If your child has a birthday celebration coming up, it’s fun to plan some creative birthday cake ideas.
My children love themed cakes and they’re great to add to the birthday party theme.
No matter what theme you’re doing, you can always find a themed cake to go with their special day.
I love to make my kids birthday cakes and cupcakes myself because I can give it my own unique designs.
There are so many fun ways to make themed cakes and cupcakes to celebrate your child’s birthday.
Check out all the awesome themed cakes I have made and some different ways to personalize a delicious cake for your child.
Why Should I Make My Own Cake?
Baking your own cakes and cupcakes gives you full creative control to do exactly what you want. You will know what ingredients are going into the cakes and you can omit anything you want.
One of the issues we have when planning cakes is to make sure it is peanut-free for my son.
Store-bought cakes from large grocery store chains typically have peanut cross-contamination, so baking my own cakes is much easier.
If your child has a peanut allergy, check out my post Peanut-Free Alternatives and Brands.
This is the same for any other allergen out there. You can omit eggs, dairy, gluten, tree nuts, and anything else you want to omit. You will know what you put in the cakes.
What Flavors Should I Go With?
The options are endless when you look at the different types of delicious birthday cakes you can make.
Whether you want to make a custom cake, an elegant cake, or an easy cake, the flavor on the inside of the themed birthday cake can be whatever you want.
Some of the best flavors around are chocolate cake, vanilla cake, lemon cake, strawberry shortcake, white cake, ice cream cake, red velvet cake, pineapple cakes, wafer paper cake, Bundt cakes, and so many more.
You could make a simple cake from a box cake mix or make your fun cake completely from scratch.
Your kid's birthday will be perfect for them no matter what.
Best Birthday Cake Ideas
1. Lion
A Jungle themed birthday party wouldn’t be complete without a lion.
This awesome lion cake brings together cake and cupcakes, so your guests get a choice. You could make two different cake flavors for the cake and the cupcakes to give more options.
Start this cake by baking two 9” round cakes for the lion’s head and 24 cupcakes for the lion’s mane.
For the head, stack your two cake rounds on top of each other with frosting between them. I recommend using vanilla buttercream frosting and frost the entire head. Pipe frosting circles for the ears to make them higher than the rest of the frosting. Then use black fondant to create the face, which includes eyes, nose, mouth, and whiskers.
For the mane, pipe chocolate frosting on top of each cupcake. Add frosting underneath the head and mane to keep it in place on the cake round board. This will prevent everything from sliding around. You could also add a nice message onto the cake board in frosting.
This is the perfect way to bring the jungle theme into any party.
2. My Little Pony
Cupcakes are a great way to show off a My Little Pony rainbow cake.
Start your My Little Pony cake by baking cupcakes in the flavor of your choice. I added a special touch by getting My Little Pony Cupcake liners.
Line your cupcakes up on your cake round board into the shape of a rainbow. Be sure to add a few at the bottom to add the clouds for your ponies to sit on.
When adding color to frosting, you will want to use gel food coloring instead of liquid food coloring. Liquid food coloring will make your frosting too thin and difficult to pipe out of piping bags. Create 7 piping bags of colors to create the rainbow and 1 piping bag of white for the clouds. I used Ziploc bags, and I did not bother with piping bag tips for the colors because I wanted a round line. The white bag I added a star tip to give it a fluffy cloud look.
Pipe the frosting out on the cupcakes in a curved line to give the rainbow effect. Make as many lines as necessary to make your line the thickness you desire. I did 2 lines per color. Pipe the white frosting out at the bottom of the rainbow for the clouds.
I added mini My Little Pony characters to the clouds and a My Little Pony candle to light, which pulled it all together perfectly. You could also add a nice message onto the cake board in frosting.
If you are interested in seeing how I planned my daughter’s My Little Pony birthday party, check out my post My Little Pony Birthday Party Ideas.
3. Baby Grogu
For my son’s first birthday, we went with a Baby Grogu theme. That meant I had to make him a Baby Grogu cake.
I started by making two 9” cake rounds. You can use any flavor cake you would like. I placed one cake round in the middle of my cake board for the body. I cut the second cake round in half and used half for the head and half for the bottom. I positioned the curved part of each half on the inside. I was able to use my bread knife to carve out the ears and hands.
Make two piping bags to decorate your cake. One piping bag was vanilla buttercream frosting with green gel food coloring and the other piping bag was chocolate buttercream frosting. Using the piping bags gives you more control of the placement of the frosting. You can pipe the frosting out thick and smooth with a knife. Be sure to put the frosting between the cake pieces to hold it together. The frosting will act like glue once it hardens. The green frosting, I used for Grogu’s face and hands and the chocolate I used for his outfit.
I gave my Grogu a more cartoon look so I could keep him simple. I placed two chocolate covered cookies on his face for the eyes, but you could use fondant as well. You could also add a nice message onto the cake board in frosting.
If you’re looking to throw your very own Baby Grogu party, check out my post Baby Grogu Birthday Party Ideas.
4. Gabby’s Dollhouse
Gabby’s Dollhouse is currently a very popular show on Netflix. My children have grown to love the show, so it was fitting we had a Gabby’s Dollhouse birthday party for my daughter.
