Birthday Cake Recipe or Alternative Idea

How about a big cookie? You could get some frozen sugar cookie dough, add in some sprinkles, press it onto a pizza pan, bake it, and let it cool. You could skip the sprinkles if he doesn't like sprinkles, and after it cools, you could decoate it with colored icing. My other thought is maybe do an angel food cake and top it off with fresh fruit instead of sweets. Another idea is do a pound cake and add fresh fruit, maybe some sorbet or ice cream, which ever he prefers.

I hope he has a Happy Birthday:)

have you thought about skipping the cake option all together and making a giant cookie? you can make a big cookie from pretty much any recipe. he likes pumpkin so maybe a pumpkin spice cookie? those are not horribly sweet he might like those. or an ice cream cake? when my son was about 10 all he wanted was one of those big chocolate chip cookies so we did that. I would do the cookie thing.

also

a party I went to recently had pretty little glass planter jars (about a cup size) filled with the following
layer 1 a crumbled up oreo cookie
layer 2 vanilla pudding
layer 3 chocolate pudding
layer 3 another crumbled up oreo cookie
layer 5 one of those gummy worms poking up through the middle

the kids loved them

I'm with your son on the buttercream. I really like cream cheese frosting as an option, but with extra cream cheese and a little less sugar. It has a similar consistency to buttercream but isn't nearly as sweet, and you can adjust the ammount of creamcheese until the sweetness is to your liking. I would start making it and adding creamcheese by incriments, letting him try it with each addition until it's the way he likes it. It happens to be fabulous on banana and carrot cake, too.

I hate icing too (I know, the horror). I just scrape it off. It's ONE reason why I prefer fondant cakes. Because one doesn't eat the fondant but peels it off like an orange. You get the pretty cake, but don't have the icky old frosting to deal with. Marzipan is another option.

Banana Bread
Cream Cheese frosting or none

Cinnamon Roll w/ Raisens (no icing, most of the sweet is the yucky icing)

Egg tart , Moon cakes , other Japanese/Chinese pastries (they're less sweet than american sweets... something of a savory sweet blend. Hard to describe).

Tiramisu (sans the alcohol)

Icecream Cake (make it yourself by half melting the icecream, squashing it into a cake pan, freezing it super super h*** o* the lowest cold setting, put a thin layer of cake, about 1/2 inch between layers, ice if you like, keep frozen until an hour before eating, and put it in the fridge)

Soft Pretzel (screw sweet since he doesn't like it, it's supposed to be a treat, and if he doesn't like sweet, he doesn't like sweet) The 'cake' is just supposed to be a treat. It doesn't have to be sweet. It can be a muffin, mashed potato or rice sculpture, filet minion (wait, not in Nippon, too pricey)... point is: Something you can stick a candle in.

Mochi (real mochi) with candles in each mochi if he likes them

Red Bean Buns (if he likes those)

Even mikans. Sort of Croque en bouche style. Or heck... croissants croque en bouche. Or even croque en bouche!!!

Zucchini bread? It's a bit sweet, you can pour the batter into a cake tin and make in cake like instead of a loaf.

Would this work for you?

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/eatingwell_zucchini_bre...

My sis-in-law like a plum cake my mother-in-law makes. My husband prefers oatmeal cookies. My daughter loves brownies. I prefer a bowl of chocolate mint ice cream.

Im not a big fan of cake either because of how sweet it is. But my favorite cake is Angel food cake. My mom would always cut the cake in half width wise and pull out a ring around the cake and put strawberries in the circle she pulled out. Put the top back on and put whipped cream on the whole cake as a frosting.

If the cool whip is still too sweet you could just drizzle it with his favorite fruit and the juice from it.

I completely understand the whole icing thing. My daughter hates icing so we just started doing the cupcake cakes and I order one on the side with no icing for her.

Make any banana/oatmeal/carrot cake into cupcakes, decorate and add icing to some and none on the others.

As another had stated do pound cake or angel food cake with his favorite fruit on top.

Sweet potato pie would be good. I hate icing...my mom used to make banana bread for my birthday. Another good idea is Angel food cake with sliced fruit. You could also slice apples, add them to a pie crust , drizzle with honey and bake. I do this as a treat for my daughter who doesn't like things very sweet.

Also, he's turning 5, so just ask him what he wants. I'll bet he has an opinion. Good luck!

