Saturday was Con Man’s birthday. He turned 6, although I’m not sure how, because he was just born. But whatever.
It was also an insanely busy weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Penn State football game in the afternoon and then in the evening went to a minor league baseball playoff game. {We’re all sports, all the time up in here.} And Grammy and Grampy were here for the weekend. And then Grandma and Grandpa came over on Sunday to celebrate. So needless to say, it was crazy town. And also, I was bordering-on-deliriously tired. So I wasn’t feeling like spending a ton of time on a birthday cake.
Enter my easiest-ever, super-fun Sprinkle Cake.
Seriously, is that not the most festive, fabulous cake ever?!? You know how long it took me to do? 10 minutes. Total.
Boo-yah.
Want to know my secret?
I bought a pre-made, pre-frosted cake from the bakery section at the grocery store and then decorated it myself.
Most larger grocery stores with a bakery section will sell pre-made, pre-frosted {and sometimes pre-decorated} cakes that you can purchase and then have them write a message on. They have already done all the hard work, so why not take advantage?? For this cake, I bought a Wegmans Ultimate White Cake, which is just frosted, not decorated. If your store’s bakery only sells decorated cakes {like this one}, no big deal. Just take an offset spatula and spread the decorations flat onto the cake. For the sides, hold the spatula perpendicular to the cake plate and pull it along the sides, again spreading the decorations flat along the cake.
Now, it’s going to look like a hot mess. But don’t worry, that’s why you’re slapping on those sprinkles.
Another tip: the bulk foods section of Wegmans sells sprinkles by the pound. {Who knew?!?} They are WAY cheaper than buying a small container — in the baking aisle, a 2.5 oz jar of sprinkles was $2.29, whereas I spent $2.99 for 16 oz in the bulk section. Seriously. So check your store’s bulk section if it has one.
To cover your cake with sprinkles, make sure you cover your workspace, because this is not a tidy task. I would recommend using a baking sheet or something with sides, because these suckers like to roll.
All you have to do is take a handful of sprinkles and press them gently into the sides of the cake. It helps if you tilt the cake slightly {most bakery cakes come on a cardboard cake round, so lift one side of that up} so that the side that you are putting sprinkles on is angled down, and just press the sprinkles in. Continue going around the cake until the sides are completely covered, and then cover the top of the cake, again pressing the sprinkles into the frosting.
And you’re done! An awesome, festive sprinkle cake that took practically no time at all.
What is your favorite trick for last-minute special occasion cakes?
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I must try this for a birthday or when my friends come over. It looks so inviting and happy – it pleases the child inside me!
This cake looks so fun. I am a HUGE rainbow sprinkle fan and I cannot wait to try this at the next birthday party!
Thank you! We have a birthday coming up for our little one who is too little to know what is on the cake and I LOVE the fun colors…you just saved me time and money 🙂
Okay…this has got to be the best idea EVER!! So cute and fun for any age! I could even see one of these topped with flowers for the older children inside all of us (; Great idea!
This cake is fabulous! Stopping by this morning to let you know your my Spotlight Blog of the week on Made in a Days Blog Hop Social! Congrats!
Kim
OMG, THANK YOU!! How exciting!!
I love this!! Now I just need someone to have a birthday haha
This caught my eye tonight Jenn…LOVE sprinkles. It’s such a simple cake, but so pretty and fun. I am not only going to pin, but share this baby on my FB page in a couple minutes. Thanks so much for linking up to Inspiration Monday! ~ Julie (redheadcandecorate.com)
That looks so good! I never thought of buying a cake to decorate- I either buy one decorated or do the whole thing. And great tip on buying sprinkles in bulk! This looks like a great project for my daughter and me. Going to pin this!
Wow so simple. And no one has to know you cheated 😉
WOW! The cake looks amazing and I would have never thought to buy a pre-made cake to decorate myself. It looks like it took hours to make. Did you through a little flour on your face for good measure? Great tip! I will definitely keep this in mind moving forward.
Jae Mac @ I’m Just Sayin’…(Damn!)
