How to Turn a Simple Store-Bought Cake into a Pretty Cake

Watch as I take this simple store bought cake and turn it into a pretty cake that you can use for any occasion. Whether it’s a birthday party, a family BBQ or a simple get together with friends.

Turning a Simple Store Bought Cake into a Pretty Cake for Any Occasion

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Follow along with me as I transform this store-bought cake into a pretty cake for any occasion. Have you ever committed to hosting and then felt overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that needed to be done before your guests arrived? Fear not! This simple cake hack will help you out, while still helping your table to look gorgeous and put together. First, you’ll need to grab a few things from the grocery store.

What You’ll Need

Store-Bought Cheesecake or cake
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Mint
Macarons
Cake Stand

This cake started out as a super basic store-bought cheesecake, as you can see below. Nothing special, really. I bought a few ingredients to spruce it up. This is a perfect thing to do in order to provide dessert for any occasion, without all of the extra stress (and mess) that come with baking from scratch (especially if you’re hosting). Below you can see all of my ingredients laid out.

I spent $12.99 on the cake, and then the rest of the ingredients brought me to about $20. That’s not bad at all, especially considering it turned out so pretty!

While I chose a cheesecake (based on my grocery store’s availability), you could easily choose any type of cake. I personally love the white frosted look, but really chocolate works too. The idea is simply that you’re creating something beautiful for your guests without the hassle of actually baking. Now, if all you’re providing is the dessert and you love baking, then by all means! But if you’re also providing dinner or maybe just don’t love baking, this is for you!

How to Turn a Store-Bought cake into a Pretty Cake – VIDEO

Start with the Macarons

Macarons, macaroons… There seems to be constant confusion as to which pronunciation is correct for these little cookies. I believe the correct pronunciation is “macaron”. Macaroons being the coconut and chocolate dessert. Regardless… They’re delicious.

I started my adding these standing on their side in the middle of the cake. I didn’t really have a method, I just knew that I had 5 that I’d like to fit on the top of the cake. So I arranged them in a way that they’d all fit.

Then for the fruit…

I then started adding the fruit. Starting with the biggest fruit, which was the strawberries, I added them in one by one. The goal was to spread them out over the top of the cake, fitting them where there was room.

Next I added the raspberries, blueberries and lastly the mint leaves for just a little extra something green. For things like this cake, I think the fuller the better. If you go too light on the toppings, it might look bare. Plan to fill up the top plenty so it looks nice and full.

Finished Product

Definitely watch the video above, if you haven’t already, in order to see the process. But really it was so easy and I love the way it turned out.

When decorating a cake like this, there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to do it. You’ll notice in the video that I just started playing around with it, adding things and moving them until it looked right to me. You’ll want to just watch as you go and adjust as needed.

There are kind of two ways to go about this… You can try to be symmetrical or go with a more organic look. I personally prefer the more organic look, which means there’s definitely no right or wrong way. Just start piecing it together, and more so focusing on balance over symmetry.

For example, try spreading the strawberries out throughout the top of the cake, instead of grouping them all in one spot. And do the same thing for the rest of the ingredients. I did group the macarons kind of in the middle (again, perfect example that there’s no right way).

I’d encourage you to just jump in and give it a try. Worst case scenario, you can always rinse off the fruit and start over. 🙂

A while back I did something similar to this f0r my son’s 2nd birthday. You can find it below.

Upgrading a Store-Bought Cake for Under $20 – VIDEO

Thanks so much for reading this post on how to turn a simple store bought cake into a pretty cake for any occasion! If you give this a try, comment below and tell me how it went. In the meantime, you can Pin for Later below.