Stupid question: can I buy a birthday cake in France?

[Howmanysleepsnow]

We’ll be in France on DS’s birthday. How easy will it be to buy a birthday cake (chocolate rather than fondant icing)? Do they sell them in supermarkets like here? Or is a patisserie a better option?

We had a croquembouche wedding cake too with lots of sparklers in it and brought in with lights turned off. Those are amazing cakes.

frenchweddingcakes.com/croquembouches/

Every French birthday I have been to there's been a cake but there cakes are different to ours, always the giant mousse cake.

French DH says they always have cakes and get them from the patiserrie, best to pre-order a couple of days before. He says mousse cake is in fashion but not the nicest of the cakes, said you can also get sponge cakes. He said the choux bun cakes are for weddings.

I made my dad a croquembouche for a significant birthday. And then all my friends turned up, dressed to the nines, and he was taken on a night out by half a dozen much younger women......

The Dutch have giant tarts/ flans as celebration cakes, called vlaai. They're often filled with mousse or custard and topped with fruit, but can also be very intricate affairs with layers of sponge and all sorts. My favourite filling is rice pudding topped with cream and chocolate. Or is is custard with a crumble topping? I can never decide!

DH always gets me a white choc, mango and passion fruit mousse cake for my birthday. Utterly delicious. The choc ones are too rich for me.

I would just get patisserie then he can have what he fancies. We sometimes get the large random patisserie selections - there are something like 12 mini patisseries. We play patisserie roulette- one person takes the first one, then it passes around the family, the catch being that the person who got the last one on the first round gets first choice on the second round etc. The favoured position seems to be about the middle of the first round so you still get one of your favourites but you aren't just left with the one no one else wanted at the end.

Personally I’d love a patisserie selection, but at his age it’s more about having something to stick a candle in!

"He’s not really keen on traditional British birthday cakes as he doesn’t like icing or buttercream."

What kind of cake do you want exactly? What does he like?

When you say birthday cake I think of a sponge cake with some kind of filling, but do you want a plain sponge cake with no filling or icing?

Casino do a chocolate cake with candles that spell out Happy Birthday.

I was in a big Intermarche the other day (looking for a Bithday cake) roand they had a Frozen cake and a Minions one.

Apologies for the mangled spelling there!

Carrefour has all sorts on their website that might work:

www.carrefour.fr/p/gateau-minion-5030765031266

www.carrefour.fr/p/gateau-framboisier-3523680401167

www.carrefour.fr/p/gateau-3d-la-reine-des-neiges-ii-lightbody-5030765037312

This even has English candles! www.carrefour.fr/p/gateau-happy-birthday-au-chocolat-5030765022066

You should be able to get a big chocolate gateau thing from Paul if you’re near a branch.

I find Monoprix is good for British items, things like breakfast muffins and other things you'd get in the U.K. and not France.

Otherwise the bigger supermarkets (Carrefour etc) will have lots of options as PPs have found.

DS has a late summer birthday so we are often abroad and trying to find a birthday cake type cake and I conclude it is more of a British thing than I thought. Spain has some pretty boring flat plain cakes - like a big madeleine. Or you can get a creamy thing from the bakery but they are too creamy and all looks over taste. Same with France. A tarte aux pommes is not the birthday cake of a 9 year old's dreams

One year I made a carrot cake in the villa (took my own cake tin) and it was a huge hit including with the villa owners. Somewhat reassuring to think we do have some nice things that we can impress other nations with

Although a religieuse au chocolat is a very lovely thing...