Sesame Street birthday cakes – take the easy route

Acck! Help! You need a beautiful cake that will wow everyone and make Martha Stewart jealous!

Actually, take a deep breath and understand that your cake, while it can be a great focal point for your Sesame Street birthday table, doesn't have to be some elaborate piece of architecture. Will it make it taste better? Will it keep your child out of therapy later? Will it help you win the lottery? Nope, nope and nope. So unless you just get great pleasure out of creating gorgeous confectionary (or spending lots of money for it), it might be better to take a simple route and put your creative energies elsewhere. At least until your child is older and can appreciate a fancier cake.

So what are your simple options for a great Sesame Street birthday cake? You'd be surprised just how easy it actually can be. Most of these options are best with a simple sheet cake, so crack out that 9x13 pan! (Or head to Costco to get a huge one for like $18.)

Icing topper – These are just my favorite things that I've discovered lately. (What? I can't be ahead of every trend.) It's basically a sheet of fondant that you just lay on top of your cake and you're done. Can't get any simpler than that. It's possible you could get a local bakery to make one for you, but your best bet is eBay. They even make some for round cakes and for cupcakes! Easy! My favorites are the ones like I have pictured here that can be customized in advance with your child's name. Double easy!

Cake figures – Isn't Sesame Street just so nice? They actually make little plastic figures just to go on birthday cakes! They're relatively inexpensive (the ones pictured at the top of this post are less than $5), and you can add some extra color and pizzazz with colored sprinkles or candies. Then your child had a couple of extra toys to play with when the whole party is over.

Sunny Days – Add a little sunshine with a round cake. Frost it in yellow, then use licorice pieces to make the mouth and eyes and you have a Sunny Day cake! Easy, peasy.

Rubber Duckie – Depending on the size of the duck, this could work on a sheet cake or a round cake. Just frost the top with blue frosting (or sprinkle white frosting with blue sugar) and put a toy rubber duck on the top. Great for the Ernie fan.

I have full confidence in your ability to make a great Sesame Street birthday cake. Just remember that the cake doesn't have to be the focal point of the party, and it will taste great no matter what color or decorations there are.