Birthday cake alternatives: what East London orders instead

The most popular birthday cake alternative in our own order book is the milk cake tray: since January 2023, 1,077 orders with us have included one, more than every cake we sell under a birthday name put together. Close behind come heart cakes, boxes of cake slices and classic traybakes, which tells us a lot of East London celebrations happily skip the traditional round cake.

This post walks through what people actually order from us instead of a round cake, why we think each one has taken off, and which one suits which kind of party. Every number here comes from our own orders, not from a survey or someone else's list.

The numbers: what people order instead of a round cake

We looked at every order placed with us from 1 January 2023 to today, 4,479 orders in total, and counted how many included each type of cake. An order can include more than one thing, so the groups overlap a little, and some older orders were recorded without a product name, so treat these as minimums.

• Milk cake trays, any flavour: 1,077 orders
• Traybakes such as the School Cake Tray: 876 orders
• Cakes we sell as birthday cakes (classic, drip, sprinkle and the rest): 763 orders
• Heart cakes, every design: 721 orders
• Cake gift boxes of 12 slices: 596 orders

Our classic round Birthday Cake on its own accounts for 396 orders. It is a lovely cake and we are proud of it, but the order book is clear: more people come to us for something you cut into squares, slices or a heart than for a round cake with candles.

Shop milk cake trays → Our Pistachio Milk Cake Tray is £23.99, baked to order in a tray ready to cut and share, with £4.99 delivery across East London and Essex. Pick your date at checkout.

Milk cake trays: the sharing option

A milk cake tray is a soft sponge soaked in milk and finished with cream and toppings, baked and served in its own foil tray. Ours come in a 9 by 9 inch tray, which cuts into 9 generous squares or up to 16 smaller party pieces.

We think three things explain why it has become our most ordered celebration bake:

It feeds a room without fuss. Nobody needs a cake knife, a stand or a steady hand. You take the lid off, cut a grid and hand it round. For a big family gathering, that matters more than a tall centrepiece.

It suits the way many local families celebrate. A lot of our customers are hosting relatives rather than throwing a party with a cake moment. A tray of milk cake sits on the table next to everything else and gets finished.

The flavours. Pistachio is the clear favourite with our customers, with Biscoff the runner up. A tray of pistachio milk cake feels like a treat in a way a plain sponge does not.

One honest note: milk cake is a chilled dessert. It needs to live in the fridge and is best eaten within 48 hours of delivery, so it is not the right pick for a picnic in the park.

Gift boxes of slices: easy for offices and big families

Our Cake Gift Box holds 12 slices of cake, and you choose any four flavours from School Cake, Jam and Coconut, Lemon, Chocolate, Tottenham Cake and Pink School Cake. It is £21.99.

The appeal is choice. A round cake is one flavour for everyone. A box of slices lets the person who loves chocolate and the person who only eats lemon both have what they want, and nobody has to cut anything.

In our view a gift box suits two kinds of celebration best: office birthdays, where a box gets passed round desks, and celebrations where the cake is a gift rather than the centre of the table, sent to someone's door as a thank you or a surprise. If you are celebrating someone who is not at home with you, a box of slices travels and shares far better than a decorated cake.

Traybakes: the nostalgic choice

Traybakes are the quiet giant in these numbers. Our School Cake Tray, a vanilla sponge with pink icing and rainbow sprinkles at £17.99, and its cousins (pink school cake, chocolate, lemon, jam and coconut) appear in 876 orders since 2023.

We think the reason is simple: for a lot of grown ups, the taste of school dinner cake is a birthday memory in itself. It is cheerful, it cuts into neat squares and it costs less than a decorated cake. We will not turn this into a post about school cakes, but if you are after something nostalgic for a work do or a family tea, it is worth knowing it sits right up there with our celebration cakes.

Heart cakes: still a cake, just not round

Not everyone who skips the round cake wants to skip cake altogether. Heart cakes are our answer for people who want a proper decorated centrepiece with candles and a message, just in a shape that feels more personal.

Across every heart design we make, 721 orders since January 2023 have included a heart cake. The classic Heart Cake is £39.99, in vanilla sponge with buttercream, piped in the colours you choose with your message on top. You can see every style in our heart cakes collection.

A heart cake makes a perfectly good birthday cake, with candles and a name on top. It looks lovely in photos, and in our view the heart shape gives buttercream piping more room to show off than a round top does.

Which alternative suits which party

Here is how we would choose:

• A big family gathering at home: a milk cake tray. It feeds a crowd, sits happily on a full table and gets eaten.
• An office or team birthday: a Cake Gift Box. Twelve slices, four flavours, no knife needed.
• Sending love to someone who lives elsewhere: a gift box delivered to their door.
• A party with a candles moment and lots of photos: a heart cake with your message piped on top.
• A crowd of mixed ages on a budget: a School Cake Tray, which cuts into neat squares.
• You still want the classic: nothing wrong with that. Our birthday cakes collection has round cakes in plenty of styles.

If your guest list is long, you do not have to choose: a decorated cake for the candles and a tray for everyone to actually eat is a smart combination, and both can go in the same order. Whatever you pick, it is baked for your date: choose delivery or collection in the cart, then pick from the open days and slots on the calendar.

Frequently asked questions

Written by the Cake Trays Team, a family-run bakery in Dagenham, East London, baking celebration cakes to order at caketrays.co.uk.