There can be a lot of pressure put on moms when it comes to birthday parties. In reality, our little ones are not looking for more than a day that is all about them. There are many ways to make your child’s birthday special without all the stress over planning the perfect party.
My birthdays growing up weren’t extravagant, but they were special. My mom wasn’t a “from scratch” baker. Still, she would always take my requests and make a box cake (minus the batter she ate from the mixing bowl), or pick up something with silly decorations from the local Piggly Wiggly. If you aren’t from a small town in Wisconsin, that’s a grocery store. Those are the memories that have stuck with me, and I make it a point to make both my kids’ and my husband’s birthdays feel a little extra special each year.
This year for his 5th birthday, my son Josiah requested a dinosaur cake for his birthday. I am, at best, an amateur cake decorator. Actually, I think the kids on Kids Baking Championship are way better than me; I’m more…abstract in my decorating. His request isn’t outlandish. I only have myself to blame. I watch a lot of baking shows, and he is never far behind, getting excited and nervous when the announcer calls “10 minutes left!”
I found inspiration through Pinterest for Josiah’s 5th birthday cake, plus all of the ideas from my baking show addiction floating in my head. Unfortunately, my buttercream frosting got a little “ugly” after adding coconut milk because I threw out the extra heavy whipping cream. *PRO TIP* don’t trash tiny amounts of ingredients until you know for certain that you don’t need them anymore. But all this was ok because I was going for memories, not perfection.
I made 3 9 inch cake rounds because that is what the recipe called for, but I used a large mason lid jar to cut out smaller cake rounds to make a smaller and taller cake. I used the white buttercream to do a crumb coat, so I didn’t have to worry about the scales getting mixed up with the cake. After it hardened in the cold Minnesota garage, I dyed the rest of the buttercream purple and blue, Josiah’s favorite colors. I put a little of each color in the frosting bag to create a sort of marbled or tye-dye look. I used an offset spatula to spread my dots out to get a scale-ey look. Since my cake was so small, I was able to snag this cookie decorating turntable. To create the spikes, I melted some Meltables, purple and blue, spread them out on parchment paper, used a toothpick to marble it, and let it sit in the garage to harden. Once it was set, we broke it up into pieces and stuck them in the cake.
To be honest, I wasn’t super happy with the final look. I ran into some technical difficulties…like my frosting tip falling out of my first bag of frosting. Still, Josiah exclaimed, “I LOVE IT!” when he saw his 5th birthday cake. We topped it with a number 5 sparkler candle and sang happy birthday to him and his aunt, with whom he shares a birthday on a Zoom call. It was perfectly special, even if my cake wasn’t Pinterest-worthy.
Creating a homemade cake is just one way to make your favorite little people feel extra special on their birthday. There are certainly more ways to help turn a birthday into a special day without the extra bells and whistles.
4 ways to make your child’s birthday special:
1. Let your child pick out the cake flavor.
Bringing your child in on the little decisions helps to get them excited for the big day! For the first few years my son didn’t really care so I got to try a few different things out. The cakes I’ve done for my son include: Chantilly cake, confetti cake, strawberry cake (from a box mix) and donuts from Puffy Cream Donuts, a cookie cake from Eileens, and this year when I asked him what he wanted he said, “Vanilla!”
2. Plan a fun theme and let your child help!
For Josiah’s first birthday, I picked a train theme because he really liked trains, but we went with dinosaurs for years 2-5. He picked his theme for the cake, so adding in some dinosaur plates, napkins, and balloons seemed to fit.
3. Create a special kid-approved meal.
Do you have a special birthday breakfast or dinner tradition? Making your child’s favorite meal or letting them pick where to eat can make your child feel really special. All day on Josiah’s birthday, we were asking him what he wanted to eat, and he just kept saying, “I don’t know.” Dinner rolled around, and I threw some prompts at him like noodles, pizza…to which he screamed PIZZA! Unbeknownst to us, pizza seems to be an organic tradition we have created on his birthday. On his first birthday, we ran out of food, so my mother-in-law came to the rescue and ordered pizza for everyone. Year 2, we ordered pizza. Year 4…pizza.
4. Lots of attention – Sing Happy Birthday!
Who doesn’t love to be sung to? I just love seeing the grin on a kid’s face as their family sings happy birthday right before they get to blow out the candles. You just know that they are feeling so very loved in that moment.
