Kids Birthday Parties ~ Cupcakes or Large Cake?

I_Love_Cupcakes

Hi everyone:)

This is my first post. As you can tell by my user name, I love cupcakes, LOL and I love baking them too.

I really do prefer to use them for kids' birthdays rather than a large cake, for several reasons. It is not always easy to cut up a large cake into enough pieces, especially when there are lots of children at the party, whereas the amount of cupcakes needed can be calculated and allowed for and extras allowed for too if necessary! They are easy to hand out personally or the children can each help themselves. It is also easy to provide different flavours and/or special dietary needs, all within the one display of cupcakes. They look good too and children tend to love anything small and brightly coloured, so they can be decorated to suit.

Also, it is easy to place candles within them, just as in a large cake and a display of cakes can be re-built several times over, using cupcakes. This is handy if family/friends are visiting too at different times. So long as there are enough cakes to create a display it is very handy. I remember doing this three times over on one occasion when people were visiting on and off through the day. It gives everyone the chance to go through the usual birthday motions of singing Happy Birthday, to enjoy eating some birthday cake and the children love to be able to blow out the candles several times over.

I know some people may feel the cakes themselves are fiddly to make but it is possible to buy them already decorated or buy them un-iced and ice and decorate them yourself. There are plenty of cake toppers around too so that you can create a themed effect.

I just wondered what other people thought. I still love large cakes too but I've found over the last couple of years I have used cupcakes more.

NorthernDan

when i was younger i LOVED a massive cake, or a themed cake (thomas the tank was my fav haha), why not do both?

BloomingTasty

As a cake maker myself i'd say both!
I like to do a smallish cake for the candles to go on and have b'day childs name and age then have cupcakes for the children to take. That way no hassle of cutting cake at the time and birthdwy child can eat big cake all week ::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

NorthernDan

ELJAYCOCK wrote: »

can eat big cake all week ::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thats my kind of thinking!

flea72

the only problem i find with cupcakes is they look nice, but kids rarely eat them

they either lick the icing off and leave the cake, or find the icing too sickly, so you have to remove it, so they can eat the sponge

when most places charge £1+ for a cupcake i find its a complete waste and if having a party with lots of kids, its way cheaper to buy a whole cake and cut it up - small 1" squares like you would cut a wedding cake, is more than acceptable for a sponge at a kids party

in fact most parties i go to lately, dont even have sponge/icing cakes, the current trend is for sweetie cakes, as the kids can have a few with the party food, and then the rest can be divied up between the party bags (or taken home for birthday child's parents to eat later lol)

F