My Easy Birthday Cakes-Anyone Can Make These

I grew up on homemade birthday cakes, my mother made them for me my entire childhood. She made simple cakes, but very tasty cakes. My first ever store bought cake was for my 21st birthday, the only other two store bought cakes I have had were for my engagement and wedding, and that is it.

So when I got married I started making birthday cakes, first for my husband and me, then as I had children I made theirs also.

First ever birthday cake I had ever made. Very simple.

As you can see my first ever attempt at making a birthday cake was simple, but my husband loved the effort. What I find with homemade birthday cakes, people don't need perfection, kids especially just love the effort. They love that a cake was made for them, and they especially love a cake that tastes great. I love how excited they get when they first see their cake.

I have a three simple go to cakes that I make that are easy, these I call my lazy cakes, as they are so easy anyone can make them and they take very little effort.

Your first cake is the hardest as you don't know what you are doing, but with each and every new one you make you get better and better. I now make cakes not only for my family, but for my extended family and friends. They know they won't get store bought perfection, but they will get a great cake that tastes great to.

So here are my 'lazy' cakes, the ones that take very little effort, but look great and taste even better than they look.

1. Picture Perfect Cake

I love this one, just ice your favourite cake with a white coloured icing and decorate with whatever bright coloured lollies that you love. You can even make it themed like red and white for valentine's day, how you decorate it is up to you.

Find out how to make it at http://www.whatscookingella.com/blog/picture-perfect-cake2
Pin it: www.pinterest.com/pin/399413060677131723/

2. The Kit Kat Cake

Again ridiculously easy. Just make your favourite cake, ice it with your favourite icing. Place kit kats all around the kat and fill the centre with whatever you love, whether it be m&ms or Ferrero rochers or fruit. If you want a higher cake with less m&m's just bake two cakes, the cakes just need to be lower than the kit kats. Any cake trimmings I freeze and make chocolate truffles with.

You will need a lot of M&Ms for this cake, But that is okay, store uneaten ones to eat at a later date. I actually use a spoon to remove the ones that haven't touched the icing and place them in a bowl in the centre of the table, then serve up the rest of the cake.

This one I made for my niece, she is born in winter when raspberries cost a fortune. In summer when berries are cheaper I would pile on many more raspberries than you can see here.

Instead of kit kats I used wafer biscuits and Ferrero rochers on top

Find out how to make it at http://www.whatscookingella.com/blog/kit-kat-cake
Pin it: www.pinterest.com/pin/399413060675864071/

So these are my suggested cakes to make for beginners, you can decorate them however you like, but

Simple Smartie Cake

Again just ice your favourite cake with your favourite icing and decorate with smarties however you like, from simple to decorative. I like a Chocolate Mud Cake with a Chocolate Ganache here, as you can make it in advance and it doesn't need refrigeration. This cake below is a single cake, make it higher by baking two cakes and it will look even more impressive.

Find the cake recipe at http://www.whatscookingella.com/blog/chocolate-mud-cake2
Pin it: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/399413060682361005/

So there you three simple cake ideas that will get you started on your way to making lovely birthday cakes that are super easy to make, but look like you made a huge effort. And although we are trying to cut down on sugar, for me birthdays are the exception, be healthy other days.