Adventures in Cake Decorating

I love making birthday cakes for my kids, but my cakes have always been unimaginative in the past.  My cakes were frosted, and I tried to write something simple or just use sprinkles.  I am not very artistic, but I wanted to create cakes that my children will love.  Fancy cake designs just seemed like they were far too advanced for my ability level.

When my son turned five, I decided that I was going to try to be more adventurous.  I made a hot air balloon cake.  

I cut the cakes to form the hot air balloon shape.  I added food coloring to vanilla frosting for the balloon's design.  I used Twizzlers and candy letters to decorate it.  It turned out a little messier looking than I would have liked, but my son loved it.

The next cake I decorated was a rainbow cake for my daughter's 4th birthday.  I used a bunt pan to make two cakes.  I cut the cakes in half and attached them together with frosting.  Then I stood it up on it's side.  My daughter wanted chocolate frosting and m&m's.  I used red, orange, yellow, green, and blue m&m's.  I needed a purple, so I added purple Skittles and white frosting to make clouds.  This cake was really easy to design, because all I did was place candies all over the cake.  I did learn an important lesson this time about cake presentation.  Professional cake decorators frost cakes twice.  When you frost the cake for the first time, cake crumbs get mixed in with the frosting.  Then the second layer of frosting goes cleanly over the crumb layer.  This definitely help make this cake look more clean than my previous attempts.

I have made a couple of cakes since the rainbow cake, but my favorite is the robot.  

 
I have been enjoying decorating these cakes for my children.  What cakes have you decorated lately?  Do you have any tips for those of us who are learning?

-Cassidy