Cake ideas

[allusernames]

Hello everyone!

Would really love some ideas from you guys. Basically,...

1. I Want to get a cake that doesn't cost the earth (fully bespoke ones are so expensive :( )
2. I Would like to avoid having to get an 'off the shelf' generic cake (too impersonal)
3. If there is an online option, that'd be amazing

Considering the above, any ideas of where to look?

Thanks in advance

:D

Birthday cake?
For child or adult ?
Wedding Cake ?
Would you be willing to create one ?

What’s it for?
Are you able to bake??

If you don’t want to bake get a normal off the shelf cake but get a custom photo topper from eatmyface or similar with a photo of the birthday person?

Unfortunately handmade cakes ARE expensive. I made a 3 tier cake for MILs 60th with various edible photo frames all over it, made leopard print icing etc. All the ingredients etc cake to about £100 in the end plus about 3 days worth of my time.
That’s the main reason I don’t do it professionally as people want a handmade cake for the cost of a supermarket one!!
I normally make cakes for birthdays in work (only 7 of us so not too bad) but I couldn’t last week so we had a supermarket one. It was commented on how much drier and sickly it was compared to mine.
You get what you pay for.

@BackForGood

For now it's just a simple birthday. But I was asking for future reference too.

I would love to be able to create one myself, but unfortunately,I'm the least creative person in the world :(

There are lots of sellers on eBay/Etsy who will make custom toppers - printed icing or card ones on skewers. Those on a pretty plain cake can work well.

@BrieAndChilli

I hadn't come across EMF before. Great tip, thanks!

It cost you £100 even though you made it yourself?!!! Wow, that is expensive for a DIY cake, (though I suppose the memories make it worthwhile :) )

I guess using off-the-shelf cakes + EMF toppers is some sort of middle ground.

Would love to hear any more tips if you have more gems to share

@meaninglesslife

I've been using eBay for many years now, but Etsy is a new one to me. I've had a quick look and there are some really cool ideas on that. Thanks for the tip!

The cake was 3 tiers, had about 20 small edible picture with edible framers made out of gold and black modelling paste (which is more expensive) and have edible diamonds on! One of the tiers was painted gold with edible paint.
Included the cost of the cake boards, dowels and extra tall cake box, ribbon around the bottom of each tier etc!
So was probably the most extravagant cake I’ve made!!

Etsy is great for personalised or handmade toppers including characters etc. If you wanted to buy a ready made cake and top it with stuff that would work well?

@OkayGo

Your idea does sound a good one. It's also similar to what some others have said :)

@BrieAndChilli - Very impressive indeed.