creative jewish mom

Castle Themed Birthday Cupcakes In A Pinch!

When you need to decorate 30 cupcakes for a class birthday party in a pinch, it is always good to have a past project to inspire you, in my case my castle themed loch ness monster cake! So introducing my castle themed birthday cupcakes, acknowledging the summer birthday boys in the class who are turning both ten and twelve. (My 10 year old is on the young side, and the twelve year olds were kept back a year.....) Fortunately when my son met me at the school gate to receive the tray he smiled widely, so mission accomplished!

And, if you plan ahead even a bit more than I did, I would certainly play with the idea of two levels of cupcakes, as it makes the presentation that much more impressive. And do make those castles in the middle quite a bit larger than the other castles, shields and crowns.

You'll Need:

• colored card stock
• toothpicks
• wooden skewers
• tape
• black marker

How To: Sketch your castles, shields and crowns on colored paper and cut them out. Tape them to toothpicks and the larger ones to skewers. With colored tape make little flags at the top of the skewers, and on toothpicks. Use same tape on some of the shapes (I used it on the crowns) to tie the whole look together.

Enjoy!

 

Make Super Simple And Quick Birthday Cake Decorations From Paper!!

With all the amazing cakes going on out there in the world, the pressure can sometimes be a bit much when it comes to decorating a birthday cake for your child or family member, especially if like me, you're no expert with frosting and don't have hours and hours to devote to decorating a cake. My advice? Come up with a fun theme for your cake and quite simply make decorations using paper, markers and skewers! Short on drawing skills? Not to worry, you can certainly find lots of things to draw in my favorite Ed Emberley books for example, or via any simple how to draw book or website, so no excuses friends! Here is some fun inspiration from the creativejewishmom.com archives to get those gears turning:

This Loch Ness monster castle themed cake was actually my very first cake using simple paper decorations, and I have to admit, it is one of the best, though I really have no idea where the Loch Ness monster idea came from, nor did it relate to any theme, but for a 16 year old that certainly isn't necessary in any case.

For this penguin themed birthday cake with paper decorations I used only white printer paper and permanent markers, which explains the dense color. To draw the penguins I quickly looked up "how to draw a penguin" online and took it from there.

This merry go round themed birthday cake with paper decorations and some strips of sour candy is so simple to make and with great results. And while this cake is on the small size, this would also look great on a much larger round cake as well. I thought of making a roof, which you could do on a larger cake, but maybe just a little roof in the center would look cute. I took the inspiration for the animals from Ed Emberley's Make A World, a must have!

Okay, I'll admit it, I just love the paper decorations on this King Kong, Empire State Building themed cake, which I made for a birthday which took place upon our return from a trip which included NYC. I looked at a vintage illustration of the Empire State Building that I have on a fun postcard as inspiration, and Ed Emberley once again for inspiration for King Kong.

The paper decorations for this underwater castle birthday cake were made as part of a water themed birthday, I'll admit this isn't one of my best, as the castle and the fish need more details, but as I recall I was very pressed for time, such is life!

And last but not least, the lake vacation themed birthday cake with paper decorations that I made just a few weeks ago. We really were on vacation, and while truthfully it turned out that there was a Walmart and  a Target stuffed to the gills with decorations that one can buy just 15 minutes away, I still preferred using the markers and construction paper we had on hand, as the handmade look is truly so much cuter, and once you get started buying decorations, well I can imagine that there is no end to it!

Hope you've enjoyed this round-up, please don't forget to share photos of any fun birthday cake decorations you make using paper!

 

A Super Simple Birthday Cake To Make While On Vacation (Or Not)!

My baby is now ten years old (how did that happen?) and even though we were on vacation I certainly couldn't deprive him of a creativejewishmom style birthday cake, made with just a few simple supplies!
I decided to make the decorations look like the lake house we were renting, complete with the two kayaks that came with the house, and of course some simple flags proclaiming his age. And since I needed something cute and quick, using just construction paper a black marker and wooden skewers, this was the only solution. Then again, this style of cake decor is generally the best solution in my book, whether you are on vacation or not! Of course, I would recommend planning ahead with a large platter to hold the cake, or you'll have to use the cover of a large plastic bowl, not that anyone really noticed!

Simply draw the elements you'd like to place on your cake, cut them out and tape toothpicks and/or skewers to the back. Yes this makes a cake that can only be viewed from one side, but it will be devoured anyway, right?

And here is my little sweetie, just out of the kayak after being surprised with a birthday party which included our dear Bubby, an uncle and even three cousins! Stay tuned for lots more about our USA lake vacation which was truly a dream........

 

A Super Simple Ping Pong Birthday Cake!

