Birthday Cake Ideas for a 15 Year Old

Whether you're celebrating your 15-year-old's birthday with a group of friends and family, or it's just the two of you, be sure to have a sweet ending to the festivities with a decorated birthday cake. For time-pressed individuals, cakes are available at grocery stores and warehouse clubs, but to really capture your teen's attention, create a birthday cake that reflects one of his interests or hobbies.

Whether your child is into vampire books and movies, or just likes the night creatures, consider a birthday cake with a vampire theme. Create this cake with a few supplies from the grocery store (some may already be in your kitchen cabinet). Frost a cooled, rectangle cake with vanilla/white icing. Place in the refrigerator so the frosting sets, then spread another layer of frosting, chocolate this time, around two thirds of the sides of the cake (if you're looking down at the cake like it is a compass, spread the chocolate icing around the west, north and east sides, leaving the south with just vanilla); this creates the vampire's cape. Use red icing (buy the prepared icing squeezers or scoop icing into a plastic bag, then cut off the tip) to draw the vampire's eyes, nose and a smiling mouth. If candy corn are in season, place two at the corners of the mouth for fangs. Otherwise, use mini marshmallows.

If your teenager is completely "plugged in," surprise him with a birthday cake shaped like one of his favorite electronic devices, an MP3 player. Frost a cooled, rectangle cake with your teen's favorite color. To make the slide wheel used to navigate the player, gently press a glass into the bottom half of the cake to form a circle, then pull up, which leaves a gap in the frosting. Fill in the gap with colored icing. Dab four dots at the north, west, south and east areas of the circle to mimic the buttons. Use another color of icing to pipe a box at the top of the cake, then squiggle some lines to simulate the music player's readout screen. Set in the refrigerator for the icing to harden before taking out for the birthday celebration.

Teenagers may not be allowed to chew gum in school, so give yours a treat on her birthday with a retro, gumball machine cake. Bake two cakes, one in a round pan and one in a square pan, then let cool. Frost the round cake with vanilla/white icing, then drop red food coloring dye into another container of white icing (or use any leftovers), mix and apply to the square cake. Gently press gumballs into the icing all over the top of the round cake (leave a little room on one end of the cake to mimic the space usually seen at the top of gumball machines). Use a toothpick to draw a line in the red square cake, making the outline of the door for the gumballs. Place one gumball inside the outline. Set the two cakes together on a sturdy board for carrying.