19 Mom Hacks to Know For Your Child's Next Birthday

Instead of the egg, oil, and water that usually get added to premade cake mixes, use a can of soda and prepare your kids for the moistest and fluffiest cake they've ever eaten. Sprite goes well with vanilla, and Coca-Cola goes well with chocolate, but there are tons of other combos you can check out for their next homemade birthday cake.

If you're cutting into a fairly soft cake, slice it perfectly straight across with unflavored dental floss — this also works with other soft solids. Then you don't have to worry about a sharp knife in a room full of kiddos running around like chickens with no heads.

The moisture in bread keeps your kid's leftover cake from getting stale. Attach slices to the open edges of a cake with toothpicks, or stick a slice in a plastic bag with fresh cookies — no more stale desserts destined for the garbage in your house!

If you're not into the above bread-slice trick, cut your cakes from the middle outward, then push the two halves back together to keep all of that moist birthday cake goodness locked inside itself for days.

Every kid party comes with its casualties — especially if it's in your home — which includes (but is not limited to) broken glass. The safest way to clean up broken glass is with a slice of bread. It "absorbs" the glass shards that you can't see and ensures that your fingers won't get pricked and those bare little kid feet won't get anything lodged in them.

Pro tip: plastic wrap will stick to the table and ensure a clean surface when they're finished with their works of art.

If the party isn't on your child's actual birthday, you can still make the day special without spending any additional money (kid parties get more and more expensive every year, don't they?!) by taking advantage of some freebies. Cinnabon gives you a free cinnamon bun on your big day, Auntie Anne's will bake you a free pretzel, Sprinkles will hand you a free cupcake, and a bunch of other restaurants and stores will treat you in their own special way.

As if you didn't have a million things to do, doling out scoops of rock-hard ice cream with every guest's cake slice can make the best of us crack under pressure. The night before the party, line a muffin tin with cupcake papers and drop scoops of ice cream in each one. Throw the tin in your freezer, then bring out the individual scoops when the cake comes out so they're ready to grab and you don't need to wrestle with the scooper.

After peeling off the wrapper of a cupcake, tear the bottom of the cake off and hand your kiddo a cupcake sandwich. Though we're sure they'll still manage to find a way to get filthy — kids . . . — at least they won't be shoving their noses directly into the frosting.

Use a knife to cut a "slice" of an ice cream pint, smash between two cookies of your child's — or their guest's — choice, and peel off the cardboard. Boom.

This works for any cake mix — just pour into the waffle maker instead of waiting the better part of an hour for the cake to be ready and cooled off before eating. Your kid's guests can eat their treats and be back to the party games in no time. And the best part? Waffle crevices equal more room for toppings.