What cake/cupcakes for 7yo birthday? Not a confident baker!

[EmGee]

A friend was supposed to be making the cake but is unable to.
Any ideas what is the easiest thing to do? I thought cupcakes and chocolate crispy cakes (as these are easy to do but go down well).

I can manage the cupcakes but will struggle with the icing. Last year made some for DD2 and even bought tubes of ready made icing that supposedly just squeeze out of the tube - hopeless, the tubes ripped and the icing went everywhere. It wasn't a great success and the kids didn't like the icing.

Looking for foolproof ideas for a novice baker (buying a cake not an option as not in the UK).

Instead of icing you could try using melted chocolate instead for the fairy cakes. Really easy to spoon over (so no cake crumbs/ripping).

To melt it, there's no need to faff with bain maries or microwaves - basically just put the broken-up chocolate and a small piece of butter into a saucepan over the lowest heat you have and stir until done. Spoon over.

For a larger cake, I'd add a dollop of golden syrup to the chocolate mixture once melted and beat it in until glossy. Then just pour straight from the saucepan over the cake. It will run in drips down the side, but they will look like the 'right' sort of drips IYKWIM?

If you want to decorate further, have the children add a few smarties, or hundreds and thousands or fondant/sugar paste shapes while it's setting.