Tuesday Top 5: Fun Birthday Cakes Your Kids Will Love

For this week’s Tuesday Top 5 — where we pause to marvel and share a specific element, image, or detail from events we love — we’re focused on creative kids’ birthday cakes.

Childhood birthday parties offer the opportunity to pause and honor the nostalgia-tinged joy of kids growing older. We also love kids’ parties for their playful themes — the chance to re-create a carnival wonderland or festive fiesta. Magical celebrations demand cakes that deliver big on whimsy and wonder. We’ve picked our favorite cheery confections that tie together conjured locales as far-flung as outer space and deep under the sea. They provide delicious focal points and are almost too fun and festive to eat — almost.

1. Under the Sea Party

This 4th birthday celebration for one lucky boy featured boxed invitations complete with custom Ceci New York watercolors and filled with toy fish, which set the tone for a lively “splish splash” theme before the party even began. At the New York-based celebration, a sea blue backdrop and bubble machine created silly fun and a prime photo spot for pint-sized guests to be captured by photographer Kiss Me For Eternity. A one-of-a-kind cake from Elisa Strauss was shaped like a sweet and happy purple octopus wearing a party hat and clutching the number “4” in his tentacles to honor the birthday boy.

2. Festive Fiesta 

This festive 5th birthday party combined the kid-craze of L.O.L. Surprise Dolls with a Mexican fiesta for a totally unique celebration from Nicole Marie Events. Studio 415 Chicago provided a rustic blank slate in chic all-white for the event which included colorful touches like mini-maracas, custom cookies and sombreros at each setting. And the parents weren’t left out either — while kids enjoyed authentic Jarritos Mexican sodas, adults indulged at a margarita and sangria bar. But the thoughtful touches didn’t stop there — the celebration featured dessert cart sweets and multiple cakes, our favorite of which was a fun, fringed donkey piñata from Delabhe Cake Studio.

3. Carnival Celebration

From the planners at One Inspired Party comes this birthday celebration filled with carnival fun like walls of cotton candy and cool marquee signage without the long lines and sweaty hot dogs. Bambini Soirée provided props and specialty rentals to create a pastel wonderland complete with a decorative Ferris wheel, colorful balloon columns and a wow-worthy color-striped floor. At the center of it all was a five-tiered confection that would make you throw your deep-fried Twinkie in the trash for a slice of its towering goodness decorated with cookies in whimsical donut and ice cream cone shapes from Earth and Sugar.

4. Outer Space Soirée

If only outer space looked a little more like this awesome 9th birthday party, we’d be eating cotton candy and tacos on the moon. Planner Wrap it Up Parties mimicked weightlessness with the kid-party staple of fun — bouncy houses — outside of Chicago’s Galleria Marchetti. Inside the sunny draped space, guests enjoyed tapas and treats including a fantastic space-themed cake featuring edible satellites orbiting night blue swirls and silver stars topped by a spaceship and a gold number “9” matching the foil balloons festooning the party.

5. Tropical Sweet Sixteen

This tropical Sweet Sixteen celebration transported guests to the islands within New York’s flexible chic J Loft. Planner and Designer, KBelle’s Design, defined the festive space with pale pink draping and used hot pink tablecloths under towering centerpieces of palm fronds and tropical florals. Teens enjoyed an Instagram-ready spot between potted palms backed by a giant sky-blue seashell and pastel parasols while a sweets table continued the beachy theme with sand and shell graphics. The crowning touch, beautifully captured by Lambre Photography, was a five-tiered cake masquerading as a sand castle complete with edible shells and turrets.

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