Make, buy or delegate ?!

[strawberryS22]

Baby first bday - would really like some ideas on if it's easy to make the cake !

Every year I've supermarket bought and this year I want to make my children's cakes

Does anyone do this whos not s a baker ?

I've made sponges cupcakes etc but that's it!

Any tips ? On a budget

Thank you x

I’ve always made DC cakes. Doesn’t have to be fancy. What do you like? If you’re happy doing cupcakes then do those.

My bible is bbcgoodfood, always read the reviews.

Go for it!

Get a bbc food recipe for a Victoria Sponge, keep it simple. Then pick out some of your dcs animal figurines or pick up a pack from Poundland and pop them on top. Could even make teeny party hats for the animals with coloured in paper and glue them on their heads.

Make the sponge the day before then just add the cream and jam to the middle on the day of the birthday.

My friend makes her children's cakes every year and she's not a baker, they always look lovely. I would say leave yourself plenty of time. I always buy mine but I'm absolutely hopeless at cooking xx

Thanks all! So I definitely want to give baking my own a go. Hubby said we will do it together! He's never baked in his life hehe

So we definitely want to do a cake not cupcakes. Just jam sponge but definitely some icing around it.

It's only for us anyway - but just like the idea of doing it.

Are cake tins/bases/ingredients expensive? I saw hobby craft has some lovely cake decs but maybe something like a super market?

X

We are going to do a test one ( who doesn't like cake !) her bday is in July so we will attempt one in June time

Then my eldest is in august so by then be a pro!

Don't mind investing in the tins as will use the opportunity to make more cakes - just something I don't do

Oh forgot to add the my baby is dairy free! So thinking I make a normal cake for us ( small family too ) and just get her something diary free - she's 1 and can't see her having too much anyway

She's cmpa but attempting the milk ladder gut after her bday z

Just go to somewhere like Asda for baking supplies. Just as good as stuff you can buy from Hobby craft but half the price.

One of my sons is dairy free. I just use a regular recipe for a Victoria Sponge or other cake and use a dairy free spread in place of butter. Works fine. Same is also fine in buttercream. So we all have the same dairy free cake.

I recently made one and I'm no baker or cook for that matter.

Make sure you have equal amounts of the ingredients so weigh the eggs first and weigh everything the same as the eggs
I put buttercream and jam inside the sponges.
Mil gave me a tip to thinly spread the buttercream outside then stick it the fridge for an hour before doing it all so it's got something to stick to.
I bought coloured food glitter spray from Tesco which was very effective.

My husband used one of these kits for DD1's birthday (he's not a baker but wanted to make the cake). It had everything included including the tins and it actually looked and tasted very good. You could definitely do it for cheaper, but I think he paid for the convenience

https://bakedin.co.uk/collections/celebration-cakes

You could decorate with your children’s favourite sweets/chocolates.

I didn’t make one for his first birthday (we were staying at the seaside and doing a cake smash on the beach so it would have been too complicated to transport and save for a few days 🤷‍♀️). I think I’m going to be making his second birthday cake though as supermarkets don’t have cakes in his favourite character and I did a practice one with a box mix and it looked good so I’ll probably just recreate that 😋 I might get us a supermarket one for at home as well though as the one I make will be for his party to fit with the theme 🤔

I used australian women's weekly children's cake book, it had patterns, pictures of everything you needed for each cake andfab instructions. The pirate ship cake from that book is still talked about by ds 22!! Worth getting if you can find it..