Monday, September 17, 2007

In my quest to never pay for a birthday cake

I love birthday cakes. I love to look at them and I love to eat them. I love to have my cakes and eat them, too.

I DON'T, however, like to pay for a bakery to make them. So until my boys start asking for a sculpted volcano cake or a Lightning McQueen car made completely of chocolate, this frugal mom is making their cakes. I figure twice a year I can push my creativity to its very limits and still come up with something that won't draw snickers and tastes decent. Here's this year's attempt at Alex's cake for his Blue's Clues party:



The pawprint is blue sugar, sprinkled onto a template I drew on a piece of paper. The M&Ms around the side are his new tradition (see last year's cake). The cake is chocolate; I used the very simple recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa can. The frosting is another simple recipe I already had. The beauty of the whole thing? I had all the ingredients already in my kitchen except the sugar and M&Ms, which cost about $6 together. Compare that to the $26 that was quoted to me for an official Blue's Clues cake and I think I successfully beat the system.

(Unfortunately, the system still won in the birthday gifts department...)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That cake is awesome. You can make mine in January. :D

Anonymous said...

The cake is ADORABLE!

Kara said...

That cake is great and I hope you don't mind me using this idea for my Toddler's bday next week, he loves Blue's Clues and would be thrilled at a cake like that!

SAHMmy Says said...

Cool cake! And much more memorable-and tasty, I'm sure--than store-bought! Good job, Mama!

Anonymous said...

That is adorable!! I'd like to go back to homemade cakes. I'm not the best baker in the world, but the kids are not terribly picky, and I could buy their birthday gift on the cost savings alone!

Anonymous said...

Yum, looks really good.