Birthday Cake

I'm a little bummed.  My son is turning one this month and we are having a small party to celebrate but I am struggling with the birthday cake.  All I want is a vanilla sheet cake with some frosting, personalised with 'Happy Birthday Thomas' like I could get at any supermarket in NJ but the only thing I can find here in Berkshire is more like a wedding cake.   

I know I could just make him a cake but I am hopeless in the kitchen. Does anyone know if there is any place out there that does the kind of cake I am looking for?  All the cakes I've seen at Tesco, M&S and Waitrose are made with jam and that really thick icing that is used on wedding cakes which isn't what I want.

Costco has lovely birthday cakes...and there is one in Reading. 
Other than that you could always make your own. 

They do them at Tesco.  The have a book in the back at the bakery section, but I have no idea how long it takes.

Yes, Costco is well known for its lovely 'American-style' cakes! 

(Now if I just had a membership...)

Good luck with the cake!  For a person who always loved the icing the best (as a kid I'd trade some of my cake for a friend's icing!), there is nothing nastier than that horrid thick pure sugar / no flavor icing that is on British cakes.

I know it probably isn't helpful, but someone at work brought in (what i remember to be) an American-style cake the other day, it was a chocolate 2 layer one but they may do others. 

I can ask where he got it (maybe it's a chain) or even try to get the brand? 

It really hit the spot (my 3 pieces were a bit excessive...)

i can vouch for costco--really cheap and really yummy. we used them for the beast's first birthday and christening before that. 

Good luck with the cake!  For a person who always loved the icing the best (as a kid I'd trade some of my cake for a friend's icing!), there is nothing nastier than that horrid thick pure sugar / no flavor icing that is on British cakes.

Agreed.  And the ones with edible icing have hard edible decorations on top. I always wanted the corner piece of American birthday cake so I could get one of those buttercream roses on my slice. 

I ampretty sure my ASDA has american style as I bought a small one in Sept - celebration cake.  Ask them I am sure they can do the basic.

good luck!

I ampretty sure my ASDA has american style as I bought a small one in Sept - celebration cake.  Ask them I am sure they can do the basic.

good luck!

I've never seen them in our Asda, and there are never any bakery counters like the ones have in the states, it seems, where you could go and ask. Who did you ask? 

Oh I didnt ask they were right by my bakery/bread section

Mine was american kind though no jam/jelly inside plain white cake with a normal frosting with sprinkles on it ;-)

Do you have a local bakery, they should be able to do whatever you want as long as you give them enough advance notice.  Chains bakeries like Adams and Greggs won't do them.

Do you have a local bakery, they should be able to do whatever you want as long as you give them enough advance notice.  Chains bakeries like Adams and Greggs won't do them.

Hmmm... I never thought of asking our local bakery. I bet if I just said I wanted an American style cake they would know what I meant. All of my British baking cookbooks have recipes in for American icing, though I haven't tried them to see how close they are to what we are used to. 

Do you have any cupcake bakeries around?  They seem to have sprung up everywhere, most of which are American-style cupcakes with, most important, fluffy frosting!  I know a lot of them do cakes as well, but if not, you might be able to have them do one letter per cupcake and arrange accordingly.