cake decorating ideas

Cake Ideas – Mother’s Day Cakes

Cake ideas turn to the feminine side for Mother's Day, which is the second Sunday in May. Many people try to have a family get-together on that day to honor mothers. Often times they treat her to a meal out so she doesn't have to cook. And then in the afternoon they continue the celebration with refreshments of some kind. What a perfect time to have a decorated cake on hand – made just for her! So what are some cake ideas for Mother's Day? Well, first of all, it would be a good idea to find out ahead of time (not the day before if you plan to surprise her) what her favorite cake flavor and colors are. This way you will have something made especially to her liking. Decorations of flowers, ribbons, or bows can be applied to the cake for that feminine look for the cake. With an edible cake image, many pictures can be chosen from to put on the cake. Some ideas for that could be a picture of her when she was young (before children) like her high school graduation, a comparison of her in younger years and a current photo side-by-side, a family picture with her children, her with her favorite pet, or something in reference to her favorite hobby or interest. Below are a couple of cake ideas that can be used for Mother's Day. These photos are in reference to a birthday, but it can still give cake decorating ideas as to what can be used for your masterpiece for this yearly occasion.

Old Graduation Pic interest in cats

So with the approach of Mother's Day, get the facts and materials you will need to make that special cake: favorite cake flavor, favorite color(s) for decorations, and favorite photo if using edible cake images. Remember, your mother loves you so much and this cake will be a little token of how much you love her. 🙂

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Cake Ideas – Easter Cakes

Cake ideas start "hopping" when it's Easter. What are some cake decorating ideas for that special holiday? Easter is known for its soft pastel and spring colors. So what about the cake itself? Good choices are white, pink (strawberry or cherry chip), yellow, rainbow chip, or a white mix with food coloring added to make a noteworthy appeal – like baby blue or mint green. There are several pans out there: bunny, egg, cross, or lamb. These all make very nice looking cakes, but can require some time to get them done for sure, as you can see from the pictures below.

We had an order for an Easter cake and since it was our 27th wedding anniversary on the day I needed to make it, I didn't have too much time to put in to it. This is where the edible image cake came in very handy! Bake the cake, put some frosting on, smooth it, apply the edible cake image, put trim around the top and bottom edge, and presto – an Easter cake that will thrill any little kid!

Easter bunny cake

Of course the cake can always be trimmed out with Easter candy or decorations of some sort to just put on that little finishing touch. Just let those cake ideas hop!

Cake Ideas – St. Patrick’s Day Cakes

Cake Ideas for St. Patrick's Day are generally geared towards something green. The cake itself can be made green by adding green food coloring to a white cake mix. When applying the icing, it can be frosted in green or frosted in white and then trimmed with green. Of course there are a few cake pans out there that can be used for the holiday theme. There is a Care Bear pan, a shamrock pan and a horseshoe pan, of which the latter can be turned the one way to look like a good luck Irish horseshoe and turned the other to make a rainbow where you can find the pot of gold. To accent the cake, gold, foil-wrapped coin candy can be scattered around the base of the cake to make it look like someone got into the pot of gold.

There are also gold sprinkles or shamrock confetti that can be added for a little glitter or glamour when decorating cakes.

Sometimes little trinkets for St. Patrick's Day can be found to add to the cake or placed on top of cupcakes that are baked in gold foil cupcake papers.

Maybe you are of primary Irish descent or at least can trace your lineage back to include some of it in your ancestry. Keep the Irish event as a tribute to your family history by celebrating this sometimes almost overlooked holiday. Have fun with it and even put up St. Patrick's Day party decorations. But most of all, remember to wear green so you don't get pinched!

Cake Ideas – Decorating With Candy

Cake ideas can include candy such as plain old M&M's and Hershey's Kisses for decorating cakes. However, you can purchase these candies for those special occasions, and they will definately make a conversation piece. When my husband and I celebrated our 25th anniversary, we ordered M&M's that said 'Daryl & Linda' on some and 'Happy 25th' on the others. We had chosen the colors of silver (or course) and light blue or light turquoise for our anniversary colors to work with for the celebration. (We also used gold and yellow M&M's for my parent's 50th Anniversary and purple and lavendar ones for our son's wedding.) Several months before our party, we had received an email advertising for personalized M&M's, and we thought that was just too unique of an idea to pass up. Checking the website now, they have more options available than they did almost 2 years ago – including 22 colors! Our anniversary is April 10, so I was able to start picking up Christmas decorations on clearance in the right colors (silver garland and bells and blue balls, etc.) that we wanted for decorating for the event. See some of the table decorations in the pictures below.

Another place that has some really cool ideas for candy that can be served with your decorated cake as a little garnish, or scattered on the tables as a colorful decoration, is a store called 'Candy Warehouse.' You deserve to check out this store. You can search for candy by the type, the occasion, and by color of it – or the wrapper. Another place you can shop for specialty candy and tons of party decorations is the Oriental Trading Company. They have all kinds of stuff that we used for our anniversary, including individually wrapped dinner mints in silver foil that had anniversary greetings printed on them and 25th anniversary balloons. And since Valentine's Day was only about two months prior to our anniversary, I was able to find the 'Love' tag Hershey's kisses. One thing the papers that came with the M & M's said was to not store them in a refrigerator, but rather keep them in a small styrofoam cooler, as getting chocolate cold makes it turn a whitish color – and then they wouldn't have been very pretty for the party and people would have thought we were serving them old candy 😉 . So as you can see, sometimes you can think 'outside the box' and come up with some really great options that will enhance or compliment your cake ideas.

Cake Ideas – New Years Cakes

Cake ideas for the new year can maybe be a little harder to come up with. If you have a New Year's Eve or New Year's Day party, you could make a decorated cake to bring in the new year that depicts an hour glass or a clock. With edible image frosting sheets, it's less difficult to go online and find a picture of "Father Time" or a party hat, horn, and confetti to put on a cake to create your masterpiece. If all else fails, one cake idea is that you can at least make an eggnog cake 😉 ! Here is a recipe to accomodate that:

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Eggnog Cream Cake

1 box French vanilla cake mix 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon rum extract (optional) ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (divided) 1½ cups prepared eggnog 1 package (6 serving size) vanilla pudding and pie filling (NOT instant) 1 container (8oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed Prepare cake mix according to package directions, adding extracts and ¼ teaspoon of the nutmeg to batter. Bake in 9 x 13 pan according to package directions. Cool completely in pan. In small saucepan over medium heat, cook eggnog, pudding mix, and remaining ¼ teaspoon nutmeg – stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly; place plastic wrap directly on pudding to prevent skin from forming.

Refrigerate to cool completely. Gently fold in whipped topping in 2 additions. Spread pudding mixture over the top of the cake. Cut into squares. Store in refrigerator.

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Since this cake is actually served in the pan, you could lay a couple of party horns close to the cake and sprinkle some 'incoming year' confetti on the table around the cake. Also have some glasses of punch or eggnog to serve with the cake. To get some ideas of what you can use for this type of party, just visit 'Celebrate Express' and 'The Party Works' banners on the right side of this page. They can accomodate all your party needs year-round, including that New Year's event.

Decorating cakes for different holidays can be challenging, but also very fun and exciting. Just let your imagination flow and you will come up with some New Year's cake ideas.