Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read
Sweet 16 Pretty In Pink 16th Birthday Cake + Party Tips
I love making cakes. I started a side hustle making them in the early 2000’s. I turned my garage into a small bakery and had so much fun making special cakes for people on the weekends. Being a full-time teacher at the time, it was great supplemental income that helped me pay off my college student loans.
The pink layered cake with candles
The cakes almost turned into a full-time thing, but I saw the fancy cake market taking a downturn in 2008 (due to the failing housing market), and my husband and I moved into a huge fixer-upper that needed a lot of attention. So, I shelved the cake business and expanded my content creator portfolio by adding in homes/DIY and more. I continued making cakes for family and friends as I truly still love making them.
I love the rhinestone number cake toppers
I would make a cake every week if I could, but all that sugar doesn’t agree with my body. So, anytime I have an opportunity to make a cake that I can share with others (and give them the leftovers), I jump at it. In early 2024, my niece turned 16 and my mom turned 70 around the same time, so I was gifted a chance to make a fun cake.
We flew my niece and sister-in-law to our home in Sanibel Florida and invited my mom from northern Florida to give them a girls weekend with the theme “Pretty in Pink”. Experiences are great gifts to give for milestone birthdays. Learn more about the fascinating history of “Sweet 16” birthdays via this 1978 article from the New York Times.
This makes for a great teenager or milestone birthday
Pink Theme
As an artist, I try to use colors in my creations that will help people in some way. The color psychology of pink is known to bring emotions of calm, healing femininity and sweetness, making it the perfect Sweet Sixteen and girls weekend party theme color. After dealing with the effects of Hurricane Ian for over a year, I knew I needed some calm and healing in my house and with filling the house with the color, I invited those feelings in.
I did mostly bright pinks, but added in other shades of pink by using rose gold, blush and baby pink. The color pink makes me feel happy, and I figured it would make others feel happy too.
My sweet, smart and super talented niece
I also loved the movie Pretty In Pink (Molly Ringwald is a fellow redhead like myself) and the movie still is very relevant in today’s world. The struggles teenagers go through, the dating, the dances, the awkwardness is all a part of many teen’s lives, and I would recommend it to any teenager to watch, as it’s a great movie! I think parents that need a reminder of what teens go through should watch it too.
My mom helping with the Dolly Parton balloon banner
Decorations
We will be selling the house, so I wanted to decorate, but not too much. A balloon banner is a great photo op and an easy way to add a little fun to your house for any party. I added a cute Dolly Parton pink themed balloon banner from Walmart. I love Dolly Parton (she’s such an incredible business woman and so talented!). She’s a role model to me and I wanted to pass on her strength and determination onto the women in my life.
Dolly Parton party Walmart finds
Dolly’s Walmart line is also super cute. I picked up her “What Would Dolly Do?” plates and matching Dolly napkins too to carry out our theme. My Walmart finds (they truly have awesome things!) help me and my community be on trend for less. Saving money is something many have to do in their lives, and Walmart gets that. Our Walmart egg chairs held up during a category 5 hurricane, so their quality is great too.
My amazing husband blowing up the balloons
I used a balloon inflator to make the process of putting it together faster. I also delegated some of the decoration tasks to my mom and my husband while I made the cake. If you are planning a party, delegating tasks to others always helps it go much smoother and helps you to not feel so overwhelmed.
See how to put a balloon garland together in my easy tutorial below or via my YouTube channel:
The completed Pretty In Pink cake
The Cake
For the cake, I used Liv for Cake’s recipe for chocolate chip cake. Her cake and icing recipes are always a success and taste great. I made the cake according to directions, and used three 6” inch cake pans instead of the traditional two 8” inch pans. 3 six-inch cake pans hold the same amount of batter as two 8-inch pans and your cake will look taller.
Two of the three cake layers
I made her Simple Vanilla Buttercream for the icing and tinted it with several shades of pink gel icing colors to make it a pretty shade of light pink. I iced the first cake and then placed a “filling dam” (basically just piped a line of buttercream around the top of the cake) and added some homemade chocolate ganache. Chocolate ganache is just chocolate chips and whipping cream and makes for an easy and yummy cake filling. I made mine in the microwave like this easy ganache recipe from All Recipes.
See how I put the cake together in this quick one-minute tutorial below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:
I stacked and iced each layer one at a time, placing the ganache in between each one. Then I iced and smoothed the overall cake and added several sprinkles from Sprinkle Pop. I used sprinkles from their Unicorn and Mermaid packets. Then I piped on a large dot border around the base using a large round piping tip attached to an icing bag and coupler. Adding a border cleans a stacked cake up visually.
The cake bubbles on this cake are not edible
Next, I added on some cute reusable pink, white and gold cake “bubbles”. I placed them on top and cascaded them down the side of the cake. I topped the cake with reusable rhinestone numbers for “16” and “70” for my mom and niece and a cute pink glittery and reusable “Happy Birthday” cake topper. I added skinny tall gold and white candles so they could each blow one out and make a wish.
My mom blowing out her candle
The Fun
We sang Happy Birthday (with the help of Alexa…if you ask your Amazon Echo devices “Alexa” to sing Happy Birthday, she will), blew out the candles and ate the delicious cake. I gifted them all Hello Weekend bags for the beach (see how I put those together in this article) and we hung out there and at several restaurants. Overall, we had a great weekend, filled with fun and memories that will last a lifetime. Good memories are priceless.
If you loved this article, we know you’ll love this one too: How to Make Mermaid Cupcakes
Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.