Cake. It’s the traditional birthday food. You put candles on it. You eat it with ice-cream. If you’re going to a birthday party, you can always count on cake being there.
But what if you (or your kids) don’t like cake?
I know it sounds unbelievable that any kid wouldn’t like cake, but mine don’t. They never have. For their first few birthdays, I still made cake or cupcakes because that’s what you do for birthdays. I’d serve the cake to the guests, and give the birthday boy Oreos or Reeses for his dessert – what he really wanted. But then I thought, why make something they don’t like (as cute as those cakes and cupcakes were)? It’s THEIR birthday, and who says we HAVE to have cake? So, I started coming up with alternatives.
Sugar Cookies
My oldest son loves sugar cookies, so that’s been his birthday dessert of choice for the last two years. They are a great alternative because you can find cookie cutter shapes for almost any theme! An added bonus is that my kids love to help make sugar cookies, making it a fun pre-birthday party activity to do together!
Rice Krispie Treats
I love this option because you can mold Rice Krispie Treats into any cake pan and decorate it with icing like a cake! And, you can even add some variety and make them with other kinds of cereal – in this case, I also used Trix. This is a great option, too, if you’re worried about kids with milk allergies (but in this case you’d probably have to omit the icing).
Donut “Cake”
Technically, donuts are kind of a form of cake, but that deep-fried goodness somehow makes them so much better (and magically makes them ok to eat for breakfast). I love this because you can stack them like a cake, add icing to decorate them like a cake, and they’re already separated into portions. And, you can get several different kinds so that everyone is sure to find something they like!
Oreos
For my youngest son’s last birthday, I made Cookie’s ‘n Cream cupcakes, but I reserved some of the plain Oreos for non-cake lovers. Since he had a Mickey Mouse birthday party, I made the Oreos look like Mickey, so they went perfectly with the theme!
For your next party, don’t be afraid to think outside the cake pan! Be creative!
The Crazy Hat Box 
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