Birthday Cake for 3 yr old

windym_2

A good idea for the kids 'going home pressies' are seeds. We went to a party last year where they gave kids seeds (sunflowers etc) along with a bar of choccy. The kids loved putting the seeds in a pot and watching them grow. Much better than the usual tat you get in party bags. And very cheap at this time of year.

frosty

When my son was little I put 3 swiss rolls end to end (so its like a snake)cover them in chocolate butter icing ,decorate it with jelly tots(can you still buy jelly tots?) and pretended it was a caterpillar.

stressedoutmumof1

I remember getting that one year :rotfl:

Also I can remember having a huge hedgehog cake, and because my birthday's in May, quite frequently getting a Maypole cake - Normal sponge cake covered in icing, a straw in the middle with ribbons coming out of the top, and jelly babies "holding" the ribbons (helped with a smidge of icing to stick!)

thriftlady_2

I made a butterfly cake for my dd once.It was very easy.

Buy a swiss roll,make a simple round sponge cake.Cut the round cake in half to make 2 semi-circles,place them on either side of the swiss roll,curved edges touching the roll,so that the swiss roll becomes the butterfly's body and the semi-circles wings.You can cut a little notch out of the wings to denote the two sets of wings,but it's not essential.

Next make a huge batch of buttercream(1 part butter/marge to 2 parts icing sugar +alittle milk/lemon juice).Colour it any colour you like,but it looks best if you divide the buttercream into 4 bowls and colour them all differently.Then you can splodge on the colours to make the wing markings and use a spoon to blend the colours into each other which looks very effective.I used pink,green,yellow and light blue.

You could cover the cake with melted chocolate and use sweets and sprinkles to decorate the wings.HTH

mjk_2

Wow! Thanks for all the ideas! I'm tempted by the hedgehog/smarty cake/lots of sweets ideas. Mainly cos they'll all cover up what is likely to be a strange, mis-shapen cake!! The barbie cake sounds fab as well, might save that idea for next year - when she's a bit more sophisticated!!

Might try the piggy fairy cakes and the "apple smiles" as well.

As for what they'll do, I'm definitely going to have balloons, but haven't really got any further than that so far.

Like the idea of seeds as a going home pressie too.

If I can get myself organised this party might not be a complete diasaster after all!!

mjk_2

Two quick questions:

1. Where can I buy pink ready roll icing? My Asda didn't have it, and I've just tried making ordinary pink icing but it looks really messy (this is for the piggy fairy cakes BTW). Or can I just make normal icing thicker and roll it out?

2. Planning on making cake in one round 20cm tin, using 3 eggs etc. How long should I cook it for? All the recipes seem to be different quantities or different size tins!

Thanks for any help!

Poppy9

I made a chocolate cottage for my daughter with her age the door number.

Borrowed a large square tin (you can hire them for about £2 from catering suppliers) and made a large sponge cake. Put a layer of butter cream in the middle. Then I made loads of chocolate butter icing and completely covered the cake. The roof was made up of chocolate button. Match makers made the doors and windows and used some coloured icing in a tube for curtains and grass etc. Probably cost more to make than shop bought though so not very MS.

My other favourite is to take a recent picture, I've had my daughter to pose holding a sign saying "10 today" and trot off to Asda to have the picture turned into the icing on the cake. Great value for less than £10 and the cake is delicious.

I'm thinking of posing her cuddly toys this year for a photo with a sign saying happy birthday to surprise her.:rolleyes:

stressedoutmumof1

mjk wrote:

Two quick questions:

1. Where can I buy pink ready roll icing? My Asda didn't have it, and I've just tried making ordinary pink icing but it looks really messy (this is for the piggy fairy cakes BTW). Or can I just make normal icing thicker and roll it out?

2. Planning on making cake in one round 20cm tin, using 3 eggs etc. How long should I cook it for? All the recipes seem to be different quantities or different size tins!

Thanks for any help!

When colouring ready roll icing use paste colouring as it won't be as squishy as liquid colours and just knead and knead and knead it. Good luck!

mjk_2

stressedoutmumof1 wrote:

When colouring ready roll icing use paste colouring as it won't be as squishy as liquid colours and just knead and knead and knead it. Good luck!

What's paste colouring? Is it something I'll find in a supermarket? Thanks

thriftlady_2

Not in supermarket I'm afraid.You'd need to goto a specialist cake decorating supplies shop.
Paste colours are much,much better than liquid ones.They come in a bigger range of colours and last for ever.They may seem more expensive but actually work out cheaper.
I found that the liquid colours don't give good deep colours,the more you add the more wet your icing becomes.This might not matter much if you're doing something pastel and girly,but if you want to make a lurid purple and green spider cake for a 7 yo boy they are no good!