Our family just got back from a trip to southern California. We spent a week visiting family, running all over the Disneyland Resort, and making a quick stop at the beach. It was so much fun and what made it even more special was getting to celebrate my two oldest kiddos’ birthdays! I knew that being on vacation I didn’t want the stress of making two cakes. Luckily, I had a simple idea for how to customize a store-bought cake to make it special for my little dove. Keep reading for my simple tip for customizing a store-bought cake.

simple steps for customizing a store-bought cake

Prior to leaving on the trip I had him pick out two cars that he wanted (of course, then I got to hear him ask about them for weeks, “Mommy, where’s my Lightening McQueen? Where’s my Mac?” I also brought along some chocolate graham crackers. The day before his birthday I went to the store and bought this $7.00 cake. Epic blogger fail though, I forgot to take a picture before I had scrapped off the whipped cream and the cherry. Oops.

Once the top was scraped off, I crushed up some graham crackers and made a road. Then I piped some grass along one side. I plopped the two cars on the cake and that was it!

Feeding a crowd? Check out my viral Costco cake hack post here!

It took no time at all and my son loved it! Plus, the cars make a great additional birthday present and are much sturdier than your basic cake topper you get when you order a pre-decorated cake.

other ideas

I was staying with family so I had easy access to stuff to make and pipe frosting. However, if you’re staying in a hotel or even camping, you could either skip the grass, or buy one of those pre-filled frosting bags that they sell in any grocery store. It couldn’t get any easier to give your kid a custom cake of their favorite characters!

True, it might not be the fanciest cake on the planet, but it worked out. It also helped keep my stress level low after walking around in triple digit heat for half a day. Trust me, your kid doesn’t care if you made a cake from scratch with homemade frosting and spent five hours decorating it.

Find more fun and easy birthday ideas on my Pinterest!

Have you ever customized a store-bought birthday cake?