Easy Cakes For Kids To Make

I had a lot of fun strolling down memory lane to put this collection of over a dozen easy cakes for kids. Each one is simple enough for little hands to help with. Perfect for birthdays or any occasion.

What Makes These Cakes Easy To Make

• Boxed cake mix. Most of these cakes require a boxed cake mix. This gives kids confidence as it minimizes the amount of measuring they need to do as they are getting the hang of baking.
• Creative decorations. Many kids struggle with piping using frosting tips. These cakes use creative decorations like fondant that they can roll like play dough or candy that they can mold into different shapes. The puppy paw cupcakes use Oreos and Junior Mints!
• Simple shapes. Round cakes and cupcakes are the base of most of these cake ideas. If they do need to be cut, the cuts are simple to make.

What Others Are Saying

I made the hamburger cake this week for my 9 yr olds first day back at school after the summer holiday. It turned out so well! I wish I could ad a pic on here because I'm so proud of how great it looked and it tasted amazing, especially the 'patty' Thanks for such a great recipe!—- Claire

Made the hamburger cake today and it was amazing! I used brownie mix for the“meat” and it looked more realistic. Made a whole pickle instead of the slices. I love the instructions. Thank you!—-Stephanie

This simple hedgehog cake is a small round cake. My son was in his hedgehog phase and requested a hedgehog birthay cake. The frosting is applied using a "grass" frosting tip! The eyes are candy eyes, and the nose is a black jelly bean. Here is how I made it:

• Step 1: Bake 3 small round cakes. Frost with chocolate frosting.
• Step 2: Outline the face with beige frosting then fill in and smooth with a spatula.
• Step 3: Place the candy eyes and nose onto the cake.
• Step 4: Use a grass tip and a variety of brown shades of frosting to pipe the spikes onto the cake!

Pigicorn Cake

Not exactly a classic cake, but hilarious and fun, still the same. My daughter loves pigs, so we made a pink pigicorn cake for her birthday a few years ago. Here is how we made this cake:

• Step 1: Bake and stack 3 round cakes.
• Step 2: Frost the cakes with pink icing.
• Step 3: Add sprinkles around the base.
• Step 4: Decorate cake with foam flowers, a unicorn horn and eyes.
• Step 5: Don't forget a plastic snout.

We found everything we needed on Amazon.

Easy Hamburger Cake

This hamburger cake is a classic childhood cake. My son and I made it to bring to his first Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet when he was 8. There are so many ways to get creative with the toppings on the cake. Here is what we did:

• Step 1: Bake 3 round cakes: 2 yellow and 1 devil's food. There is no need to frost them since they already look like a bun and a burger patty.
• Step 2: Start with the bottom bun and add frosting in the center to hold the cakes together. We used a leaf tip for the lettuce---squirt and pull, squirt and pull.
• Step 3: Make pickles and cheese from marshmallow fondant (but you can buy store-bought fondant), and ketchup and sesame seeds using a round frosting tip.

Such a fun and easy cake! I especially loved that we didn't need to frost the outside of the cake!

Macaroni and Cheese Cake

This cake is truly original and fun. My son wanted to make a macaroni and cheese cake. We had nothing to go by so we made it up as we went. Here is how we made this cake:

• Step 1: Baked 1 cake mix in the Pampered Chef batter bowl @ 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes to create the bowl.
• Step 2: Scooped out the top 2" to make an area for the macaroni to fit inside.
• Step 3: Use orange fondant to create ropes and then cut the ropes into little sections with a butter knife and curve them to create the macaroni.
• Step 4: Cover the cake with a light coat of buttercream frosting and then add the fondant.

Note: You can also skip the fondant on the cake and cover the bowl with buttercream, too. A star tip is easy for kids to use and would quickly cover the surface.

Yep, HE did the fondant! I rolled it out for him, and he draped it and pressed it around the edges. It didn't need to be perfect, but I think it turned out perfect.

Vintage Bunny Cake

My mom made this classic Easter bunny cake for my first birthday and I had fun recreating the cake with my own girls! Such a simple cake to make using only 2 round cakes. No special cake pan required. Here is how we made our bunny cakes:

• Step 1: Bake 2 round cakes.
• Step 2: Cut the cakes according to the diagram to form the ears and bow tie.
• Step 3: Frost the cake with whatever kind of frosting you'd like.
• Step 4: Use candies and sprinkles to decorate the bunny cake.

