A huge thank you to Heather Reynolds at Birthday In A Box for writing this wonderful guest post!

It is always fun to bake a cake that fits your birthday theme! Try one of these tasty and creative cakes that won’t take you hours to make:

Cow Face – For a Fun Farm or Cowboy Party

Bake a round cake and frost with white frosting. With black frosting or decorator icing, draw on the cow’s spots. Split a cupcake in half and frost each piece to form ears. Use M&Ms, Skittles, black licorice string, and other candy to create eyes, nostrils, a mouth and other facial features.

Paw Print – Perfect for Puppy Parties

Place four small cupcakes around the top half of a round cake to create a paw print. Frost everything in the color of your choice.

Castle – For Princesses and Knights

Bake two 8″ or 9″ square cakes and use frosting to stack the two layers. Frost the entire cake pink for a princess’ castle, or grey for a knight’s castle. Frost four ice cream cones to match the cake, and set them upside down in the four corners to create turrets. Use black decorator icing to draw on the details, such as bricks or door frames. Stick miniature flags on toothpicks into the ice cream cones and stand tiny princess or knight figures around the cake for added decoration.

Football – A Sweet Treat for the Superbowl

Cut an 8″ or 9″ round cake in half and trim off a 1″-wide strip from the flat side of each half. (You won’t need these extra strips.) Slide the two halves of the cake back together to form a football shape. Frost the cake with chocolate icing and use white icing to pipe football stitches in a -I-I-I-I- pattern in the center of the cake.

Beach Scene – For a Summer or Beach Bash

Frost one half of a 9″x13″ cake in blue frosting and the other half in yellow frosting. Draw a rippled edge between the two halves to create a wavy shoreline. Crush graham crackers and sprinkle them over the yellow frosting to give the appearance of sand. Set a miniature toy boat on the ocean side of the cake, and use different colors of food gel to draw seashells and tiny crabs on the shore side. Use drink umbrellas to add the finishing touches.

Flower – Perfect for a Girl’s Only or Garden Party

Surround a round cake with cupcakes or Twinkies to create a flower. Ice the center with yellow frosting and the cupcake/Twinkie petals with pink or lavender frosting. For a special touch, set a plastic bee on top.

Racetrack – For Your Racecar Fans

Frost a 9″x13″ cake in green frosting. Use a tube of black decorator frosting to draw the outline of an oval racetrack around the edge of the cake. Fill the outline with chocolate sprinkles or crushed Oreos to resemble pavement. Set a few miniature toy cars on the racetrack and set up a “finish line” marked by miniature flags on toothpicks. You can also add plastic trees to the center of the cake to finish it off.

For more themed cake ideas, visit Birthday Cake Ideas at Birthday in a Box.