DIY Birthday Cake for Kids

The big day finally arrived.  The Boy's birthday party.  We had it at his martial arts facility.  It was great.  All we had to do was show up with the birthday boy and cake.  They did all the rest.  And if I hadn't felt like making cake, they would have supplied that as well. 

Backstory:  (When you have kids, you'll find many things you do require an explanation.)  A month or so ago, I asked the boy what he wanted his cake to look like.  Usually, he is very specific.  This year, he said "Ninjas".  Well, last year it was ninjas, so I was all out of ideas.  But I thought about it for a while and eventually decided to do a black cake with black-clad ninja figures crawling up it.  Brilliant, huh?  And I would have been soooooo popular with all the other parents after their kids ate the black cake. 

He changed his mind.

He wanted a spy cake.  I said, "OK.  What does a spy cake look like?"  He said, "Like a cake with spies on it."  I replied, "But what are the spies doing?"  He said, "You know, spying on people."

After a few more go-rounds like the above, I remembered a project that I have been seeing on cookiedecorator.com.  Do-it-yourself cookie parties.  Basically, the baker makes a bunch of white-iced cookies and provides edible ink markers.  The kids then decorate their own cookies.

So I made this:

Aside from the fact that naked white fondant is rather unforgiving in photographs (and in person), I think it turned out ok.  Those are Americolor Gourmet Writers.  Love them. 

The morning of the party, the boy's best friend came over and they decorated the cake.  They had a pretty good time.  (That's mine on the left...sitting on the table like a barbarian.)

Here are some close-ups:

This is my favorite part. His sister was feeling left out, so they finally agreed to let her have a little space to draw in.  She was NOT allowed to draw anything pretty or princess-y, nor to use the pink or purple markers. 

See, they even labeled it for her.  It's the "liitel sister spot".  She drew 2 spies and a bomb.  She does her best to follow the rules.

And the other sides:

I have been told that the top picure is a helicopter being struck by lightening.

"Nick and Gavin colored the cake".  They wanted to be sure eveyone knew.

"Evil doesn't stand a chance"

"They made it darker so the spies can escape".  Not entirely sure who "They" are.  I'm sure the whole cake has a story to go with it.  I should have him write it down before he forgets.

So they had a great time.  I expected the cake to be poked full of holes and half-pushed over by the time they were done, but they did a good job keeping it together.

The cake itself is vanilla, chocolate, strawberry -- from top to bottom.  My boy loves strawberry cake, so he wanted the biggest one to be strawberry.  Vanilla buttercream filling and marshmallow fondant on top.  My one-and-only cake board was still at my grandma's house, so I had to put the cake on the bottom of a cake carrier.  Again, classy.  We ended up leaving the cake on the turntable at the party so that everyone could see all of the sides.  And we took the markers and had his friends sign the cake before we cut it.  It was a fun day!

I don't have any more baking projects planned for the next couple of weeks.  I'm sure something will come up; it always does.  But if nothing does, I'll post about older projects, just to pass the time. 

Enjoy!