How to host a Family Cake War

Blame it on watching too much Is it Cake or my kids enjoying spending time in the kitchen, but one item on our Summer Bucket List was to hold our very own Family Cake War. We had so much fun doing this that I wanted to share how you can do it with your family!

This idea came from our 8 year old daughter and we followed her lead on how to proceed. I'll lay out the steps we took and give some suggestions and modifications at the end.

Step 1 - Grocery Shopping

The first thing we did was head to the grocery store and visit the baking aisle. I told all of our kids to pick out any boxed cake mix they wanted to make. They loved checking out all of the different flavors available and thinking through the possibilities with each.

Then we needed to decide on frosting. I asked the kids if they wanted me to make my homemade chocolate frosting and buttercream frosting that we could make different colors, or if they wanted to just pick from the frosting tubs available in the store. They decided to each pick out their own frosting tub and had fun choosing different flavors.

Lastly, they thought through toppings for their cake. I told them they had full range of all the sprinkles, colored sugar and baking items in our pantry at home, but they still convinced me to buy a couple more containers of sprinkles.

Here's a look at our purchases

Step 2 - Start Baking

All the kids had a lot of fun baking their cakes. We started as soon as the first kid woke up in the morning and were able to get all four cakes, one for each, baked before noon. I helped our 7 and 8 year old daughters with their cake, was on hand for our 10 year old and our 12 year old did his all on his own. Our 12 year old actually was amazed at how easy it was to make a cake. I told him that box mixes make things very easy so now he is excited to make some more boxed mix desserts for our family!

3 - Decorate

After the 9"x13" cakes were cooled the kids started decorating! I will admit, using the frosting tubs made it really easy and I just stayed away as they all frosted, sprinkled and explored all the topping possibilities.

4 - Present to the Judge

Our kids wanted Dad to be the judge. First, he did a blind taste test.

Then after he ranked the cakes, the kids presented  their cakes to him.

Our son made a Cinnamon Toast Crunch cake with a butter cream frosting and cinnamon crumbles and a few mini chocolate chips on top.

Our oldest daughter made a triple chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, crushed Oreo cookies and mini chocolate chips.

Our middle daughter made a strawberry cake with vanilla frosting, whole strawberries, pink sugar, red sugar and rainbow sprinkles.

Our youngest daughter made an Oreo cake with chocolate frosting, mini chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles.

5 - Invite Friends Over

With four cakes, we invited some friends over to enjoy the cake with us! It was fun to hear everyone's thoughts on the cakes, everyone trying to guess which kid made which cake and what their favorite cake was.

Our whole family had so much fun having our own Family Cake War. This would be a great rainy day activity or simply, a fun family activity to do together. Now, while the kids really enjoyed each picking out and making their own cake, the next time we do it we might try to narrow down the amount of cake by having each kid make one circle. They could get more creative with their decorating and we wouldn't have so much cake to eat... You could also do this simply with just one cake mix and have the kids decorate cupcakes!

No matter how you do your own Family Cake War, I hope your kids are as proud and excited as mine were creating and sharing their cakes. Which cake sounds good to you?