Oh my gosh how cute and easy!! I’m definitely going to have to try this. My kids LOVE sprinkles on their ice cream, so I know they will love this cake.
We love sprinkles around here! How lucky that your local grocery store sells them by the pound. Your cake is fantastic, and I love, love the shortcuts.
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– Alma
I made something similar for my daughter’s 5th birthday. I did the sprinkles all over the cake, but I put a 5 in the middle that was just frosting. Easy cake and she loved it! .
So cute! And definitely my cooking skill level… but nobody will ever know “our” secret! Thanks for sharing!
What a cool idea! I’ve done it with cupcakes but never thought about it with cakes. (I no longer decorate cakes bigger than brides’s/groom’s cakes and part of it is because of the time involved.) This is too cute!
Thanks for linking to Take-A-Look Tuesday over at Sugar Bee Crafts. You were featured today!
–Mandy, SugarBeeCrafts.com
Oh I love your writing style! I am totally subbing on bloglovin’! And that cake is fabulous. But I just know that Con Man was totally bouncing off the walls for a few hours with all that sugar! XoXo
What a clever idea! I love the festive sprinkles! I will have to remember this idea for the next birthday cake!
That is a cool looking cake. When we have a cake accession here for one of our kids I try to buy a little toy to put on top. It seems to make them happy.
What a fun and festive cake! And someone else did (most) of the work. Win/win….because you got to go to sporting events. I like the way you think.
Yum!!
I bet you’re still cleaning up sprinkles, those little booger’s get everywhere. One of the things that I’ve done is decorated a cake with chewy Lifesavers, it looked cute and they make great candle holders.
I’ve never thought of doing that before. How adorable! I’m pinning it for sure. And thanks for the tip about buying sprinkles in bulk. 🙂
–Gena
How creative! My daughter loves sprinkles. We may just have to try this out this weekend. Thanks for sharing. I followed you on Pinterest!!
Thank you for sharing this festive yumminess at the Thursday Favorite Things hop. I featured you on facebook ♥
I absolutely adore this cake. It is SO pretty, I wouldn’t even want to eat it because I would want to mess up that prettyness. 🙂 Thanks for sharing how you made it and for linking it up to Thrifty Thursday.
Wow! My kids will love this! I will have to pin it and do it for the next special occasion! Thanks for sharing
Pali
http://knittingraysofhope.wordpress.com/
Great idea, and one I’m definitely going to steal from you when I’m short on time. The cake looks delicious!!
Well done 🙂
Leyla
http://www.motherhooddiaries.com
I love it! That’s my kind of cake decorating…any time I’ve even tried to write something simple on a cake it’s turned out looking horrible. I’ll have to steal this idea the next time I make a cake!
Oh my gosh, what a FUN cake!!!! It looks awesome, I love all the sprinkles!!! 🙂
This is so festive! What a great idea for when you’re short on time but still want a special cake. As my kids are sprinkles obsessed, they would LOVE this!
Such a cute (and easy) idea! My father-in-law’s 90th birthday is coming up – I might have to do this for him!
This is an excellent post! I would like to invite you to SHARE this cool post at my link up party going on right now if you haven’t already, hope you stop by every week! I really appreciate your support and encouragement . Party on!!!!!!
http://sweethaute.blogspot.com
Be Sweet~
Christina at
SWEET HAUTE
Great idea on the cake – it’s super cute and something I would totally want! Found you on T&J 🙂
I love this! So festive looking! And with fall themed sprinkles out…I could go crazy with this! Thanks for sharing. I’m going to start following your blog. I like how you write. 🙂
I love it! So colorful and cool texture! Thanks for sharing!
http://www.karlyspaldingphotography.com
My son would go nuts over that cake! He LOVES sprinkles….on ice cream, on donuts, on cupcakes…everything. I’ll have to remember this one!
First and foremost, I love that you love Big 10 football. I’m totally following your blog now, just because of that.
Second, this is an incredible idea. I am going to add this to my pinterest board!!!
