For her second birthday, I tried my hand at a ‘cupcake’ cake. It was, of course, a Finding Nemo themed cake because she was obsessed. The cookies were a pain because of the royal icing, but it turned out kind of cool.

This year, we needed two cakes. A smash cake for baby, and a regular cake for the big girl to share with guests.

I wanted to keep the sugar content in baby’s cake at a minimum. I made the canned pumpkin cake. And for the frosting, I made avocado chocolate frosting. I went with a construction theme as it fit with being a smash cake.

He seemed to like it despite the healthy alterations. It was, after all, his first cake and his first chocolate (as far as I know, anyway…)

For the girl, I think I accomplished my biggest Pinterest Fail. I tried making a cake with a three inside the cake.

Yes, you can tell it’s a three. But the further into the cake, the more the three “floated up” and eventually disappeared. I also was not impressed by the taste of the cake. It was a pound cake mix and it wasn’t sweet at all and it was pretty dry.

Next year, I will focus more on taste rather than (trying for) something that looks cool.

I was happy with how the frosting turned out though, and Miss Z got to help with the sprinkles. Simple, but still pretty cute!

Since this particular cake created a ton of “waste,” (cake that needed to be cut away and discarded), I turned the extra bits into cake balls, (blend in food processor with some frosting, roll into balls, viola!). They were a great finishing touch for the cake table. AND, they were the perfect size for toddlers! They didn’t need a whole slice of cake-just give them a cake ball!

What types of cakes have you made for your little ones? Any Pinterest successes? How about fails?