Birthday Cake Design Ideas

From simply sweet to simply stunning, birthday cake design ideas are limited to only what you can imagine. Keep your own decorating skills in mind before coming up with your design, or plan to hire a professional decorator to make the more complicated creations. Always remember that no matter how good the cake looks on the outside, it needs to be just as good, if not better, on the inside.

Start the party off right with a birthday cake that features a large fondant star topper. Use brightly colored fondant in the celebrant's favorite colors to create a fabulous cake top that doesn't require a lot of work. Simple food-safe wire placed inside fondant cutouts make this cake topper easy enough for anyone to make.

Balloons are a common element on many cakes. To make them follow these instructions:

1. Place a large round tip on a pastry bag filled with icing.
2. Hold the bag straight above the spot where you want the balloon and pipe evenly, holding the tip inside the frosting.
3. When you have a nicely sized round ball, stop piping and pull the tip up. Smooth out any excess frosting.
4. Use a smaller round tip to pipe the balloon string.

Sometimes all a birthday cake needs are some simple piping decorations to make it look special. Use various tips and coordinating colors of buttercream icing to make a border, stripes, star drops and swirls on a frosted layer cake.

Flowers are a beautiful addition to any birthday cake design. Keep the birthday cake from looking like an anniversary or wedding cake by skipping the roses and using simple petal flowers with bright yellow and green accents.

Not everyone likes a mountain of frosting on a decorated cake. For these celebrants, use fruit for decoration. A simple way to honor someone's birthday is to use small round fruits, like blueberries or raspberries, to write the person's age on top of the cake.

Chocolate cake is a favorite for many youngsters. Use a bundt pan to make the cake in the shape of a donut, and continue the theme by sprinkling jimmies all over the cake before adding some festive candles and a topper.

The outdoorsman (or woman) in your family will love a camping themed cake. Fondant and modeling chocolate help create the tent, fire, cooler and wood on this awesome square cake. Get more birthday cake design ideas from whatever hobby the birthday boy or girl enjoys, from music to movies-almost anything goes when it comes to decorating a birthday cake.

Don't neglect the sides of the birthday cake. While it is important to have a design on the top, the sides are often what appear in many photos of blowing out the candles. Ruffles, patterned designs and polka dots are just a few design ideas for this often forgotten part of the birthday cake.

Choose a fun 3D shaped birthday cake for someone special. Vehicles are a popular choice, as are sports balls and animals. Sculpt the cake yourself or purchase a special pan that makes the process easier. Most pans come with instructions on how to decorate the cake.

Go beyond the typical birthday cake design ideas and make a cupcake birthday cake for the birthday man or woman in your life. Find more cake and cupcake ideas fit for a birthday in these LoveToKnow articles:

• Happy Birthday Cake Pictures
• Novelty Birthday Cakes
• Birthday Cupcake Cakes