To make a birthday cake and not cut it

I always give out a different cake to the one that had the candles on. Totally normal where I live. Some mums put cupcakes in the party in nice little boxes. I just made a separate cake. It was wrapped and in bags before we had left home for the party venue

Well the waving a knife around doesn't happen when people are cutting the cake. It's when they get distracted by questions and don't put it down. I've seen people gesticulating , knife in hand or holding it with the sharp edge facing outwards. In a venue with kids running around you can guess what might happen.

Quite a few venues near us don't allow cake cutting. They have no food prep areas or even enclosed space, everything has to be laid out in the main party area itself.
It may sound over the top as, to you they're just slicing the cake.
But it only takes a few seconds of inattention to cause danger.

Easy solution just don't do a massive cake cutting or have already cut slices to hand out.

I just did this today, my daughter point blank refused for me to cut the cake and hand it out, it’s still not been cut now! Luckily I had brought cupcakes to give out just in case that happened. I was quite embarrassed by it but I wasn’t going to make my 4 yo distraught at her own party!

My DD still remembers getting shafted on birthday cake when she was 3, so yes people definitely do notice!

I’ve done this before, although I cut and handed round the “main cake” for adults/party tea ‘pudding’ and then put cupcakes in the party bags. Not sure but think you could get away with whisking the main cake away and handing out cupcakes instead.

No. Have two cakes. A shop bought tray bake cake for the party and your fancy one to cut at home.

This^
I think this idea is very strange.
are you going to eat cake or not?

I was worried about making/transporting a cake big enough for DDs party last year so I made a traybake alongside a smaller cake, same flavour, icing and decoration, which I pre-cut and put into the party bags. If you’re making the cupcakes too then I’d put it all out at the party and cupcakes in bags.

Seems to be a bit too much like showing off to me. You want everyone to see and coo over the cake without actually getting any of it. Either everyone sees it and eats it or you save it for home.

This has happened at every single party my kids have been invited to this year apart from their own. The kids went absolutely mad when we actually started cutting the cake up at my DD’s party!

I've been on the receiving end of this - beautiful cake for display, cheap supermarket one in the party bag! My dd noticed, as did I, and it was disappointing. However, I would say we both love cake and probably pay more attention than average.

I have a friend who does this every year and I find it utterly bonkers. Parties are always themed with a matching cake that gets whipped away and the kids given cake pops.

You can't just wave a knife around after plonking the cake down on any old surface in a kid's party venue . So how exactly is she supposed to just cut it up and distribute it?

The same way every other parent manages to do with no difficulty whatsoever. You don't "wave a knife around", you just slice the cake, slide the bits onto paper plates, and pass them around. This is what happens at 99% of parties.

Do this.

If my son sees a cake, the whole time he is singing happy birthday he is staring at the cake and drooling. When the singing stops, he begins to close in on the cake, and if you tried to palm him off with a cupcake he would be vocally disappointed. Whereas if you just bring a Colin the Caterpillar and hack it into chunks, he will be perfectly happy.

Weird to have a just a show cake.

Everyone has taken the time to dress up, turn up, bring a present, at least offer the actual bloody cake, things have gotten so weird and complicated these days!

This. Children's parties are a huge amount of effort but each parent only has to do one per child per year at most. And all the other parents go to the effort of buying and wrapping a present and attending. It's a reciprocal social arrangement for the children's benefit.

There are loads of comments like this, and I just have to point out. .. OP doesn't have a problem with the cake being eaten.

She has a problem with the cake not being eaten - i.e. destroyed then binned without a second thought. Also a lack of cutting space. You can't just wave a knife around after plonking the cake down on any old surface in a kid's party venue . So how exactly is she supposed to just cut it up and distribute it?

Tbh if this was a big problem OP should have chosen a different venue but unlike @cookiebee I don't think she's trying to squirrel the cake away, being snobbish or anything else insinuated here.

This has got to be the most joyless idea I’ve ever heard, it’s a bloody kids party, which means fun, jelly and ice cream and a cake that the birthday kid spits all over while blowing out the candles which then gets mangled and definitely enjoyed later by all the kids, cake tastes much better warmed through in a party bag. There should also be a slightly creepy magician, musical chairs, pass the parcel, which is cheap crap wrapped in newspaper and just general mayhem. NOT a beautiful cake that no one is allowed to touch and is then squirrelled away for the family later. Everyone has taken the time to dress up, turn up, bring a present, at least offer the actual bloody cake, things have gotten so weird and complicated these days!

Have a cake, do candles and serve the bloody cake - that is what it is for. I'm agog that it's for take home or another time or whatever.

I’ve seen people use the special cake to sing “happy birthday” and then cut a supermarket cake for party bags. I did it this year because we had a family party too so used the candle cake twice.

Nah, just cut it up and distribute it, it's what a cake's for (and you might have people thinking it's a fake cake otherwise 😁) Cakes are for cutting up and eating. Just make sure you take photos beforehand to remember your handiwork by! 🍰

I will put my hand up to say I have done similar. The cake for the children was made and decorated alongside the 'show' cake so it had the same icing, cake, size, shape, general theme decoration, etc.

The reason was that there were quite a lot of children - about 30 (whole class party), we were doing the entertainment ourselves, it took time picking out the candles/ wax, cutting up cake, wrapping it and putting it in party bags (yeah weird English traditions but all parties around here were like that). Time that I really needed to be out with the guests entertaining them/ stopping them from descending into total chaos/ congratulating myself on not becoming a primary school teacher. The 'show' cake was whisked away to the kitchen so the children were not aware it was a different cake, taken home, shared for a couple of days in our family, a few slices went in the freezer and were eaten for packed lunches. Bonus was that the cake for the guests had not been blown on by the birthday child.

I think I got the idea from MN after moaning a previous year about missing 10 mins of the party cutting up cake and wrapping it for 30 kids.

Rest assured the cake was all eaten and no children were traumatised by having a pre sliced duplicate cake!

Honestly, given the topic of the thread and the post that mentioned mini rolls and the alternative to the actual cake, no that wasn't clear at all.

Really weird, kids will see the cake and look forward to be because it’s a birthday party and if you sing around a cake it usually means you then eat it.

I hate handing out the cake in party bags too, so I’ve started doing the blowing out the candles just before the food and then handing out the cake as dessert (including to adults) so that it is appreciated. It always goes down well. Are you sure there is no table or side to cut the cake on and hand out on paper plates?