Are Expectations for birthday cakes getting out of hand?

[Yellowmellow2]

More and more I see threads on social media, of people showing photos of incredible birthday cakes (castles, palaces, Disney characters etc), and asking if anyone can make one for their child? When did this become a thing? Is a normal cake not enough any more? People just put so much pressure on themselves.

My mum is an amazing cake maker so she makes my DDs’ cakes. Quite often they have more than one tier but she frequently chooses the design based on a chosen theme. She made my wedding cake too and could more than pass for a professional.

If she couldn’t make cakes, birthdays would be a celebrated with a supermarket buy.

I got a balloon arch kit from Amazon and put it together myself. Looked really good and cost a fraction of the price. I can now just buy new balloons and make another one.

I did pay for a fancy balloon tower for DD’s 7th birthday because it was in lockdown and she couldn’t have a proper party. She loved it.

Not just cakes, but balloon arches, decorations, entertainment. Children will grow up never appreciating anything.

Exactly.

I uSed to make my stable hedgehog cake when mine were kids, it was pinched off Blue Peter. The cake was awesome, the ganache delicious and fresh cream in side with cadburys button “spikes”. When they got older I CBA and it was an Asda cake in whatever was the “in” theme of the time.

no one ever, said my cake efforts were shit, not the kids, the family or friends. And no one eats a supermarket cake I swear.

so why bother with a professional cake?

I have a friend who is a complete cake martyr! She does make lovely cakes for her dcs but spends all day baking and baking til it’s perfect, stays up til midnight decorating. Gets lots of well dones on Facebook which presumably makes it worthwhile. I swear her dcs couldn’t care less either way!

I always buy a professional cake, let my kid choose the theme and ask the baker to make whatever they can in my £45 budget.

Usually gets me jam sponge and buttercream, 8" and a simple-ish design, name, age, with no fondant figures.

Don't like supermarket cake, but certainly don't show off over buying a professional one.

I agree with you Op, i think the over the top birthday cake fad has gone crazy in the last 5/6 years....
I have been to several parties in the last 12 months where the cakes have been crazy extravagant. I guess its a bit of fun.... my kids bday cakes were from Costco tho and they got scoffed :)

We priced up a 9” Victoria sponge with pink buttercream for my birthday. £65!!! Got a £12 one from Sainsburys instead and felt like that was a lot.

I’ve ordered fancy cakes in the past and they were wonderful but can’t justify the price.

Balloon arches piss me off! horrendously bad for the environment

Oh yes! I remember my mum making similar for me! A round cake cut in half and the two halves up-ended and covered with buttered cream. Then halved chocolate buttons were the spikes. I loved it!

I think it varies based on people's businesses and creativity skills, plus with shows like America has with baking cakes to a high quality designs etc.

I stopped buying or making cakes for parties when I spotted that it was the mums rather than the children eating them

Mini Swiss rolls went down well. Birthday cake was a big waste of money - for both DC

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cake_Boss

I think substance matters more than style. DD19 makes all ours. They taste amazing and look pretty good too. She goes to a lot of effort (I make hers).

Yes OP, and I'm going to annoy people by saying that in my opinion it's a trend that's popular in a lot the English speaking world but not so much elsewhere.

I make my own for my kids, personally I wouldn't dream of paying £80+ for a professional cake. My three have their birthdays within a month and my youngest are just days apart so I often make my eldest one, then three weeks later I make my two youngest for their actual birthdays plus a joint one for their party, within a week. I tend to be 'birthdayed out' by the end but I do love to do it and they love the surprise of seeing their cakes. However that is because it's now their expectation, which is down to me 😅 I wouldn't have it any other way though 😍 I don't think they even know professional cakes exist!

I always make a cake of the birthday DC's flavour choice in a bog standard cake shape. We go to the supermarket to choose a themed one to have with their friends.

The bog-standard supermarket cakes (and home-made sponges) are so much easier to cut op and wrap in a paper serviette to stuff in a goody bag to take home. Those huge fancy onces with loads of layers and gooey creamy fillings must be a nightmare, and make a reall mess.

It's a significant birthday for me soon, and I want a supermarket one!

I make cakes, recently made 2 cakes for a one year old, one to eat, one for a cake smash, £150! One of my employees knows the lady and said she's not well off but does post on Instagram a lot.

Obviously, I'll take the business but it amazes me what people will pay!

I think it was always normal to get a cake made. We had a few in the eighties and my parents weren’t flush with money.

What the hell is a cake smash? Please tell me that people don’t pay money for a fancy cake, and then actually smash it 😱🤷‍♀️

Oops, quoted the wrong post! Still want to know what a cake mash is though!

I made this one for DS last year, it’s this recipe and his nursery have asked for a rerun this year as they all loved it. So easy and it tastes fab!

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070/amp

my mum had the Cadbury chocolate fingers cake book when we were kids (which she has recently given to me) so we had houses and all sorts all decorated with chocolate fingers!