creative jewish mom

How To Make Quick Birthday Cake Decorations

Let face it, life is busy and simple solutions to acknowledge family birthdays, or any special occasion, in a fun way are always great to have on hand. Personally, I'm not into spending hours and hours on a birthday cake that then gets eaten anyway, and over the years have mostly relied on simple decorations that can be made quickly and generally at the last minute.....so it goes around here! All you need are some basic drawing skills, a bit of an idea regarding scale and proportion, and very simple supplies. I have used this same technique over the years to make a Lochness Monster Cake, An Underwater Castle Cake, A Penguins Cake, A Merry-Go-Round Cake and many more, so use your imagination and just a tiny bit of time to make something adorable and memorable! Check out this round-up that includes all the cakes mentioned, plus a King Kong Manhattan cake, my favorite, right here.

No Bake Popsicle Cookies Are Simply Adorable

With everything looking pinker than pink in blog land this week, I thought I'd contribute with these super simple and beyond adorable no-bake popsicle cookies! And I'll just add that these are courtesy of my 16 year old daughter who is quite the expert at these kinds of things.......her mother would rather be painting, or making something healthy! Regardless it is great to have a trick like this up your sleeve when another neighbor's daughter is having an engagement party and the desert bar needs to be beyond gorgeous! Ah yes, and with Purim coming up, some of these presented with a summer theme could be an amazing mishloach manot! In fact I think that is what we'll do, just need to come up with the rest of the presentation, like summer umbrella, fruit punch, sunglasses..... stay tuned for that, in the mean time let's learn how to make these cuties!

Big Clown Cake Topper For Your Circus Themed Party, Or For Purim!

What do you do when the Purim party is about to start, you've committed to some centerpieces and all you have are some stuffed paper hearts you made a few years back filling the vases that you need to fill with something new? Well, you decide to use those stuffed paper hearts to make the most adorable little clowns ever, and you can't really believe it yourself that you pulled it off, and came up with something that is perfect to share with your dear readers for Purim!

Yes indeed, this craft is another one from the archives as I've been under the weather this week and busy with other aspects of work and life, so new decorations for Purim will just have to wait until next week........as you can imagine in any case I really already have so many things to decorate my house with that spending time on crafting when there are piles of laundry and organizing to do really isn't time efficient, nonetheless Purim wouldn't be Purim without a few new creative efforts so stay tuned for some last minute projects! In the meant time, enjoy this one, it is a keeper!

Blue And White Marshmellow Skewer Party Favor For A Bar Mitzvah Or Hanukkah?

The other night I dropped by to wish the parents of a boy in my son's class mazel tov on their son's bar mitzvah, and of course I had to have a look at what the mother, who is the baking queen, whipped up for this special occassion. Truthfully I didn't look too closely as I am saying no to sugar, but I did love these blue and white marshmellow skewers, that looked great and are so simple to whip up, even a week or more before the special occasion.

As I have stated before, we don't buy candy generally but for a bar mitzvah, and we have one coming up in another six months, I would, and likely will, consider buying lots of different kinds of marshmellows and gummy candies in order to make some show stopping skewers! Ah, and of course, the label with the child's name on it, in this case Shimon, will be something lovely hopefully.

Little Crocheted Flower Bookmarks Are Perfect Hostess Gifts This Summer!

Aren't these little crocheted flower bookmarks made using zip ties just the sweetest? And they are so simple to make that I'm whipping up a huge bunch to give as gifts when we visit with family and friends during our summer travels. A bouquet of them would be fantastic, as one can never have too many bookmarks, and of course one can make bookmarks like this with other little crocheted items too, you name it!

Ready to make some of these cuties to enjoy this summer? Let's get started.......

Cinnamon Roll Cake Pops For The Dessert Bar Are Perfect In A Pinch!

Okay dear readers, I'm off sugar and flour entirely so I'm trying to post this fantastic idea for making cinnamon roll cake pops that look like lollipops without really looking too closely at the photos, and with the idea that while certainly I'm not encouraging folks to eat un-healthfully, sometimes you've just gotta bake that cake or make that special dessert for your child's birthday, a special event in school or important family occasion. If you're like me, and you're trying to mend your ways in the sugar department it may just be advisable to skip the baking and just assemble something from bakery bought items........and that is where this cinnamon roll cake pop idea really shines!