All of that ping pong playing on the dining room table led to a fun ping pong themed birthday party for my now 11 year old son. And it was perfect, especially since he now loves ping pong! I'm going to share lots of the simple details that I pulled together in a day with you, but first, the ping pong themed cake!

I had thought of doing something more extravagent, but in the end realized that this simple version would be just as appreciated, would be quick to make and delicious!

Basically you need a chocolate cake, some chocolate mocha glaze, green sprinkles, some white tulle fabric for the net, plus tape to create the borders of the nets and two skewers plus hot glue. The ping pong balls were tiny styrofoam balls that I fortunately had on hand!

Oh, and the paddle was made simply with colored card stock, and I taped a skewer on the back of it to keep it in place. The cake was a great success, and the uncropped version of the photo above shows my sweet son with a very very big smile on his face!

 

Bear Birthday Cake — Cute And Simple, For Those Who'd Rather Be Crafting!

My baby turned nine last week, which is still young enough I think to get away with making a cute little teddy bear birthday cake —namely the kind of cake for those of us who don't have the skills or desire for piped icing and hours spent in the kitchen when we'd rather be making presents and decorations for the occasion! Are you with me?

This bear birthday cake will put a smile on your little one's face just as much as a complicated fondant covered cake that could take hours and hours, and very likely tastes much better! Would I love to be able to make some of those complicated cakes? Well, maybe for a grown up party it might be fun, but I think all that effort is generally lost on kids...so take my advice and go for simple and cute!

You'll Need:

• a bear cake pan
• a large tray
• basic chocolate cake recipe
• non dairy whip icing, or the icing of your choice
• licorice or sour sticks, ribbon candy (not sure what it is called, but the candy that I used for the shirt placket and collar), round m&M type candies
• larger flat hard candies to use for eyes, or in my case rounds of bread
• sprinkles
• skewers
• balloons
• colored paper stock

How To:

Bake your chocolate cake ahead of time and defrost on the day of the party. Make icing and add details with sour sticks, and other candy. To join the sour sticks to form a circle, cut the ends on a diagonal and use a little water to stick them together. Carefully fill in circles, nose and ear areas with sprinkles. Make a crown and grass with colored card stock, make a little flag on a skewer and balloons on skewers.

Now get to work making tons of colorful paper garlands, homemade cards and even some little gifts, which I"ll share with you soon! The cake will get eaten, but the cards and gifts will be around for awhile!

 

An Eleven Year Old's First Birthday Cake For Her Father!

I am one proud and happy mama, on account of my eleven year old daughter's desire to make a birthday cake for her father, and the confidence that allowed her to do it without any supervision from mom, infact I wasn't even home for most of the production!

My husband's birthday is on the first night of chanukah, which is great because it makes that first night of the holiday even more festive and special. That said, preparing for the holiday and  a birthday can be quite a handful, so I was especially happy to have my daughter take over in the cake baking department. Not to mention that she has time and patience to make something that's more of a culinary achievment as opposed to my cakes which are as simple as can be, but with more effort put into the decorating.

And while this cake looks simply beautiful on the outside, the inside consists of two layers of chocolate torte, with the middle layer consisting of pieces of a vanilla rolled cake with chocolate filling. I didn't quite get the point of this when she brought a sample of this cake home last summer from the baking class, but when we sliced this cake the midde layer came out to look sort of striped, which was amazing, and the little baker's father was indeed proud too.

Best of all, we were really too full to even cut the cake after dinner, but when a bunch of my husband's friends showed up hours later to make a little surprise party, at least we had something to serve them! Chanukah sameach!

 

Super Quick Birthday Cake Decor: An Underwater Castle

Need a super quick birthday cake idea, you're in the right place! Those who read my blog already know that investing huge chunks of time in birthday cake decoration is neither my forte nor my desire, nor at all realistic. Quick and cute, that's my thing! And maybe I should add spontaneous, though not recommended for everyone. And spontaneous this cake decor for my daughter's 11th birthday, which was inspired by the goldfish bowl centerpiece I made (while the cake was baking) to go with the summery ocean breeze crepe paper photo backdrop.

  

This method of cake decor is my favorite, as with just some basic drawing skills you can create a themed cake in very little time, with basic supplies. And if you have some cute drawing books like anything from Ed Emberley on hand, that certainly is a big help.

Oh, and here's what the back looks like, even used up the last of some paper left over from a bubble wrap printing craft years ago!

