Our family celebrates 3 december birthdays together and my little guy is one of them. The other two are 35 years and 55 years old. We have done this each year but when we do I feel like he can't have his own cake.
I was thinking I could make a mini train cake with bite size box cars or do a mini gingerbread house all decked out in candy just for him. Then everyone else can eat the big cake and he can have is own special one.
Any suggestions? Even on how to do either of these?
I appreciate everyone's input! I opted to do a flat graham cracker train! It is a mixed bread of a gingerbread house and a train cake! He can still have his own special thing and it will still be decorated with all kinds of fun candies!
It takes almost no work at all! I think he will be just as thrilled! As long as trains and candy are involved!
They both sound cute but I bet her would love the train. My son is 3 and he absolutely loves trains!! :)
I agree that your son should absolutely have his OWN cake! He's a little boy and his birthday should always be special. It's fine to combine the party and celebrate the three birthdays on the same day (especially during busy December!), but there should always be two cakes. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a tiny cake just for him, either. What's wrong with having two smaller cakes? If they're two different flavors, everyone can choose which one they'd like! I'm sure the two other adults won't mind a bit! Also, my birthday is next week. I know what it's like to have a December birthday. Don't have a cake that has anything to do with Christmas! Birthdays are different then Christmas! A lot of times people will even try to combine gifts and give a birthday/Christmas gift! Kids with June birthdays don't have to put up with this! Ok. The rant is over. Sorry. What I'm saying is that your son should have a regular birthday cake of whatever character or toy that he likes. The train is a very good idea! Good luck and have fun at the party!
We consolidate birthday celebrations, mainly because we've had births so close together (in April, we went from 4 birthdays in 5 days to 6 in a week). When children are involved, they each get their choice of cake flavor. They are decorated with "happy birthday - insert name here" so each kid feels special.
A mini cake is an excellent way to not go overboard and make sure your son's celebration does not get lost in the shuffle.
S.,
Go for it! Be creative. I'm sure your son would love it. I remember all the cakes my grandma made for me as a kid. It made me feel special. So what if you have to throw away some cake that isn't eaten. Make a yummy adult cake and a fun kid cake. Everyone will be impressed with your creativity and efforts. As far as ideas, I made a train cake for my son as well. I copied ideas from sites on the internet. I think I just typed in train birthday cakes. I ended up baking the cake in several small loaf pans for the cars and wheels were oreos and licorice for railroad tracks. My son loved it! The adults all happily ate blue and green iced cakes as well. Good luck.
I made my 3 year old son a train cake for his last birthday and he loved it!! I did not use any special molds - just a rectangle cake then cut it into pieces. I used 1 chocolate and one white so people could have their choices. I had some great ideas for how to decorate it with candy. It was adorable. I have a great photo of it - I will try to send you the photo (if I can figure out how to) -- if you don't get the photo, email me at ____@____.com and I can send it to you!
Hi S.,
I just love the train cake idea! The gingerbread house would make it seem more like Christmas than his special birthday. There is nothing wrong with making his birthday special for him. I'm sure the others would agree. Have fun baking!!
Personally I woudl do the train, I have heard to many adults with December birthdays who feel like thier day was incorporated into Christmas way to much. Since he is already sharing it with two grown ups, make it special with the train.
There is cake pan for the mini train cake. We made it for my son's 2nd birthday. Each person has their own car. I think the level of work involved depends on the number of people you have. We had 22 people, so decorating bacame a chore, but when it was done, it was BEAUTIFUL. Gingerbread houses can be easily made using graham crackers. The guests can decorate their own. The icing receipe can be found on the internet easily. We made the graham cracker houses on Christmas Eve with the kids last year. Good luck.
S.,
We made a mini-train cake for one of my boys birthdays. What I did was covered my largest cutting board with tin foil and laid pretzel rods around the edge of the board to make the track (a big oval) I got pretzel rods that were only 2 or 3 inches long. Then I got licorace and laid it long ways over the pretzel rods and that made the train tracks.
Next we baked 2 9 x 13 cakes 1 chocolate and 1 yellow when they were cool we cut them into squares (you can choose the size to match the width of the tracks you made) and those became boxcars.
We made the engine out of several pieces of cake stacked together (with frosting as the glue) and did the same with the caboose.
We frosted each box car and then "filled" it with different cargo. You really only need to cover the top to make it look full. We put unwrapped Tootsi rolls on one for logs. Candy corn on another for corn. We put M&M's on one (brown ones) and called it coal. We put shredded coconut on one and called it hay, squares of a hershey bar can be bricks . You are only limited by your imagination.
You could just make the cake for everyone, but let him think its his. I'm sure the grownups will understand!
I have also seen this type of train done and they used frosted twinkies decorated as the box cars. It would definitly be easier, but I think the other way would be cuter. Hope this was helpful.
Small little loaf pans make great cars..String licorish for the tracks, and candy to decorate the cars. Makes a cute train.
Hi S.!
I just wanted to say that I think the idea of a "kid cake" is a great idea. I come from a family with many cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. We almost always had several birthdays at once. Each person would have their own cake. It was also nice to have the variety of choices for everyone!
As far as the kind of cake, let him choose!
Have fun!
I love both ideas of a cake, they are both creative! But if you want your child to have his own cake and feel that the da y is his, I suggest a small celebration of his birthday with just your own family, and then he can join your extended family for the usual celebration.
Having a cake for your son is a great idea. Everyone needs to feel special on their birthday!
NordicWare sells a cake pan that makes nine little train cars from engine to caboose. Each car is about 3 inches long. You can decorate the little cars however you'd like. The cheapest that I've seen it is at Amazon.com (type in "train cake pan") and it currently qualifies for free shipping.
NordicWare also makes some other cool cake pans, like a big castle and a pan that creates a bunch of little race cars.
I hope that your son has a great birthday, whatever you decide to do!
K
