Alternative birthday cake suggestions PLEASE

[emdanmum]

My DD is 8 in 6 (ish) weeks, but she doesn't really like cake.............any suggestions for an alternative (with candles and singing) gratefully recieved!!
In the past we've done the whole cake thing, but she never has any
Last year I did a dozen plain buns with minimal decoration eg. dusted with icing sugar and chocolate stars stuck on (she doesn't like icing, cream/jam filling, chocolatey cake-there's only so far you can go with these limitations!)

stick candles on a jelly/trifle?

.....great idea, but she's so fussy. She really wants to like these things but doesn't
This is why I's struggling

Hi,

I think I may have a couple of ideas.

In Sweden the Sandwich cake is very very popular for birthdays. And yes it is sandwiches as a cake.

You get lots of bread (pending on numbers) probably 4 to 6 loaves (white or brown whatever your DD likes), decide on fillings and you can literally have anything (your DDs favourite sandwich)and you start with a base of bread (cut crusts/edges off to shapr it) and work upwards.

My dad insist on sandwich cake every year as he doesn't like sweet stuff.

www.notquitenigella.com/2007/09/23/smorgastarta-swedish-sandwich-cake/

annesfood.blogspot.com/2007/05/swedish-sandwich-cake-by-lena.html

Or you can just google and see what comes up.

They are easy to decorate and top with anything savoury (shaped cucumber/tomato/carrot) or folded ham. You can let the imagination run riot.

And it is fairly certain that your DDs friends will be impressed as its unusual in the UK plus a tasty serving of sandwiches.

My other idea was a plain carrot cake without any icing or creamcheese icing. You can buy glitter gel (edible) to decorate with in Waitrose/Ocado which wouldn't add any sweetness but look pretty for a girl.

They are by Queen Quality Decorations and are called Glitter Writing Gels (comes in pack of 4 colours). I used them recently for my DDs 1st birthday - one of her friends is allergic to dairy so couldn't have cream cheese icing and I thought the babies were to young for pure sugar icing so used this and it was pretty.

You could also use glitter gels to decorate sandwich cake...

Happy baking

Those savoury sandwich cakes look fantastic!
I guess any savoury pie could also be decorated nicely. If she does like some sweet things but not cakes as such, what about a giant egg custard (tart), a fruit flan or a decrorated fruit pie? These would all take cake candles.

I remember home made "hedgehogs" at my parties when I was little (I was obsessed with hedgehogs for some reason). They were made by sticking cocktail sticks with cubes of cheese/kabanos etc into a tissue paper coated or foil coated melon half (complete with cardboard-cone nose and drawn-on eyes/cute hedghog face) - you could stick candles into one of those.

how about a giant rice krispie mountain cake?
make it in a pirex dish, you could use chocolate or melting candy in varioius colours this kind of thing

How about an ice cream cake ? Line a cake tin with clingfilm, then fill with ice cream of different flavours.

ooh icecream cake,

How about doing sausages and mash, and putting the candles into the pile of mashed potato?

Or, nachos with lots of lovely toppings, with the candles stuck in?

Oh, oh, I've just had another idea. I made a fantastic loaf of bread, with a whole camenbert/brie baked in the middle. You could stick candles in the top, and then rip open the bread and dip it in the cheese. Too grown up possibly.

Is this for a family party, or a children's party?

make a cardboard one
we used to have one when i was at playgroup, and when anyone had a birthday they brought out the cardboard cake, and when we'd sung happy birthday they lifted up the cake and it was a big bowl of sweets!

one of those giant cookie cakes?

was also going to suggest icecream cake (wasn't that the thing in the 70s?!)

I adore those cheese wedding cakes you get but guess not most 8 year old's taste!

Have you ever thought about savoury muffins or savoury cupcakes? I tried some before from this company www.villadolce.co.uk and they were quite good otherwise I'm sure you can get recipes from the internet? At least it will look like cake just not sweet. Otherwise you could literally make a cheese cake..... not the sweet type but you could make a tower with full rounds of cheese. I've seen it before and it looks really pretty.