The Easy way to Decorate your Child's Birthday Cake

I am not a cake decorator at all. I am left handed and it is horrible when I try and decorate a cake. My creations would be on one of those botched cake sites every time. My six year old could do better than I could.  I made his first birthday cake and it turned out cute, minus the writing.  It was a fish cake. Makes sense that he loves them so much. His room was underwater themed.  I am sure I just need practice  and eventually I will get the hang of it, someday, when I am ninety.

I prefer homemade cake to the store bought any day because I make it with love. I have made Noah's birthday cake every year except when he was two and five. I felt obligated to have someone do it at Kroger because she was friends with a friend of mine.  It was cute but it wasn't the same. It wasn't as good and it was really expensive. I decided from then on I would do it.  Except when he was five and we were out of the country.

Since I am not a great decorator I came up with an idea. I can frost a cake no big deal just don't leave any naked spots, and don't make it crumbly. Easy enough.  I think I am brilliant. Every year Noah picks a theme and I buy plastic toys and put them all over the cake. We eat the cake and he gets the toys. It's a win win. When he turned three he had a duck cake. It was really cute. When he turned four he had a flyers cake with planes and helicopters. When he turned five we were on our Disney cruise so he didn't have a special homemade cake. We shared the cake they gave him on his birthday.  When he turned six he had a sea creature cake.  They usually have been blue. I want to have a different color this year. Really for him some beautifully decorated cake doesn't mean anything, once it is gone its gone. I like the way I do it because he can always remember that those toys were on his birthday cake.

What do you do for your children's birthday cakes?