Not every DIY project is a frugal endeavor.
Last week was my son’s 5th birthday and he was insistent – he wanted a Mario cake. I did entertain the idea of just paying for one because I was uncertain how much time would be involved (let alone my cake skills). But when I looked at all the cake mix I had in my pantry, I just couldn’t do it. Come heck or high water, I’d make that Mario cake!
So I head to the store and buy sprinkles, frosting, and icing. Not terribly cheap, but cheaper than a custom cake, I reasoned. I get home and explain to my husband what I intend to do. He looks interested. So interested, I might add, I nicely ask him if he’d like to do it. To my relief and delight, he agrees.
I go online and Google “Mario Coloring Page Printables” and find a great, basic Mario shape and print it out. We cut it and then my husband traces the image on our fancy Betty Crocker cake. All goes well until we run out of black icing. And then he has this good idea of making a cookie star to go on the cake. Great, but it’s now 10 pm the day before the party and I’m not making sugar cookies from scratch. So off he goes to the store for more icing, and refrigerated cookie dough.
He comes home and I promptly burn the cookies. DOH.
So, he goes back to the store a second time for more cookie dough.
Here is the final result of our efforts. (OK, mostly his efforts.)
The cake itself was probably about $0.15 or so with coupons. The toppings? Aye; I cringe to think….
The moral of the story here: not all DIY endeavors may be frugal. But two good things came out of this: we made a memory for my son (which he loved) and we realized neither of us ever want a career in cake decorating. (Although I must admit, my husband did a pretty fantastic job, don’t you think?)
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks great! My husband wound NEVER do that. Even if he would I don’t think I would trust his skills. Ha ha
I think it looks fantastic, Angela!
I’ve been reading long enough that I remember a similar post you did about painting a room with “free,” paint.
I bet your little guy was thrilled, and I think you probably still saved money. Custom cakes are pricey.
I went through the same thing at the beginning of the month with my daughters 4th birthday cake. She wanted a Tinkerbell cake. They wanted $40 for the cake at Fred Meyer. When all was said and done I think I spent about the same. However the cake tasted great (I made mine from scratch) and she loved it and was so proud her Mama made it. On a side note I also got my hubby to help!
*Smiling*
Been there! Doesn’t it just remind you why you love your hubby, though? Sounds like the memory was well worth the extra (and unplanned) expense of the decoration.
The cake looks really cute, too!
Great job, I have done many many cakes in the past and yes when you add up the cost of supplies and the time it takes you it does make you wonder what you were thinking, but think of the mileage you are getting out of this story, that is what great family memories are made of. Congratulations on a job well done!!!!
The cake looks amazing. Kudos to your husband and all his efforts.
And I can certainly relate. Sometimes we think things will be a “piece of cake” to do by ourselves, but sometimes, it’s just better to delegate (and by that I mean pay an expert).
I’m having this internal debate with myself about installing raised beds in my back yard. Do I go the DIY route or pull out the yellow pages?
Thanks Angela!
Heather, another route? Buy a kit! I know some hardware stores and maybe even Amazon (hello, Swagbucks?) might have something. If you are looking for something pretty simple, this is the route I’d be considering. Good luck!
We had the same dillema in Jan (hubby ended up making a Monster Jam cake for our 3 yr olds bday that turned out better than any Store bought cake would). Now we are facing it again next month with our daughter wanting a Twilight cake! This one will be a little more difficult but we are gonna give it a try!
Ahh twilight cakes, been there and done that ! we kinda cheated, we made a regular cake and cut it to look like a coffin and decorated it with black and pink frosting and lots of sparkles. it was quite enjoyable and the kids thought it was creative.
The cake turned out great!
I was smiling as I read the post, because, I threw a combined Mario party last year for my boys, then 6 and 4. I convinced them the Mario party should have cupcakes frosted in red or green with white chocolate chips as dots to look like 1up and “grow bigger” mushrooms. HA! I wasn’t going to attempt the Mario.
Love it!
The cake looks great! I did the same thing but with cupcakes. My kids and I used to go to Hello Cupcake in Tacoma with a Mommy group. I thought I could same us all some money by having everyone over to my house for my frugal version of the cup cakes. I ended up spending more to decorate them than it would have cost me just to buy 3 cupcake for me and my 2 boys. Sometimes being frugal isn’t worth the stress.
We are BIG fans of Hello Cupcake! Hello…we need a Groupon deal for them!
You did an awesome job! I still have memories of homemade cakes growing up. The memory you created for your son is priceless! I make cakes (hobby only!) and have been asked several times by those eating said cake if I would do a custom cake. Most times when they find out how much more it will cost just for ingredients, than to buy the run of the mill grocery store cake, they opt for the less tasty grocery store cake because it is so much cheaper!
Great story! Great cake, great husband too.
That’s so cute. What an awesome Mom to go through that for her boy! Props to you and the hubby!
Wish you could of posted something about having a mario party, I could of givin you a bunch of ideas. Last august my son had a mario brother party and I paper mache almost all of the character (granted it took me 6 months) but compared to price for decorations I saved a lot if I don’t count my time. We did end up buying a cake and I had printed out the picture I wanted on the cake and walmart put it on for me $48 later.
I did on Facebook.
Do you follow me there? http://www.facebook.com/thecouponproject. I did have a couple folks offer up suggestions. In the end, we did keep it simple and it worked out.
Oh my 6 months for a paper mache…wow! I’m totally impressed!!
I have had the same thing happen numerous times, because I dabble in cake making myself as a hobby for our birthdays. Sometimes they cost quite a bit more. But you need to factor in, first you did it yourself and your kids ALWAYS love that mom and/or dad took the time to do this for me. Second, when you buy a store bought cake they don’t design it the way you did. They put some flowers and scallop frosting on the sides, a name and plop a plastic figure in it and call it good. So you need to factor in how much would this cake really cost to have purchased. Thirdly you have to factor in the size of your cake. They do charge you by the size at the store. So in actuality you probably still saved money! If not, your kid will love that they got the cake they really wanted and it’s worth it!