Cake inspiration needed - 3 year old boy - please!

[feesh]

It's DS's 3rd birthday next week and I'm really stuck for cake inspiration.

Last year we had a big party, and I made the BBC Good Food chocolate digger cake, which he LOVED. The only thing is, his big brother has a dairy allergy and because it's only us celebrating this year, I want to do something dairy free so we can all have some. I live abroad and getting dairy-free chocolate etc is difficult at the best of times, so that idea is out.

So, I'm thinking I will do my usual dairy-free madeira sponge cake, decorated with icing.

But the question is.....how to decorate it. I'm OK at decorating (have done a Peppa Pig cake before for my daughter) but not brilliant at it - and he's only really into things like Fireman Sam and Bob the Builder and any cakes I've seen for those look too tricky for me.

So, I want something simple (not too much faff - I don't have any spare time with the kids at home 24/7) that he will love! Any inspiration is most welcome please, as I am really stuck. Thanks.

A robot lying down is very easy. Just cut various sized rectangles and assemble.

Oh that's a nice idea Croissants, thank you. And I have a square cake tin so that would be super easy.

A gruffalo or a monkey wouldn’t be too tricky

Oh that Gruffalo is super cute! How do you ice like that? Is it buttercream that’s piped? (I’ve only ever done fondant before).

We made a multi layer volcano cake for dd's 3rd birthday, the basis of which was several sponges stacked on top of each other and secured with a chopstick then one side sheared off with a breadknife to create a slope. The decorations only got so elaborate because family arrived the day before her (pre lockdown) birthday and we all got creative, it didn't need to be so complicated and the basis of the decorations were sheets of ready made icing rolled out and stuck on to the sponge tower with jam, with sweets stuck on with edible glue. Dd herself bashed up digestives for the sand on the beach.

Butter icing applied with a palette knife and texture with a fork.

@feesh I have recipes for a delicious dairy free chocolate cake and a chocolate biscuit cake that could easily be made dairy free if you're interested.

DH and I are lactose intolerant so we make the dairy free chocolate cake for birthdays etc. Last time I brought it in to work I was told

Wow, this tastes like normal cake!

Chocolate cake

www.odlums.ie/recipes/dairy-free-chocolate-cake/

This is the chocolate biscuit cake.

We use dairy free spread and make sure that the biscuits are dairy free.

Oh that’s fab! Thank you @Hibernocaledonian!

And @KellyHall I LOVE your volcano cake and have saved it for the older one’s birthday when hopefully I will have more time!

What’s bread soda by the way @Hibernocaledonian? Is it baking soda?

@Feesh

Yeah bread soda and baking soda are the same.

I'm glad you like it! I got a few of the ready made icing blocks from Amazon, there's a good selection of colours and a lot of baking supplies on there.