Hi all,
I haven't posted in a while but I'm settling nicely into Basel life- really like it here.
Anyways, my little girl is soon going to have a birthday and I'm wondering where can I buy a childs birthday cake to send into playgroup for her? for approx 20 people?
I see that Migros does them but from what I can see a cake is chf120
I am contemplating baking but I am inexperienced and have no baking equipment- we are in temporary accommadation- I do have a whisk-
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks.

I'm afraid you won't get anything affordable. Ask your in local bakery. Or ask a gal pal of yours to bake one - a chocolate cake is really simple, throw some smarties on it, candles - voila. It's not rocket science.

And if you really have no clue, get a box cake (Dr. Oetker) or ready made cake dough that you just pour in the baking pan. Couldn't possibly go wrong.

That's a start, a baking pan will be much cheaper than 120 francs

buy a bag of cup cakes from the migros and put a candle in each of them, this is good for play groups and schools plus it saves you about chf 100

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/

You are welcome moonshine

I haven't been able to find ready made frosting in switzerland. I dont think they have it over the border in germany either. Has anyone else found it? (in the US its in a plastic type tub). I ended up making my own buttercream frosting, which came out good, but now that i know what its made of i am not sure i can ever eat it again!

Go to St Louis (bus, cycle or car) and there's an excellent bakers just up from the "Carrefour" crossroads (Rue de Mulhouse).

Thank you all so much for the replies- cupcakes sound like a good idea.

From what my children have told me it doesn't have to be cakes for birthday treats. Quite often children bring in bread and chocolate (and yes - to be eaten together!), or sweets and chocolate, biscuits or fizzy drinks. Anything goes really!

You don't need to bake the cake. You can buy the ready made bread in Migros or Coop for 3 CHF and then decorate at will with the many things you can find in the same section of the market: choco chips, colored stars, cream, etc.

I am not familiar with "ready made bread"- is it like cake?
Is it in the bakery section or baking section?
Thanks

It's a ready made sweet "cake" without the extras, no cream, fruits, jam, just the basis. It comes sliced (for filling) and packaged. My wife buys it, so I'm not sure where they put it exactly.

It's called Tortenboden and looks like this.

Furthermore, your daughter's teachers (or playgroup leaders) will thank you for saving them the bother and mess of cutting up and sharing a big squidgy cake between 20 children.

When our children were in primary school, I always made nice small Zöpfe (plaited bread) one for each of the children. It meant getting up at dark o'clock (their birthdays were all in winter) but the kids at school loved them and they weren't nearly as messy as cake. I wasn't a very good cake maker anyway. I usually took along small bags too, so that if a child didn't finish his, he could put it into the bag and eat it later.

We all have our little ways of manipulating the teacher in our child's favour. Teachers like Zopf too.

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Longbyt

As my son has so many "groups" for which to take stuff on his birthday (kindergarten, daycare, English class, plus an actual birthday party) I was definitely not going to make 4 cakes!

So last time I made Schoggi-weggli (a zopf-style sweet bread with chocolate bits in) for Kindergarten, raisin-oat cookies for Tagi, cupcakes for English (because it's a small group so I only had to make 8) and then saved the proper cake making for his birthday party.

For the actual birthday party cake I would never buy one - it's just way too expensive. I'm not a fantastic baker but kids are really not that fussy and there's really no need to have one of these amazing shaped ones like a pirate ship or a fairytale castle - a plain round cake with some cream on the top and a few sprinkles and a happy birthday plastic decoration and some candles will be fine.

I'd nip out and get some baking supplies if I were you (Ikea's not far away and it's dead cheap there!)

My daughter told me the following:

Her favorite birthday treats classmate have brought are:
1. a Weggli (white sweet bun from the bakery) with a chocolate Stengli (individual bar, Branche or other type from Coop or Migros).
2. Schildchrotli (Sweet bread in the shape of a turtle from bakery).
3. Muffins.

She says most everyone brings the weggli or muffins, as it's quick and easy. Her classes always have the birthday kid pass out the treats to the others at the beginning of their morning break. Hope that helps!

On a side note, my daughter also got the gold king in her bread on King's Day, and won a birthday cake from a bakery. It was by far the most wretched thing we've ever tasted and we had to throw it away without even finishing one piece . Thank goodness we didn't didn't redeem it on her actual birthday.

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"If at first you don't succeed... so much for skydiving." - Henry Youngman

I'm thinking of trying my hand at baking- and picking up a few cheap bakery utensils.
She's not having a proper birthday party as we only moved here 2 months ago and don't have friends to invite yet, so I'd like her to have a birthday cake.
I'm going to do a trial this weekend and if its a disaster will opt for one of the cake options suggested.
Never saw the premade cake before- thanks for the picture- also a good backup.

Let me know if you need some help, I'm not a great decorator but I can bake (and have some pans, either paired rounds, a couple of rectangles as well as some cupcake tins).

Thanks PegA for your very kind offer.
I picked up a few baking items at the weekend and made my first birthday cake yesterday. I was thrown by the issue of no self raising flour but gave the cake a stab anyways. Cake was a bit flat- even though I added baking powder.
Anyways, iced it and decorated with smarties and jelly tots and transported cake and children to montessori on the bus this morning.
Fingers crossed it goes down well and my girlie has a lovely morning being the birthday girl.
Thanks again for all the tips,
Moonshine