For this party, I decided to make rainbow cupcakes with Gabby toppers. I make Funfetti cupcakes with rainbow cupcake wrappers to start. I then piped rainbow swirls on top of each cupcake and topped them with edible glitter. It added the perfect touch of glitter.
If you are interested in the complete step-by-step directions to make your own Rainbow Cupcakes, check out my post How to Make Rainbow Sparkle Cupcakes.
Head on over to my post Gabby’s Dollhouse Birthday Party Ideas to see everything you need to plan your very own Gabby’s Dollhouse birthday party.
5. Blue’s Clues
When I was younger, Steve was spending his days looking for Blue’s Clues with Blue. Although I was too old to watch, my younger cousin loved the show. Now my children love watching Josh and Blue.
My son had to have Blue’s Clues birthday party, so I gave him a Blue’s Clues cake, complete with a paw print.
The Blue’s Clues Cake was made using two 9” cake rounds, and you can use any flavor you would like. I used one of the cake rounds as Blue’s head. The second cake round I had to manipulate a bit. I cut two ovals out of the cake round for the ears and placed those by the head. A bow tie looking piece of cake was left to work with. I cut this piece of cake in half and turned the pieces towards each other to create the paw print circle. At this point, I was able to carve the paw print cake into a perfect circle.
I made 2 piping bags of frosting. Leave some white frosting to make the white eyes and red tongue. One bag was dark blue that I made with white buttercream frosting and dark blue gel food coloring. The second bag was light blue I made with white buttercream frosting and light blue gel food coloring.
I piped the light blue frosting over the top of the entire cake. I used a knife to smooth out the frosting. I used the dark blue frosting to create the spots, nose, and paw print. I used a knife to smooth out this frosting as well.
Place a circle of white frosting on the face to create the eyes and use the dark blue to complete the eyes. Mix red gel food coloring with white frosting to create the tongue at the bottom. You could also add a nice message onto the cake board in frosting.
If you want to throw a Blue’s Clues birthday party for your child, head on over to my post Blue’s Clues Birthday Party Ideas.
6. Strawberry Cake
For my mom’s birthday party, I wanted to give her the perfect cake. She loves strawberries so what better cake to make for her than a strawberry cake.
I started by making four 9” cake rounds. I layered the cakes using strawberry jam, strawberry frosting, and sliced strawberries on each layer in that order. I then frosted the entire cake in strawberry frosting.
Separately, I made chocolate covered strawberries using fresh strawberries and melted milk chocolate. Once the chocolate covered strawberries hardened, I used a very thin cut bag to pipe small designs of strawberry frosting onto the strawberries.
I placed a Happy Birthday cake topper on top of the cake along with a few of the chocolate covered strawberries. I gave the rest of the chocolate covered strawberries to the birthday girl as a gift.
You could pipe a message on top of the cake if you would like as well.
7. Religious Cake
You may be looking to celebrate a special occasion using a cross, so a cross made of cupcakes is a nice way to do this.
To create your cross cake, you will need to start by baking 24 cupcakes in the flavor of your choice. You can make the cross larger if you need more than 24 cupcakes, but we will be using 24 in our example. I used silver cupcake wrappers for my cupcakes to give them a simple, but pretty look.
Place your cupcakes in the shape of a cross. I did less cupcakes at the top of the cross and placed a single at the end of each point. Once you are sure with your design, Place frosting at the bottom of each cupcake to hold them onto the cake board. The frosting will act as glue and keep them from sliding around.
Fill your piping bag with white buttercream frosting. I used a star tip to give it a pretty design. Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake in an ice cream cone design. Fill each hole between the cupcakes with frosting and finish off the top with a star design. I also made diamonds around each star to fill in the gaps.
To add some color, I added blue candies to each filled in space between the cupcakes. My party was for my son, but you could add any color cakes if you would like. You could also add a nice message onto the cake board in frosting.
8. Smash Cake
One of the most popular party traditions is the first birthday smash cake. The birthday child receives their own mini birthday cake to eat on their own. This cake gets its name from the way the birthday child smashes their hands and face into the cake.
You want to make this cake specially for the birthday child, so I like to go with more simple flavors. For their 1st birthday cakes, my children both had vanilla cake with white icing. You can use your judgment for what would be best for the birthday child.
I started by making two mini cakes with mini cake pans. It’s not necessary to make a full-sized whole cake for one child. I used frosting between each cake round to layer the cakes. Cover your cake in your frosting and use a knife to give the outside of the cake a fluffy look.
Add your decorations to the top of the cake for your birthday child. I added a Baby Grogu cake topper, Happy Birthday cake topper, and a number 1 candle.
You can create some of the best cakes for your children yourself by following some of your favorite easy birthday cake recipes.
Some kids’ birthday cake designs you could try to make, and I would love to make in the next few years are:
- Superhero Cake
- Princess Cake
- Minion Cakes
- Unicorn Cakes
- Captain America Cake
- Mickey Mouse Cakes
- Jojo Siwa Cake
- Cocomelon Cake
- Football Cake
A special birthday cake is such a big part of birthday parties.
You sing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy or girl, and everyone gets served cake or cupcakes to eat to celebrate.
This is why I like to give each of my children a homemade birthday cake that stands out.
Do you like to make special themed birthday cakes for your child’s birthday party?
What is a unique birthday cake idea you have made?
Let us know in the comments below!
