Don’t waste any of your precious time and money on fancy, expensive cakes by becoming imaginative with a modest store-purchase cake for your child’s next party.
It might be a highly anticipated party with close buddies from school, a barbecue with loved ones, or a memorable birthday celebration for your kid. Regardless of what it is, there is one recurring theme in birthdays – the cake.
In case you are not a fan of spending big or if you are not an expert cake maker, fear not. Lauren Matheson, Woolworths ambassador and baking blogger from Create Bake Make, reveals her top five mud cake hacks to come up with a mega-sweet specialty.
Lolly extravaganza
A couple of cakes purchased from your local bakeshop is what is just required for this birthday cake hack. “Slice one cake in half and place the base onto your serving plate. Then, add a little store-bought chocolate icing before placing the second mud cake on top,” exclaims Lauren.
“Add a thin layer of icing around the sides of the mud cake and place Kit Kat pieces around the edge (you will need three blocks of Kit Kat chocolate to do this) and then add the remaining icing to the top of the cake and decorate with your child’s favorite lollies and chocolates,” she notes. Simply a cakewalk!
Construction cake
“Construction Cakes are my favorite cakes to make because it really doesn’t matter how messy they are,” remarks Lauren. In this particular cake hack, the necessary ingredients are a couple of cakes purchased from the store, chocolate icing, Maltesers and Crunchie pieces (or any preferred chocolate), and several toy diggers.
“To assemble, remove the icing from one of the mud cakes and place the cake onto your serving plate. Place a little icing on top before adding the second mud cake,” explains Lauren. “Then it’s time to have fun by ‘excavating’ part of the cake and decorating with more icing and using the chocolate pieces as boulders.”
Themed cake
“My kids love their favorite superhero, toys or characters being on their birthday cakes, and I love how easy it is to put these type of cakes together,” shares Lauren. The only items required are a store-purchased cake, a bucket of vanilla icing, lollipops for decoration, food coloring, and several figurines or toys that are suitable to the theme.
“To put it together, add a couple of drops of food coloring to the vanilla icing until you get the desired color, and then cover the mud cake with it. Then, simply decorate with your child’s favorite figurines and candles,” reveals Lauren.
Chocolate mousse cake
Something that chocolate lovers will surely look forward to! Lauren says, “To make a chocolate mousse cake, simply slice a Woolies mud cake in half and add chocolate mousse to the center of the bottom of the cake. Place the top half of the cake back on and serve – too easy!”
