(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)

By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

If you are busy with back-to-school and family activities, the last thing you probably have time for is baking an elaborate cake or other goodies – even if you would love to – for your child’s, spouse’s or friend’s birthday parties.

Although your own childhood memories might conjure up a house filled with the scent of just-baked treats, sometimes shortcuts can be the best priority so you actually have time to enjoy with your loved ones.

Homemade touches that take seconds show you care and are sure to draw oohs and ahhs from merrymakers. Kidlets, who are not the recipients, can feel special by easily lending a hand.

Think about building your creation rather than starting from scratch. A “no-bake” birthday cake, for instance, is something you will probably get asked for the “recipe” for repeatedly.

Half Sheets Make a Whole Lot of Impact: A bakery-bought frosted half-sheet cake can be topped with a bakery-bought layer cake on dowels that’s been frosted and bordered in the same colors as the sheet cake. The guest of honor’s favorite colors are, of course, an inspired place to start! Then – cupcake lovers rejoice – frosted store-bought ones top the layer cake and a cookie is inserted into the frosting of each of those. Decorated store-bought cookies also dot the top of the cake.

Themes know no boundaries. Either you or the bakery can top your cakes or cookies with decorative touches reflecting the recipient’s favorite sports or hobbies.

Innovative approaches work with virtually any store-bought cake.

Angel on Your Shoulder: Angel food cakes are perfect canvasses. Fill the open center with custom touches, like berries marinated in champagne for an adult bash or a “trail mix” of chocolate candies, toffee peanuts, jelly beans and bits of various broken cookies for a kiddy party.

Top with whipped cream you have tinted with a few drops of food coloring to be the guest-of-honor’s favorite color.

• Say Cheese: Plain frozen cheesecake is another delightful option. Your own personal toppings that rival a fine restaurant’s are endless. After defrosting cake, mascarpone cheese, chocolate chips, cocoa powder and powdered sugar are all it takes to mimic the best tiramisu cheesecakes. A mixture of fresh fruits or bits of the guest’s favorite cookies sprinkled on top do the same.

• Your Cupcake Runneth Over: Cake’s not the only choice. Trays of cupcakes spelling out special messages also make a splash. Top each store-bought frosted cupcake with candy letters found in the cake-decorating aisle of the supermarket. Spell out a personalized phrase and present with a candle lit in each cupcake. Alternatively, use writing-type frosting and “monogram” each cupcake with the birthday guest’s initials.

• Beautiful Bugs: Additional party goodies can be made quickly, too, almost in an assembly-line fashion, lining up simple ingredients you will use to build your masterpiece. Partying “caterpillars,” for instance, can be prepared with segments of banana “glued together” with dabs of creamy peanut butter topped with food-colored enhanced shredded coconut. Thin pretzel sticks can be stuck in as multiple legs and raisins as eyes.

Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun – and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!

Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you – or your kidlet helpers – choose to use can’t help but draw “wows” from family members and guests.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  If you’ve thrown out leftover tempura vegetables before because they are soggy the next day after refrigeration, eHow.com has a tip that worked well. Preheat oven to 425 F, place tempura vegetables on baking sheet, heat 3 minutes, carefully turn over with spatula or tongs and heat for 3 additional minutes (taking care that it does not get too browned). Carefully remove, drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.