Pretty Cakes Taste Better

With birthdays in March, May and July, our family's birthday season is pretty much over for the year (at least the ones I work on - mine's next, but I'm done baking birthday cakes until spring!). This year, I went a little overboard in the cake decorating department, but I had so much fun doing it! I thought I'd share with you my favorite place for birthday - and other! - cake decorating inspiration: Family Fun. While I love cleverly designed treats, some of the ideas out there can be tricky to execute, but I've been able to make pretty much everything I've tried from Family Fun, and for me that's saying a lot!

Like this cake, which I made a version of for my son's 3rd birthday:

Photo credit: Family Fun.
Click here for recipe and how-to.

And this one for my daughter's 5th birthday (which we didn't even eat at the party because I let the kids decorate cupcakes and they had so much fun eating those that I sort-of forgot about the cute house cakes until after the party was over - note to self: don't do cake *and* cupcakes next year, pick one or the other!)

... which was inspired by this one ...

Photo credit: Family Fun.
Click here for recipe and how-to.

And I haven't done it yet, but OH! I want to make these cupcakes like nothing else! :

Photo credit: Family Fun.
Click here for recipe and how-to.

I mean, how much cuter can you make a bunch of jelly-beans and a Starburst candy?!

Happy decorating, whatever your inspiration! I'm just glad to take a break from it until next year, when I promise - REALLY this time - to keep it simple.