Last week my three-year-old niece, Ellie, spent a couple of days with me. She has come to learn that when she goes to Aunt Michelle’s house she will usually get to do some sort of baking or decorating project. I wasn’t about to let her down this time so I decided to let her decorate her own cake while she was here. From past experience, I’ve found that decorating bags and tips aren’t really the best for her since she likes to suck the icing out of the bags more than place it on the cake. This time I went a different route – Food Color Markers
Food color markers are basically just what they sound like, markers that that are filled with edible food coloring. I use them a lot to write on cookies or color in features on faces and such. I have never decorated a whole cake with them but thought it would be a perfect way to let a child make a cake their own with out having to mix up lots of icing colors or make a huge mess. They come in several different brands. I had Wilton ones here so those are what we used.
Before Ellie got here I had the cakes already baked. I should have also had them iced and covered in fondant
Ellie anxiously waiting for me to prepare her cake
I also wanted to include my 11 and 12-year-old daughters, Faith and Kenzie, in on this so I made enough cakes for everyone. Faith wanted to ice her own cake so she started in on hers while I finished up the cakes for the other two.
We worked fast as I only had so much icing I could keep feeding Ellie. After three quick icing and fondant jobs we ended up with three plain white cakes; perfect canvases to create masterpieces! I placed a little fondant flower on Kenzie’s cake to cover up a tear I got from my sloppy fondant work (although I told everyone it was there to differentiate Kenzie’s cake from Ellie’s.)
It was finally time to start decorating. I handed the jar of markers
My daughters also started in on their cakes. Faith is a music lover so, of course, her cake was music related.
You notice the chef hat on Kenzie? She is an aspiring chef and is determined to go to culinary school one day so she wears her chef hat whenever she does anything food related.
I would like so say we spent hours bonding and decorating together but the reality is that Ellie lasted not quite 10 minutes before she was ready to move on to something else. She was very proud of her cake, though, and couldn’t wait to take it home to show her baby brother. I was also very proud of her and loved it when she told me what all her scribbles were. The red round thing on the side is a bumble bee, by the way.
Ellie's cake
Fortunately my girls have a slightly longer attention span so they came back to their cakes the next day and finished them up. Didn’t they do great? They have such a preteen feel about them.
Here is a close up of Faith’s Ipod cake.
Faith's cake
And this is Kenzie’s spring time cake.
Kenzie's cake
It really was a fun way to let the kids express themselves. The thing I love about this idea is that anyone of any age or ability can do it. It would be a great way to let your kids work together and make a cake for dad this upcoming Father’s Day.
If you want to try this out, you are in luck because I am going to offer another giveaway and let one of you win the supplies you will need to color your own cake. Check out my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Dreams-Cake-App/183283818358366 to enter to win a 2 lb. bucket of Satin Ice fondant and a package of Wilton Food Writer Edible Markers. You will need to “like” the page and then leave a comment on my wall telling me what you or your kids would draw on your cake if you won the fondant and markers. On Monday, June 13th, I will randomly pick a name from all those who leave comments and send the winner their own fondant and edible markers.
Good luck, God Bless and Sweet Dreams!