Adorable Minion Cupcakes

EASY. FUN. HILARIOUS! Every family needs to make a batch of these easy minion cupcakes. We made these just for fun. They are pretty straightforward. Here is how we made them:

• Step 1: Bake a batch of cupcakes. Frost with blue frosting
• Step 2: Cut a Twinkie to size and place a Twinkie on top of each cupcake.
• Step 3: Use Smarties for the eyes, and frosting to make all of the details!

Princess Pull Apart Cake

This princess pull-apart cake was incredibly easy to put together for my daughter's birthday one year. Here is how we did it:

• Step 1: Bake a batch of cupcakes.
• Step 2: Arrange the cupcakes into the shape of a dress.
• Step 3: Frost the cupcakes with a rosette frosting tip.
• Step 4: Add candy pearls for the necklace and waist on the dress.

Pepperoni Pizza Cake

In all honesty, this is a giant sugar cookie, but it would be a fun "cake" for kids to enjoy on their birthday. It's fun for kids to make too! Here is how we made our giant sugar cookie pizza:

• Step 1: Bake a 14" round sugar cookie on a pizza pan. Poke holes into the dough before baking to prevent it from puffing up too much. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Step 2: Spread red frosting across the cooled cookie for the sauce, and use white frosting for the cheese.
• Step 3: Cut fruit roll-ups into circles and place on top for the "pepperoni".

Tip for making the cheese: I used Ziploc baggies and filled 2 of them with white icing. Then I trimmed off one corner from each baggie. 1 corner was a VERY tiny hole, and the other was a little bigger. That way, it would look like shredded cheese in different stages of being melted. I drizzled and dropped the icing all over the place randomly.

Puppy Paw Cupcakes

An Oreo and Junior Mints. It doesn't get simpler for these puppy paw cupcakes! Ruby made these for Kaylee's 7th birthday.

Little Chicken Cake

No special cake decorating tools required here! This little mound of a cake turned out pretty cute and is just covered in coconut. Here is how I made this chicken birthday cake:

• Step 1: Stack 3 small round cakes. Trim to round the top off. Frost with white frosting.
• Step 2: Cover the entire cake in coconut.
• Step 3: Use starburst candies for the beak, feet, and comb. Use jelly beans for the eyes.
• Step 4: Add toasted coconut around the base for straw.

Butterfly Cupcakes

These easy butterfly cupcakes couldn't be simpler to make! The perfect baking project for kids.

• Step 1: Make a batch of cupcakes and frost them with whatever kind and color of frosting you'd like.
• Step 2: Add jelly candies for the wings.
• Step 3: Add mini gummy worms for the center of the butterfly.

Camping Birthday Cake

A fun and easy cake to make for any outdoor enthusiast! Here is how we made it:

• Step 1: Bake 2 round cakes, one large and one small. Frost with chocolate frosting.
• Step 2: Cover the edge with chocolate rocks.
• Step 3: Create a lake using blue frosting, goldfish crackers and candy rocks as a border.
• Step 4: Create trees using Bugle corn chips covered with frosting.

Cupcake Flower Cake

Kaylee made this cupcake flower cake for a tea party she hosted for a bunch of her little friends. It was incredibly easy to make. Here is how we did it:

• Step 1: Bake one small round cake and 10 cupcakes.
• Step 2: Frost the cake with a spatula, then frost the cupcakes with a rosette frosting tip.
• Step 3: Add sprinkles.

Classic Teddy Bear Birthday Cake

My mom made me a classic teddy bear cake for one of my birthdays as a child. My kids made one for me decades later! We had fun putting this German chocolate teddy bear cake together. Here is how we made it:

• Step 1: Bake 2 (8") round cakes and 6 cupcakes.
• Step 2: Arrange cakes and cupcakes into a teddy bear shape.
• Step 3: Frost with coconut frosting.
• Step 4: Add candy details.

Basketball Pull Apart Cupcake Cake

A fun basketball cupcake cake for any basketball player! Pull-apart cakes are fun because each piece of cake is actually a cupcake. Here is how I made it:

• Step 1: Bake a batch of cupcakes.
• Step 2: Arrange cupcakes in a large round shape.
• Step 3: Frost cupcakes with orange frosting.
• Step 4: Decorate cupcakes with Reese's Pieces candies to look like basketball details.