Alternative to Birthday Cake

Put a candle in his pile of pancakes/waffles- add some whipped cream and strawberries or a thematic toy on top or something to make it more cake like :)

an idea for a simple solution: a bowl of fruit (you could bring a brightly colored plastic one, with smallish apples, oranges,tangerines, clusters of grapes, etc in a bag). take 3 small oranges, and put candles in them. Place at the center/top of the fruit.

One of my friends just started a cooking blog. She loves to bake/decorate cupcakes (she is good at it) and is learning how to cook everything else. :) She is competing in an Iron cupcake competition and for the Savory category she posted a recipe for Pancake cupcakes with Maple Whip Cream for frosting. They look delicious and would go along perfectly with your food theme. You can find them at http://kitchendoughdough.blogspot.com/search/label/pancakes

Why don't you make your son a special waffle at the beginnning and put a candle on it and sing? After that the other kids can get their stuff. Other ideas...cupcakes, muffins, cut up fruit.

You could have candles put on a muffin, instead of cupcakes...and do it first - sing and then let everyone eat.

mini muffins is what we use! they come in blueberry, banana walnut, choc chip, chocolate, orange - ralph's has the best selection of these

HI L. -
I am a catering manager and do many parties every week. I have a couple suggestions:
1. You could decorate a special stack of pancakes for yor 3 year old, maybe chocolate chip, add some whipped cream and fresh fruit like strawberries and blueberries for a garnish and sing Happy Birthday upon everyone's arrival. If the zoo is catering the event, I am sure they can assist you with this - even the waffle could be decorated as well.

2. You could finish the brunch with birithday cupcakes and everyone take one home with them at eat at their leasure- maybe even decorate them with zebra stripes or something that ties into the zoo theme. I would just make sure you have enough cupcake boxes or perhaps foil to wrap their take home cupcake.

My daughter saw this in Family Fun magazine and she thought it was so cool that she requested it for her celebration at school instead of the usual cupcakes. She called it a "Fruit Cake" and it was actually fruit stacked up in the shape of a cake. Slice and stack watermelon to form the round part of the cake, then decorate it with toothpicks stuck with small berries, cherries, etc. We made sure that each slice of watermelon had some "decoration" of orange slices, blueberries, cherries or strawberries. Her class was really excited about it because it was so different and the teacher was thrilled, because she didn't have to deal with the sugar high after lunchtime. Family Fun Magazine has a great website, you can probably search for a picture of it there.

I think you could just put the candels right in the pancakes and/or waffles. I think it will make a great picture.

Hi L.,
How about putting the candles on the pancakes? Maybe with a little whipped cream? Happy Birthday to your little guy!

You could put the candles in a stack of pancakes; a special stack (chocolate chip?) just for him.

I would forgo the pancake/waffle brunch since most people would have eaten. Instead I would do some light brunch things; muffins, fruit, etc. Then you could still do cake. Just an idea and should be a lot easier!

For my daughter's last birthday, she was on a diet and did not want a cake. I took angel food cake, strawberry's and blueberries, and vanilla pudding made with lowfat milk and placed them in individual styrofoam cups. I just tore up the cake and each cup had two chunks. Everyone loved it and they were all gone rather quickly.

How about putting the candles in a fluffy pancake or waffle? You could sing "happy birthday" and let your son have the first bite of the food. If you begin the festivities that way, you don't have to worry about dessert.

Hi
How about small muffins, or cupcakes made from banana bread
Good luck

SG had a good idea with the muffins. but another good idea would be parfe cups, jello/pudding cups, or even healthier do fruit cups. good luck im sure youll get a lot of good ideas.

Hi L.,

My friend's son just loves Worm Cake! All I think she does is crush up Oreo cookies for the dirt part... put gummy worms on top of that and then put vanilla pudding on top of that (not sure if she mixes whipped cream with pudding or not though) You can even make it in individual cups too. It is usually a big hit with the kids, and most adults too. Another suggestion would be to make a fruit salad, and make a bowl out of a watermelon, and you can put candles in some of the fruit. Happy Birthday to your little guy!

How about on his own pancake or waffle?

My younger daughter doesn't like anything sweet.

Instead of cake, we have B-B-Q ribs with a candle. No ice cream for her! Instead, she has potato salad.

Be sure to let attendees know that there will be no cake or ice cream; instead, they'll have .....