Birthday cake?

[Iveneverseen]

Hey So it was DD2's birthday on Monday. we had a party for her and had paid to get cake's made, by a cake maker, who is apparently very popular and her cakes do look fab.

anyways we paid £85 for 29 cupcakes (for her birthday party)
and another cake (6 inches round cake but looked bigger with icing and dec on)

cakes looked great, but they didn't taste like they were worth £85. tbh we got DD2 a cake made in a bakers for £12 and they didn't taste any better than that. (looked better though)

worst part was DD2 didn't like the taste of the cakes. so she has barely ate any of it. everyone else thinks it's ok but I'm not so keen.

The big cake has jam and buttercream filling and the cupcakes were just the icing on top. the cupcakes were better tasting but again nothing special.

when we got married our cake was 8 inches round and we had 65 cupcakes and that was £180 (this was made by a different person) and the cupcakes were yummy but cake was not nice and we ate a tiny bit and binned the rest.

so it seems like the cakes look great but taste average. it seems a lot of money to spend on cakes that don't taste the part.

I'd love to have gorgeous cake for my other two kids birthday but am against spending a fortune on a cake that isn't mouthwatering but a lot of shop bought ones aren't great either.

Help!! anyone else find this?

I notice cupcakes tend to be better tasting than the big cake?!

 

[RachA]

I tend not to buy celebration cakes because they don't taste that great to me. I can bake cakes and without sounding bigheaded they tend to taste yummy (i'm pretty crap at decorating them though lol). What i tend to find with bought cakes is that the recipe has to be slightly different to made because it has to last. Also, unless you ask it's likely that they won't put either almond or vanilla essence into the cake mixture. This makes a huge difference as i find that cakes without one of these two things taste incredibly bland.

 

[aimee-lou]

I guess I was lucky. I bought a cake for hubby's birthday and it cost £50 for a 14"x10" cake decorated fully. I requested cherry jam and vanilla buttercream and she did me proud! I guess it's just the luck of the draw with these things. I did ask for recommendations and she came highly recommended (had 4 seperate people tell me to go to her!).

I agree that £85 seems steep.

For DS1's birthday back in October we bought a 'Decorate at home' cake from Morrisons for £8, some icing and candles and made it ourselves lol. Cake tasted lovely, went around the 22 party bags plus a whole lot to take home for tea, and looked pretty good.

My hubby made DS2's 1st birthday cake entirely too.

Pic of hubby's cake for comparison too.

 

[Shell181]

maybe have a go at making one there's so many recipes online just pick one and go for it!! then have a go at decorating it it hasn't gotta be perfect and u can be proud u made it yourself ( but if it does come out pants just have a supermarket cake on stand by!!! lol) there's loads of ideas on cake decorations on Google and it would be a hell of lot cheaper than buying one!! anyways here's a pic of the cake i made my daughter a few weeks ago im by no means a professional but i was pretty pleased with it. I've just learned alot from the internet!!! HTH https://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y523/shellbell181/2014-01-17210017_zpsff8f5539.jpg

 

[Iveneverseen]

Wow that's amazing, that must have took you ages to do. I wish I was good at making cakes and had the time.
well done you. my daughter has decided she wants rainbow cupcakes for her birthday. x

 

[JJKCB]

If you want a nice tasting cake ASDA do a mint Aero one that was amazing (I rarely eat chocolate and dont like cake but loved it so much I went and bought a 2nd)

 

[Racheldigger]

Assuming this has worked, this is the birthday cake I made for Rowan. It's made out of an ordinary round Victoria sandwich - the kind we all learned how to make at school - baked as a four-egg mix in two deep tins, then just sandwiched with strawberry jam, cut up and reassembled in butterfly shape, covered with buttercream, and decorated with joyous abandon by the birthday girl herself, who had received a set of assorted cake decorations from Grandma for her birthday. It was delicious, and believe me, if I can do it, any fool can.

 

[Boomerslady]

I'm not one for buying cakes in because I can't afford it!! Generally I'll make cupcakes and buy a shop bought cake too.

Just an idea on rainbow cupcakes, they're very very easy to make. You just make a vanilla sponge mix (I use hummingbird recipes, they're soooo yummy) and split it into 4/5 bowls then add different food colouring to each one. Then add a spoon of each colour into a cupcake case until you've used all the mix up. Buttercream icing is easy to make, and all you need is a proper Wilton piping bag and piping nozzle (£5 max on eBay) and you'll have perfect looking cupcakes.

 

[Eternal]

I'm so not a baker, in fact, I t would save me money to pay someone that amount due to all my failed attempts

And I'm not creative, so hubby decorates them lol. I ended up buying shop ones last year as I was sick with morning sickness and couldn't stomach the idea of making cakes, and parties don't happen as my eldest has autism and can't cope with noise and disruption of parties. But I'll probably make theirs again this year, I like you expect the cakes to taste as well as look good.

 

[seoj]

You can make some pretty great looking cupcakes very easily... I love to bake, so for my LO's 1st bday, I made cupcakes and placed them in a cute cupcake holder with pretty paper cups... then made simple frosting and left it white- then bought some edible butterflies to put on top... easy peasy!

I've been disappointed with the cost/look of cakes in the past-- so now I just always make my own, or buy cupcakes from specialty shops that I know are yummy!

Oh- also the frosting on the buttflies made it easy to put on my LO's head for cute pics! haha

 

[Wriggley]

i decided to make my oldest sons 1st birthday cake..... 45 eggs later i had only just managed to get the sponge right!!!

ended up costing me over 100 quid because i paid a lady to make hungry catapillar decorations too!

last 2 birthday we have been at butlins, the first time we had there cake which was part of their party package it was chocolate and tasted amazing! it was huge and the whole package was only 15 quid! included a decorated table with heluim balloons the lot! second time we brought a shop cake and put a personalised topper on it. It tasted nice but no as nice as the previous cakes

il be making my youngest sons 1st birthday cake because i did his brothers but im bit nervous to do it because my oldests cake was so hard to do haha

 

[Noodlebear]

I bought LO's birthday cake from M&S It didn't cost the earth but looked really good and was delicious!

https://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q718/Tish1992/1001214_10201102508777658_1444455184_n_zps0eb58905.jpg

One of the wings broke a bit but that was our fault lol

 

[Smanderson]

I bought LO's birthday cake from M&S It didn't cost the earth but looked really good and was delicious!

https://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q718/Tish1992/1001214_10201102508777658_1444455184_n_zps0eb58905.jpg

One of the wings broke a bit but that was our fault lol

Gorgeous cake! I second M&S! We had their cakes for our wedding and it was gorgeous looking and tasting so much so we have ordered the number 1 with a train on it for my DS's 1st birthday next week and I can't wait to try it haha! They also do other numbers and loads of designs worth a look x