Kids on the coast

Let’s face it, some birthday party memories are better than others! Birthday cakes can turn out fabulously or flop disastrously, but chances are the kids will still happily eat them up regardless. We asked Kids on the Coast readers (via Facebook) for their best, or worse, birthday cake experiences. Thanks everyone! Here are the edited highlights:

MICHELLE: My older son wanted a Ben 10 cake, so I made him one, took photos and posted them online, only to have my aunty tell me that I had spelt birthday wrongly (I’d written “birtday”). Luckily it was a party just for immediate family and none of his schoolfriends’ parents were there to see it!

VANESSA: For my son’s first birthday, I got a cake made because I’m a hopeless cook… can’t even boil an egg! For his 2nd birthday I was determined to make him not one, but two cakes! My mum passed away seven years ago and I have fantastic memories of the awesome cakes she used to make me. So I started Googling and decided I was going to make a dinosaur cake for his daycare birthday and a train cake for his birthday party! All the effort was wrapped up his smile. Now I can’t wait for our 4-month-old to turn 1 so I can make him a cake!!

LINDA: Accidentally bought yellow jelly instead of blue, so ended up with green pool (with algae…). Also this one, for my daughter Rachel’s 7th Birthday – complete with fly (LOL).

JAYNE: Made a Thomas cake for my son’s 3rd birthday…he wouldn’t eat it after all that effort because it had vanilla buttercream in the cake layers and not chocolate buttercream filling!

JEN: This was my first ever decorated cake (from a Women’s Weekly cake book) for my daughter’s 1st birthday. Since then I have started my own business on the Sunshine Coast called Pudcakes, come see my page sometime.

SUPATTRA C: My son’s 5th birthday cake, he loved dinosaurs so I surprised him.

TANYA: I always bought cakes as I didn’t ever want to do a bad job and had no creativity. My sister-in-law inspired me – she helped me do a Ben 10 cake for my son’s 7th birthday last year. That was the start of something for me…I loved the feeling of watching his eyes light up. Now I’ve made heaps of cakes, I love, love, love it!

JULIE: My mother was a professional cake decorator. The type that does wedding cakes, with pefect fondant, and delicate icing flowers. Talk about a lot to live up to…My first attempts were disasters. Burnt on the outside, and runny on the inside. I’d put icing on while the cake was still warm....so it melted, and sat in a messy gloop of a pile around the edges. Then I met my neighbour, who was doing wonderful cakes, with butter icing, and the help of the Women’s Weekly cake books. I put my mother’s cakes out of my mind, and went for it. Now, I’ve learnt the tricks...I love seeing the kids eyes light up! These days, I make cakes, prepare the icing...and let my kids decorate cakes for my birthday. I don’t want them growing up scared of cake, like I was!

CHRISTIE: When I was turning seven my wonderful mother made me the little old woman who lived in a shoe cake (boot, actually). She did such a fantastic job with lots of attention to detail. Cake time rolls around with the party in full swing, everyone sings happy birthday and waits... and waits ...and waits for me to blow out the candles. They even started chanting. But I didn’t want to, because I knew as soon as I did, the masterpiece would be cut up! Eventually the roof started to burn down, the wafers caught fire and down came the lot – it had to be put out with a jug of water and that was the end of that!!

CASSANDRA: Making cakes is something I love to do, not that I’m particularly good at it! But I have a little mantra I stick to...”if you like someone, buy them a cake, but if you LOVE someone you have to make them a cake”. This year we moved into our new house 3pm on a Thursday, unpacked, organised, made a cake and threw a party for 40 people...Sat at 10am!

MELANIE: For my son’s first birthday, I had made a beautiful teddy bear cake (not like I’m a professional or anything, but gotta love the Women’s Weekly cake books). I just needed somewhere to hide it away from the kids and the cat! …Unfortunately I forgot that my husband can open doors and childgates! He saw it, and being careful not to step on it, decided to reach over it to get something on the shelf opposite... needless to say my beautiful cake required touch up work where his big toe ‘slipped’!! Not funny at the time!!

Aww, thanks everyone!

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