How do you find cake ideas for little girls? Pinterest right?
Wrong.
About 99.9% of the cakes on pinterest were decorated with perfectly smooth (and characterless) marzipan or fondant. I am not a professional cake decorator and I don’t like the taste of marzipan or fondant. What’s a fussy mumma to do?
I grew up with the Women’s Weekly Birthday Book. I loved it and would pour through the pages planning my birthday. Sometimes my mum obliged and I remember a really cool typewriter cake. Sometimes we just got an icecream cake.
Mum made me the Typewriter cake from the Womens' Weekly book!
CrashGirl is turning 4 in a couple of months. Yes a couple of months, and yet here I am already planning. I’m a sucker for punishment when it comes to birthday parties. I love them. I love making the cake – even if it means I’m up til midnight cursing and up to my elbows in coloured icing.
So, where to find the inspiration? Good old Google Images of course. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
“Cakes for girls -marzipan”
"cakes for girls -marzipan"
Rightio then . . .
“cakes for girls -marzipan -pink”
"cakes for girls -marizpan -pink"
Gee, that was a raging success. I said no pink. Google, hello?
“cakes for girls -marzipan green”
- Found using “cakes for girls -marzipan green”
WTF? I give up.
For Christmas the CrashKids got a bunch of cool sandpit toys for their yet to be built sandpit. Among them was this:
They see a sandcastle, I see a sandcastle cake.
Reckon I can turn it into something like this?
Credit: Pink Cake Box
I feel a crash test coming on ;)
Do you like marzipan and have you used it before?
Laney x
We can’t use marzipan because of Heidi’s nut allergy.
Thankfully I have Mums copy of the Womens Weekly Cake Cookbook – and it has been rereleased into the shops, so you could always have a quick flick through it whilst in the store and get inspired.
My favourite was a ghost cake from that book :)
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I just realised that Marzipan and fondant are perhaps different things? Either way I am allergic to prefect smooth surfaces on cakes I think! I think I’m going to have to find the original. I saw an updated one in the library and it was full of fondant covered creations!
They tampered with the original! No………………. that is terrible.
I could send you pictures of some of the girly cakes if you can not find the original anywhere.
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Thanks Marita. I think I’m going to give the sandcastle a shot ;)
I love making cakes (but I’m not really that good at it). Look forward to seeing how this turns out for you ;)
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It’s so much fun isn’t it? Even if it’s not very good the kids just love it!
You don’t even need to hijack the kids’ sand toy for your castle cake – that same WW birthday cake book has an awesome castle cake (made, in part, out of upside-down ice cream cones) that my mum made me one year. I also remember fondly time my brother (aged about 3 and with a total bathroom obsession) was flicking through the book and showed my mum the photo of the sewing basket cake (round, with an open lid). He announced that he wanted “this toilet cake”!
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I know the castle cake you’re talking about. So funny that you brother wanted the ‘toilet cake’! I think I thought it was a toilet too ;)
I really really want to learn how to decorate cakes with fondant, they just look so pretty. But I fear my skills will always limit me to the more forgiving butter cream icing :-)
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I find fondant cakes intimidating! They’re too pretty! And, yes, like you I will be forever relegated to good old buttercream ;)
I can do cakes both ways, but much prefer butter cream. Use a hot flat palette knife and you can get a smooth finish if you need it too!
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Thanks for the great tip Jo!
What is marzipan, can we get it in NZ???? We have a little girl turning four next month, just had the ww cake book out this morning but nothing jumped out at me…. DD wants a ‘butterfly’!
Yep you can get it in NZ. It’s the Christmas cake icing. Probably more popular is the sugar paste or fondant that is rolled out and used to decorate.
I think with a butterfly u would bake two large rectangles and cut them into wing shapes and then use remnants to make the body and head. Then go to town with buttercream, piping bag and lollies to decorate!
I make marshmallow fondant – soooo much yummier than ordinary fondant! Whilst googling for a cake idea a couple of years ago I found the recipe and have used it ever since because it is quick and easy to make and tastes so good over top of buttercream icing. I am making Molly an angel cake for her birthday in a couple of weeks (yes not a simple fairy or princess cake which would be so easy to find instructions for – an angel cake). Fortunately I found instructions on how to make a fondant angel on youtube so am going to attempt to make one soon. I hope it resembles an angel (spent a bit of money on edible glitter and colour for the angel cheeks – a bit of an expensive cake!)
That sounds yummy! Good luck with your angel!
Ick, no marzipan or fondant at our place – butter cream or ganache always! Ganache is really, really easy to make, tastes great and I’m sure you could colour it too. Can’t wait to see what you do. I wasn’t really into birthday cakes until Chatterbox was born. So far we’ve had the train, a white chocolate mud cake and this year a Malteser cake. I love the challenge and he loves choosing!
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I love white chocolate mud cake. We had it for our wedding cake! I favourited the recipe you tweeted :)
The WW Childrens Birthday Cake Vintage Edition has the cakes you are looking for and are smooth surface free. It has all the old gems you are talking about.
My SIL’s recipe for butter cream icing is
250g butter
1 kg of icing sugar
vanilla essence
2tbsp hot milk
She’s a professional cake decorater, and has been tried and tested by me and works a treat.
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Thanks Lee. Hmm wonder how you make sugar free icing?!?!?
Last cake I made… 15 years ago. I think it was chocolate. There’s shops that sell really good ones… (can you tell I don’t make cakes? hehehehe)
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Ha ha! Yes, buying a cake can be much easier ;)