You'll Need:

• colored card stock paper
• black felt pen
• aluminum foil tape, from the hardware store, great stuff
• wooden skewers
• toothpicks

How To: Decide on a theme and draw in black pen on colored paper, or on white paper with colored pens, which I've done before. Cut out drawings and tape a skewer on the back. In this case the top of the skewer was also a flag pole. If you use thin paper, it may need extra support, so add some toothpicks too, which was necessary on one of the towers, as you can see. Save the decorations, and if they're tall you can put them in a vase to extend the birthday spirit just a bit. Enjoy!

No time to run to the store for sprinkles? Maybe you'll find some coconut in the pantry which you can color with food coloring (preferably natural) to suit your theme!

Need some more inspiration, here are some  past cakes I decorated using this same technique:

• figure eight road race birthday cake
• penguin birthday cake
• merry go round birthday cake
• castle and loch ness monster birthday cake

 

Figure Eight Road Race Birthday Cake!

In case you though that yesterday's penguin birthday cake was the birthday cake, well guess what, mommy was hard at word at a second cake as well:  a figure eight road race birthday cake! There's only once chance per child to do this cake, and this is for my youngest, so it was now or never! And I might add, this cake is much larger and possibly more impressive as it was for my son's birthday celebration at school. His teacher suggested that they not cut the cake at all! 

And as far as time goes, the decorating took me about 1 hour forty-five minutes, but could probably do another one in half the time as figuring out what to do also takes time! Lucky you!

You'll Need:

• one large tray, lucky me I have a red checkered one!
• two flat chocolate cakes, large enough to make circles based on the size of small dinner plate
• chocolate mocha glaze
• chocolate sprinkles
• striped sour candy ribbon, that gummy stuff that's flat
• pick-up sticks or toothpicks and wooden skewers
• white paper and a black and a red marker
• 6 cars in a few colors

How To:

1. After cake has cooled, level the top with a sharp knife. 
2. Place dinner plate on top of cake such that you'll cut out a flat bottomed circle, but not too flat! Cut around plate with a knife and remove the extras. 
3. Using a wide mouthed glass, press glass down into cake exactly where you'd like to make the hole, and if you're lucky, when you pull the glass up, the cake will come up inside the glass. (Set these little round cakes aside for an after birthday celebration?) 
4. Now do the same thing with the other cake, and place the two halves together on your tray to form an eight.
5. Make a batch of chocolate glaze and pour liberally over the cake, lucky for us the pools of chocolate glaze here work as patches of oil, so let them be!
6. Sprinkle on chocolate sprinkles, and make dotted road lines and some curb markings by cutting just one of the stripes of the striped candy, I used scissors, very easy!
7. Place your cars on the cake before the glaze hardens.
8. Make some guard rails by weaving pieces of the striped candy around toothpicks or cut up pick up sticks, which is what I used, since that's what I found!
9. Make a sign and some flags with white paper, markers and skewers to mark the beginning and end of the race.
10. Ta da, you've now created wonderful memories for your child! Pat yourself on the back and go take a nap, unless you happen to be me and now need to make centerpieces for 600 guests, yikes, gotta run!

 

Simple Penguin Themed Birthday Cake!

Need a cute and simple penguin themed birthday cake that you can whip up quickly? I certainly was in need of a cute and quick idea today as I was making a cake for my  son's birthday, and this was my solution. And if your cake for some reason ends up looking like a mountain with lots of lumps and bumps, which was really the inspiration for this idea to begin with, well then all the better to turn it into a snowy ice topped glacier, right?

Birthday Cake Decor In Minutes: Birds and Mushrooms!

Need a super quick birthday cake theme? I sure did last week when my daughter's tenth birthday party coincided with a very busy week. And after spending hours folding beautiful paper cranes, they were really the life of the party anyway, so the cake just needed to be cute enough and look festive. Plus I really didn't have even a few minutes to spare, especially since unbeknownst to me my oven was not working properly and the cake took at least two hours to bake! (I thought that silly distracted me had added twice as much water as necessary!)

So my friends, here's the tip: look into your crafting supplies closet and just pull out whatever you find and stick it into the cake! Okay, not exactly, but you get what I mean. I did plan ahead and purchase the little birds, only I didn't realize I'd be using them on the cake, and lucky me I bought exactly ten! The birds had little wires attached to their feet, which I wrapped around toothpicks. And I bought various sizes of little mushrooms in Amsterdam last year, which have come in handy throughout the year. As usual I baked the cake according to my favorite chocolate cake recipe, and dripped over the top a chocolate mocha glaze, which I then covered in sprinkles.

That's it! 

PS: Yes, dear readers, I do realize that to many of you this birthday cake might look more like a winter cake, than a summer birthday cake, but here in the Holy Land the ten year old girls don't realize that white birds and mushrooms might be more likely found as decorations in December in The Netherlands, so you just gotta do what you gotta do!