Definitely gorgeous. And I like the ease and tips, too! My local grocer could help this busy mom achieve a similar feat (if you don’t mind) for my daughter’s birthday in October. 🙂
YUM! I want to make one of these now!!
Beth @ The First Year Blog
Easy is good. It’s a very good idea to check out your local grocery stores and find out their perks like when do they clearance meat, where to find the sale or out of date items, etc. DIY is usually cheaper and the personal touch is definitely better – good job!
Best. Idea. EVER! Not only is that the coolest birthday cake I’ve ever seen, it totally reflects your writing style for the post. Love it!
This cake is so sprinkly awesome….I am a sprinkle fanatic from way back ~ Love it! Thanks for sharing at last week’s Project Inspire{d} ~ pinning.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mary Beth
I know it’s weird that I’m 32 and sprinkles are my favorite ice cream topping, and cake topping and really whatever topping. And not chocolate sprinkles, but rainbow sprinkles. 🙂 So, I LOVE this cake. Pinning!
I’d love for you to link up to my link party on Wednesday mornings at 8 CST: Work It Wednesday.
Thanks for sharing!! xo, Laura
Happy Belated Birthday to your little one! This cake is very festive and I love the way it looks. We don’t have a Wegmans in our area but I have heard how great they are.
I am not very creative but I will remember this idea and use it for our next birthday.
I’m sure all these sprinkles were a huge hit with the six year olds. I stopped by from Paula’s Marvelous Mondays Party. Have a good week!
Love the cake! It is so colorful and fun!
What a great tip- buy the cake at the store! Love that- I’m not a baker so I can just imagine what my cake would look like, lol. I can do this though- how much fun!
I love this cake! Its so festive!
Wow, what an adorable cake! It’s perfectly festive and looks like something even I can pull off 🙂
What a wonderful idea. My granddaughter will be five years old in November, she would love this cake. She has mastered adding sprinkles to the cupcakes we make together. I know her face will light up when she sees a sprinkle cake. Thank you for sharing.
What child (or adult) doesn’t like sprinkles. Great way to jazz up a cake. With life as crazy as it is sometimes, premade is great.
WOW! Seriously…WOW! Time to make a cake!!
I LOVE Sprinkles. They are just happy things! I tweeted this! Hope you do not mind!
Tiffany
This is super cute and looks professional! Plus, its a great excuse to buy a pound of sprinkles. Adding that to my bucket list 😉
No way! I would have thought you spent hours on it. What a fun sneaky trick! 🙂
What a great idea! I used to make & decorate cakes for my kids birthdays and have gotten very lazy with it the last few years. I need to get back into doing that, but this is such a simple, fun alternative. Thanks for sharing!
SInce I’m not very fond of sprinkles it probably wouldn’t be my choice but it sure looks great tho 🙂
What a quick and clever idea. I’ll bet kids love a cake like this. Although I like to make cakes from scratch, I do not like to make layer cakes. Go figure. I have never seen sprinkles in bulk, but I will have to look for them. There are probably a few other cake decoration things that you could do this with also. Thanks for sharing.
Another quick way to decorate a cake is to lay a stencil on it and fill in the stencil area with your choice of colored sugar or sprinkles. Your cake looked so awesome!
I totally love this cake! It’s so pretty and so easy. I’m definitely going to try this with my daughter. She loves baking and cake designing. Thank you!
What a great way to turn an everyday cake into something spectacular!
I love the simplicity of this. It looks really great too. I’m going to have to give this one a try because I’m always worried if I make my own cake it’s not going to look right, but this I think I could handle. Thanks for sharing!
What a fun cake! And although I would be tempted to call that cheating you can’t with such a fabulous result like that! I love it. So fun and colorful and bright. I know it would be a hit at my house 🙂 Just pinned it!
another way to do this cake is buy the sponge cake, and cream, whip the cream, and add the sprinkles after you have put the cream on and in the cake… i did this for my sons birthday about 18 years ago lol….
beautiful and looks yummy too.
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Love the buy the cake cheat. Why I ne never thought of this before cracks me up.as I like to give my own flair to things great idea thanks for all of the directions ty denise.????