Of course if you love to bake, and especially if you can whip up a healthier version of cinnamon rolls using say spelt, why then go for it! The cinnamon rolls shown here were home baked by a friend of mine, and I just loved the idea so much I had to share it. Keep reading to find out how she made the display stand, an important part of the whole presentation!

Quick Cartoon Character Bundt Cake Is Perfect For Birthdays!

Introducing my ten minute cartoon character bundt cake for a guitar themed party. Of course you can use my simple formula to make a cute cake that works perfectly for you, and best of all less stress and more time to focus on other equally important aspects of the party, like decorations, which after all really make the party.

Quick birthday cakes are the best kind really, in my opinion, after all it does get eaten......okay it is true you have the photos to remember your efforts, but in my book going for a larger scale wow factor with decorations is time more well spent. It may be that is because I don't know my way around icing or fondant or ganach, (and hope to keep it that way) or maybe it is just that after all the years of making fun birthday party decorations for my kids I realize that the cake needs to be a cute element within the whole look, and that can be achieved quite simply, yippee! And I'll admit, last night when I came up with these decorations for the last minute cake my daughter baked for the birthday, it was a huge relief that simple just worked. Especially since the birthday boy was waiting outside to be let into the decorated house when all was ready! A true life story, though of course he knew that he would have to keep himself busy after school, outside of the house, and had even planned this ahead of time, assuming that we would do our usual birthday party routine of surprise decorations.

Five Minute Cake Decorations In A Pinch!

One of my dear nephews from New York was coming for his last shabbat with us before heading back to the USA after a two year stint in Israel, so I just had to make him a good-bye cake! The only problem was that the house had been turned upside down with Pesach cleaning, we had some construction done which added a layer of ground dust to the upside down state, I had to go to a Bar Mitzvah celebration Thursday night, we were loosing a hour due to turning the clocks ahead.........oh, and of course the cake and the cake decorations had to be made before sundown on Friday, phew.

Quck and cute is my motto, and sometimes you just gotta lower your standard, or you might miss an opportunity to make someone feel special, right? Keep on reading for a few tips that I'll use next tiem I need to make cake decorations in a pinch!

Black And White Flower Or Spider Web Icing Trick

Making baked works of art can really be quite simple if you know a few little tricks, right? Courtesy of my 14 year old daughter who I have now appointed as chief family baker, I bring to you a little tutorial for how to make black and white icing flowers or cob webs! While she made black and white flowers on mini doughnuts, one can certainly use this trick on cookies, cupcakes and even cakes.......the results will be truly gorgeous, promise! And doing this on a cake would be so less time consuming than many other types of decorations, so give it a try, I'm going to encourage my daughter to do so as well sometime soon, and will share the results, of course. (Well assuming there is time to photograph the results, that isn't always possible, as you can well imagine.)

One disclaimer, we are not professional bakers, and certainly not specialists when it comes to making icing with dairy ingredients as almost all of our baking is for items that will be eaten on shabbat after a meat meal, and thus cannot contain any dairy products. So I will provide you with the icing recipe we used, but there are likely many more options out there that may be more suited to your needs.

A Simple Bear Birthday Cake For A Fourth Birthday

Once again I pulled out the teddy bear cake pan and my large red plastic tray in order to whip up a cute birthday cake in as little time as possible. With a cake pan that results in a cake that is at least the silhouette you desire, and a few simple toppings like whipped cream or icing, edible cake decorating paper (used here for the first time) licorice, sprinkles, and striped sour sticks, for example, you too can create something cute in just about 15 or so minutes. My little patent that really adds so very much? That would be colored paper shapes of course to make balloons and greenery to surround the cake which makes the whole thing that much more special!

Of course, planning ahead is crucial, and whille I did plan ahead I should have looked at my previous bear birthday cakes, as the addition of a crown as in previous years would have been cute. Oh well, next time! With all the pre-Hanukkah rush and the need to decorate this cake and get a party together within an hour or so, I was quite frazzled. Oh yes, and then the cake wouldn't come out of the pan because my daughter (who now does most of the baking) didn't know that one needs to oil and flour pans like this!

So I scooped out the head of the bead with a spatula and then the body, but no one was the wiser as it was all covered in non-dairy whip cream in any case. Keep reading for some more tips and links to previous bear birthday cakes!