk jelly and use that to fill the gap - it's very popular.

Buy the cheap Madeira block/loaf cakes and ice them.

Cut out the middle and make it into a piñata cake.
I'm so jealous. Undercooked cake is one of my favourite things, the other being buttercream

OP it doesn't matter if you said you were making it- you're allowed to change your mind.

Your son would be happy with anything at 2= even a simple donut with a candle would suffice!

Thanks everyone, against the much better advise another cake is now in the oven.

I won't be decorating it tonight though, fresh eyes tomorrow.

I'll post a picture of it when it's done, hopefully it will resemble a car.

Buy a cake and some dinkies, put the cars on top ans decorate around it with sweets. Or buy 2 cakes and use something to make a bridge/ road joining the 2 cakes with dinkies. He is 2 you are pregnant. Cut yourself some slack. People will understand and marvel at your creativity with bought cake decoating