Over-the-top birthday cakes for kids from Long Island bakeries

Unicorns

Unicorn cakes with golden horns and fondant eyelashes are becoming very popular for all kinds of events, especially birthdays. “Every weekend we have unicorn cupcakes or a cake for a birthday,” says Karen Hearty, the owner of Cupcake Girlz in Farmingville, which started offering the design in spring 2017. The cakes are handmade with fondant or buttercream. This cake contains 30 to 35 servings; $125 at cupcakegirlz.com.

Baby Shark

Don Donneruno of Cake Don in Carle Place made a cake after this children’s song, popularized on social media, after a mom, who asked for recommendations via a Facebook post, requested one for her daughter’s 1st birthday. “It’s getting to be more popular recently,” says Donneruno of Baby Shark, though he has made more elaborate designs, including a cake that looks like a pinball machine. It served 25; $250 at thecakedoncreations.com.

Ant Man

Francesco Guerrieri, owner of Francesco’s Italian Bakery in Hicksville, recently made an Ant-Man cake for his son Noah’s eighth birthday. “The movie had come out and he said he wanted a cake just like the Ant-Man,” Guerrieri says. Noah was in luck, as Guerrieri creates all kinds of custom cakes. “We do everything to make kids happy: Hello Kitty, monster trucks. We did one dragon and a lot of sports stuff.” This contained 30 to 35 servings; $400 at francescosbakery.com.

Lego Star Wars

This Lego cake from Madame Butterfly Cakes in West Babylon was themed around Star Wars, and included non-edible Lego Star Wars figures. “It’s usually the things that kids love,” owner Micheline Cummings says of the bakery’s custom cakes. “Sometimes it’s a combination -- if a child likes Batman and Legos, we’ll do a Lego Batman-themed cake.”; $695 at madamebutterflycakes.com.

Disney magic

For a Sweet 16, Chocolate Duck in Farmingdale created an elaborate three-tier cake with Disney characters from “Alice In Wonderland,” “Toy Story,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin” and “Lady and the Tramp.” Decorator Christina Bisbee says the client had a specific vision of how the cake should be set up. “She brought in a picture of a different Disney cake and changed everything around because she wanted to have specific characters,” Bisbee says. “She wanted the genie from Aladdin to hold the carpet with Lady and the Tramp, and Alice in Wonderland reading to Mike from ‘Monsters, Inc.’” The entire process to make the cake took 22 hours, with the characters formed from modeling chocolate, and it served 150 people; $2,500 at chocolateduck.com.

L.O.L. Surprise!

This cake, created by Sweet Karma Desserts in Plainview for an 8-year-old’s birthday, was based on the collectible dolls. Brian Fishman, pastry chef and owner, created the characters using edible images on gum paste. This served 25; $150 at sweetkarmadesserts.com.

Fortnite

Sydney’s Sweets in West Hempstead made a cake inspired by the popular online video game Fortnite for a boy’s 5th birthday. All the decorations are handmade from fondant. “The mom wanted a cake that reflected some of the items you use in the game,” says owner Sydney Perry. This contained 30 servings; $350 at sydneyssweets.com.

Basketball

This realistic-looking basketball is just one of the many designs from A Cake In Time in Wading River. Owner Sherry Sobel says kids like their cakes very personalized and specific. “If I make a cake with sneaker on top, and it has to be a very specific sneaker,” Sobel says. This served 20; $325 at acakeintime.com.

Star Wars

This cake for a fifth birthday made by Front Street Bakery in Rockville Centre included a Wookie made from modeling chocolate, though BB-8 was nonedible, made of Styrofoam. “Anything that’s handmade with figures is very labor intensive," says Lisa Acerno, bakery manager. “It really depends on the work,” Acerno says. This contained 60 servings; $650 at frontstreetbakery.com.

The Backyardigans

The Cake Gallery in North Bellmore created this two-tier cake with fondant characters from the animated series. “Every kid’s got their own special thing that they go for,” says chef/owner Tom Shipley, who noted that Thomas the Tank Engine cakes have long been popular. This served 35; $350 at thecakegalleryny.com.