WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• lots of icing: store bought or ingredients for icing recipe
• long bread knife (to level cakes if doing multi-layer or to cut into shapes)
• big and small spatulas to ice with
• icing gel for words
• icing smoothing tool (if you want to be really official)
• whatever else you want/need to decorate with: food coloring, fondant, sprinkles, candies, themed figurines, etc.

There are tons of easy icing recipes out there but also lots of delicious store bought options. My personal favorite is a store bought vanilla buttercream. You can use food coloring to create desired colors or buy ready to go icing pouches found in the baking isle of your local grocery or craft store.

If you’re doing a multi-layer cake you definitely want to use a knife to level off the top of the cake that will serve as the bottom layer. Then be sure to use a generous amount of icing on top of the bottom layer, which will be between the cakes, before you stack them. You may also cut your cake into other shapes and manipulate cut pieces of cake into a larger shape before you ice, using the icing as glue for your shaped cake.

You can buy all sorts of things to decorate your cake whether you’re keeping it simple, or trying to duplicate one you’ve seen for a specific theme.

For the Elmo cupcakes pictured, I used candy eyes and round orange chocolate candies for the noses which I bought at Party City. There are tons of helpful and easy to use items. You just have to know where to look!

Like I said, your grocery store baking aisle will have some decorating items and tools as well. The heavy hitters undoubtedly will be your craft stores like Jo-Ann’s and Michael’s, both of which have tons of cake decorating items.

When in doubt, think outside the box for what will work best for you. For example, the ears on the unicorn cake were large marshmallows.

My kids have loved watching me try different ideas! No matter how well I’ve thought they’ve turned out, they have absolutely loved the cakes every time. Layers have slid, icing dripped in the heat. Regardless, the homemade cakes always bring a smile and taste delicious. It does not need to be perfect! I have had many mishaps; those are the things you learn from for next time. They also make great stories and funny memories that kids will never let you forget.

Trust me, your people – kids especially – will love that you made it yourself. Happy baking!