As spring & summer begin to roll around, birthday parties move away from Chuck E Cheese's, roller rinks, and arcades - and into our own backyards. With the home party, comes the home cake - about 90% cheaper and yummier than a store cake (In my opinion!)
If you've taken advantage of cake and frosting deals at the grocery - your total cost to bake and ice a 9x13" cake will be about $1 (including eggs & oil).
If you buy a 9x13" Sheet Cake at a grocery or Walmart, you'll pay $20. A "theme" cake will cost you upwards of $40. In my family - $40 is about all we spend on each child's birthday, so naturally we opt for the home-cake :)
If you too are trying to cut costs on your child's birthday party this year - I'll be helping you out with a new segment on "amateur" cake decorating. These aren't expensive, they aren't fancy, and they don't take much know-how.
Let's start with a super-easy cake:
The Airplane Cake
Easiest Airplane Cake. Ever.
- Bake a cake, any size, any flavor.
- Dye a can of icing blue, and put in the microwave for about 20 seconds, or just until you could scoop/pour it over the cake easily. I still had to spread mine around some, but warming it up for just a bit gives it a little shine and makes it spread much more smoothly.
- Put your pre-bought airplane somewhere on the cake, push it down a bit so the wheels anchor it in the cake.
- Fill an icing bag with white icing (canned or otherwise) and use one of your large tips to pipe out some big, cheerful cumulus clouds here, there and in the corners. If you don’t have an icing bag, you can use a ziploc bag with a hole snipped in the corner. If you find yourself entirely bagless, like me this time, you could even spoon all your icing into one of those cookie presses. For clouds this billowy, you don’t need precision.
- Make a curly-q of chocolate chips trailing from the airplane to give it that “Just flew in to wish you a Happy Birthday!!” look.
- Put it in the fridge and wait for party time.
Just wanted to say that we have done the same thing for years for birthdays. Parent's magazine's site has great ideas. We have a party this weekend and it's all about spring time and flowers, so we are using artificial flowers (like your airplane) to decorate. We can't imagine a $40 cake!!!
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