KIDS' CAKES FOR CHILDREN'S PARTIES
Review by Barb & Ron Kroll
Kids' Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307463845 0307463842
Learn how to make birthday party cakes and other kids novelty cakes with more than 50 recipes for cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, icings, fillings and edible cake decorations.
Liv and Kaye Hansen provide cake decorating techniques and advice on cake decorating tools for whimsical theme cakes for children's parties. Kids cake designs range from Halloween cakes to animal cupcakes.
Cake decorating ideas
You want to host a children's party after reading Kids' Cakes just so that you can try some of these kids cake ideas. Each chapter and recipe in the cake decorating book begins with an introduction, which helps you organize the kids party and plan the menu.
In the sleepover parties chapter, for example, the authors suggest sleepover party games, and a banana chocolate chip cake, decorated like a bed, for the evening. For breakfast, after the sleepover party, they provide easy recipes for banana bear pancakes and oven French toast.
Party cake decorations for children
Cake decorators will find both easy and complex kids cake designs. Well-organized, with clear cake decorating instructions, each recipe specifies cake, icing and filling recipes, wafer chocolate colors, cake tins and which pastry bag tip is needed for each decoration.
Several recipes feature a Kids Can sidebar, with suggestions on how children can help make party cakes. In the ice cream cone cupcakes recipe, kids can create their own cupcake decorations, with colored sprinkles, chocolate chips and candied cherries.
Colorful photos by Ben Fink depict cakes decorated for kids parties, including a dinosaur cake, fire truck cake, rocket cake and treasure chest cake. Cake decorating templates can be photocopied, enlarged and covered with melted chocolate to make chocolate cake decorations.
How to make chocolate photos
If you want to decorate birthday party cakes with chocolate photos, Liv and Kaye Hansen provide step-by-step instructions and photos. You will learn how to cover the photo with cellophane, tint melted wafer chocolate, outline the figure with dark chocolate and fill in shadows.
Besides birthday cakes for kids, the 176-page cookbook includes decorated cookies (e.g., pirate cookies) and kids cupcake decorations (e.g., tea party cups).
Answers to cake decorating questions
The introduction to Kids' Cakes provides answers to common cake decorating problems. For example, use oil-based candy colors (e.g., Wilson) to tint wafer chocolate, because water-based food colors and gels make chocolate lumpy. A cake decorating color chart helps you mix colors into buttercream and melted wafer chocolate.
A Suppliers section lists online cake decorating suppliers of pastry bags, confectioners chocolate and cake decorating kits.
Sample recipes for kids' parties
Matt's fudge icing. Marshmallow fondant. Cinnamon swirl cupcakes. Peanut butter cake. White chocolate cake. Root beer cake. Funnel cakes. Milk chocolate cake. Cookie card. Super fudge brownies.
Contents
- Introduction
- The 1, 2, 3s: Getting Started
- Icing Recipes
- Filling Recipes
- The Basics of Cake Assembly
- Piping
- Confectioners Chocolate and the Chocolate Method
- A Splash of Color
- The Enchanted Tea Party
- The Best Sleepover Ever
- Pretty in Pink
- Digging for Treasure
- Start Your Engines
- Step Right Up
- It's A Zoo in There
- Trick and Treat
- What, No Cake?
- Templates
- Measurement Conversions
- Suppliers
- Index
Authors
This is the fourth cookie and cake decorating book by the mother and daughter team, Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen.