The Kid With The Most Cake

Now that summer is over and school is beginning, kid distraction might be less required. But sometimes, school opens up your child to new activities.

Take cooking, for instance. My girl wants to learn to cook. She's nine, close enough to actual personhood  that giving her legitimate culinary responsibilities isn't a disaster. If your child is younger, though, you might want to indulge their inner pastry chef in a less messy way. This ingenious toy is one way. This big felt layer Carnival Cake is white and unadorned, so that your smaller kid can "decorate" it using the included felt decorations, as if it were a real cake. With these decorations, it's strangely evocative of the "Zoo Cake" pictured in the class Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls (a sort of fantasy cookbook for me as a child, especially since my mother was a health food freak). However, it contains no sugar and no frosting to get smeared on your floors. Plus, if you're a crafty sort, you could easily fashion your own decorations out of more felt. Endless amusement!

Find this faux cake at Mahar Drygoods. Then, to make sure your child at least has some cake, present it with a real confection in hand.