Tag Archives: Baking and Confections

Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake

It’s getting closer and closer to finalizing your child’s birthday party. Now its time to look at the actual Day of the party.

Hospitality and food is a big thing in the Middle East…. So serving just cake won’t cut it in this part of the world! If you can get away with it then good on you 🙂

Since a major highlight of the Birthday is the cake, other than the birthday child off course!I’m dedicating this whole post to be about THE CAKE!

While I see so many bakeries in town (Kuwait) and between every cupcake business is another cupcake business I’ve yet to really find one that are tasty and not horrendously expensive.

Cake for KD70+ (about$250) SERIOUSLY! and something seems to always go wrong. The color, the taste, the flavor, the cake is to dry, the frosting’s too hard and the worst is the filling or frosting that tastes like stale butter. To all you bakeries I’m sorry, I apologies but this is my opinion.

Being big on baking and cake/cupcake decorating I make my own cakes and cupcakes. They might not look that professional but I take pride in them and the girls and guests never complained.

Cake from scratch, buttercream frosting, fondant and all. Now you don’t have to go to my extreme but I really think investing a little time doing the cake and pocketing the money or spending it on something else for the birthday is well worth it.

After having done several birthdays I’ve come to a huge realization….. kids prefer cupcakes!!! So even though I’ve made fancy 3 tiered fondant covered cakes at the end it’s pretty to look at but they reach for the little stuff.

The big cake I make for me….I enjoy it! So I’ve downsized from the past.

As a result the big cake is used for the candles, singing and the adults to eat. While the cupcakes are for kids.

To figure out how much to serve use this general guideline:
12″ round cake serves 28
1.5 cupcake per child

This means for every 28 adults you can add a Tier and for 10 kids make 15 cupcakes. Fairly simple don’t you think?!

As for flavors stick to the basics. Chocolate and vanilla, but make MORE chocolate than vanilla!

The best frosting ever is the basic buttercream frosting. Easy to make and spread or pipe.

As for fondant I make a marshmallow fondant which is easy to mold and roll.

Now if you don’t want to spend all that time in the Kitchen a boxed cake and jar of frosting will do the trick just as much. All you need to do is just add some food coloring here and there, sprinkles, ornaments/décor or my personal favorite cupcake picks!!
(Cupcake picks DIY also coming soon!)

So spend a little time in the kitchen, get your kids to mix and measure with you. It’s not just about the end result it’s how much fun you can have on the way!! That for sure falls under “Making Life Memorable!”