How to Make Unique and Creative Birthday Cakes

Creative birthday cakes are the best birthday cakes!

They can be anything from simple to spectacular, but if they are unique and creative, they will be a guaranteed hit!

So how do you come up with that one-of-a-kind cake that will knock their socks off?

See the few simple steps below that will help you make the coolest birthday cake ever!

Give it some thought: Use your imagination to come up with an idea that is a "custom-fit" for the birthday guy or gal. Think about things that they like to do, or things that they are interested in to get you started. My sister is a Starbucks fanatic, so these cute little coffee cupcakes were a perfect fit for her. Yep, these are cupcakes, baby! Caramel Macchiatto and Strawberries and Cream Latte. YUM!

Find a picture of your idea, or sketch one out on paper. Make a copy of the picture, scaling it to fit your cake. Take the picture to your local bakery and have it made into a sugar transfer, or transfer the design onto the cake yourself using a frozen buttercream transfer. I transferred the design onto this cake using the design from a paper plate!

Think outside the box: Add some dimension to your cakes by using food, flowers or cake toppers. For this camping cake, a forest of evergreen trees was created by covering upside down ice cream cones with green frosting, and a tent was made by propping pop-tarts up on their sides.

Lay it out: Once you have an idea of what you want to do, create a layout. Decide how you want the cake to look, and where you are going to place your picture, your writing, or any cake toppers/decorations you plan on using.

Embellish: Embellishments put the finishing touches on your masterpiece! Frosting borders around the edges of the cake make it look professional and are really easy to do. Ribbon makes a great border, too! Just measure a piece long enough to wrap around the cake and tack into place. You can see how it looks on this tier cake.

That should be enough to get your imagination working. With a little bit of thought and a little more effort, you'll be pumping out creative birthday cakes in no time!

Need some design inspiration to get you started?

Take a look at our Birthday Cake Design Gallery to see the fun cakes that we've created!