My not make pumpkin bread or zucchini bread? You can get mini bread pans almost anywhere.

On a side note, why isn't applesauce available in Japan?!

Angel food cake isn't very sweet at all.

I would proably make zuchini bread into cupcakes.

how about a pound cake or angel food cake with fruit on top.

Or a fruit pizza - pizza crust with cream cheese topped with your sons favorite fruit.

pumpkin or sweet potatoe pie

My husband's family would sometimes do donut cakes instead of birthday cakes. Just get a dozen of your favorite donuts and stack them into a pyramid and add candles!

pound cake. angel food cake. giant pumpkin/chocolate chip cookie. zucchini bread 'cupcake' muffins. carrot cupcakes. if you can get apples, you can make applesauce very easily and make applesauce cake, but if you don't want to, stuff the apples with raisins, granola and sweet potatoes and bake them. ginger/spice sweet potato cake. lemon bars. oatmeal scones. apple fritters. fruit crepes. funnel cakes. pineapple upside down cake. pumpkin pie.
khairete
S.

What about cake pops? Could try one at Starbucks before you make or buy them.

Is there any dessert/sweet that the likes? If he really isn't into cake, he shouldn't have one. My friend's daughter recently had gelato as her birthday treat and she put the candles in that. What are his favorite desserts that you can buy or make in Japan? Is there something he looks forward to getting? Does a candy bar make him happy? Honestly, if everyone sings and he has candles to blow out, it really doesn't matter what the candles are in.

I don't like cake either, so I always have pie for my birthday (blueberry), but if he likes pumpkin, you could make him a pumpkin pie.
For my son's first birthday I made him an angelfood cake with fruit topping instead of frosting (just cooked up some raspberries and strawberries with a little sugar, which you could definitely control the amount there, and you could use any kind of fruit he likes).
For my son's second birthday I made him a cheesecake with cherry topping.
Good luck finding something that works!

You could try this! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/05/chocolate-chip...

If he is turning five, he can tell you some things he might like. Ask him. Maybe he'd prefer a more traditional Japanese dessert, which are often less sweet. If he's grown up there, the standard American cakes and pies may just seem too sweet to him because he's not used to them.
If you are excited by the decorating and feel that is critical to a proper birthday treat, maybe you can do something on wax paper above the actual dessert, and lift it off to eat whatever is underneath.

You could skip dessert altogether. Why not make a meatloaf and "frost" it with mashed potatoes. You can write on it with ketchup, mustard or barbeque sauce.
If you want to have a cake for the rest of your family and friends, you could do that also.

Hi! I don't like icing either. Buttercream is bad and fondant is worse! Coming from the wife of a cake decorator, this is bad. We use whipped cream a lot, you really need to use stabilizer to work it well. I know you said he doesn't like the texture but has he ever had it frozen, the texture is completely different. We make ice cream cakes all the time (with cream frosting) but my favorite was the one where the surprise was more on the inside. We made an egg shape and just kind of swirled shades of green and brown around the outside. But on the inside it was full of little plastic dinosaurs. It was loads of fun and only one leg got cut off in the serving but that poor little dino got extra attention because of his infirmity. You could just use some ice cream for icing. Or bake a pie, my dh (the decorator) loves pumpkin pie for his birthday. How about decorating a meat loaf with mashed potatoes instead? Have fun---

I think if he is okay with it you could make him some kind of item he likes and put a candle in it for him to blow out. Then let him have his item. The rest of the family could just have the regular birthday cake and enjoy it all together.

My SIL does not like frosting and I am not a huge fan of cake. I like Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate with Cool Whip on it, sprinkle it with plain M&M's and a few pecan halves and you have a delightful cake. But other than that, I don't really like cake either. It's always terribly dry and tasteless.

My MIL would make SIL a tart or a personal pie, something individual for her celebration. Then everyone else would sit around and eat their celebration item.

Pumpkin pie?
2 eggs beaten
1 16 ounce can pumpkin
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1-2/3 cup evaporated milk(13oz can)
1 9 inch pie shell unbaked

Combine eggs and pumpkin. Blend in sugar, pumpkin pie spice, flour and salt. Mix well. Add evaporated milk, Mix well. Pour into pastry shell. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 + continue baking 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted near middle comes out clean.

Let Cool then put in fridge.
Get whip cream or cool whip to put on top