Giving people bonsai as birthday presents carries the same overhead as giving puppies or kittens. If the recipient does not have a green thumb, you are consigning a thing of beauty to a dry and lingering death. And if they do, they probably have windowsills lined with bonsai already.

So I propose the Bonsai Birthday Cake as an alternative: just as attractive, but no maintenance beyond a cycle through the dishwasher for the plates and forks afterwards.

Since this is not a recipe, you'll have to figure out how to bake it yourself. Suffice it to say that the soil is rich chocolate cake with a crumbled top and candy pebbles, the tree marzipan and sugar, and optionally the pot made out of icing.
-- DrCurry, Feb 22 2003

(??) Comme ça http://www.usbonsai.com/images/tree.gif
...only edible. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Perfect pot? (#EF 100) http://www.mattscon...endly Cups & Dishes
Cover with chocolate and you're good to go. [half, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Excellent idea.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
-- thumbwax, Feb 22 2003


Not buying it [TW].

I do love bonsai, though.
-- bristolz, Feb 22 2003


My mom got a bonsai tree as a gift one time. Not being too good at regularly tending and nurturing things (except me, of course) she smiled and put it on the windowsill. That was the last we spoke of it. I'm sure she would have preferred the edible version.
-- snarfyguy, Feb 22 2003


(+) It looks like Matt may have the perfect pot, [Doc]. A little smallish perhaps. (link)
-- half, Feb 22 2003


if I were given one of these, I could not bring myself to eat it.
-- po, Feb 23 2003


I believe that [UnaBubba] is our resident bonsai maven, so I may await his expert opinion. Seems OK at first, although I wonder how it is not simply a regular cake decorated in a certain way.
-- angel, Feb 23 2003


well yes, [angel] but it is carefully baked in a dish which is too small and hence stunting the growth.
-- po, Feb 23 2003


I like it! I got my dad a bonsai for christmas one year and it's been one of the most succesful presents I've ever given him. He's repotted it, trimmed the roots and everything.
-- madradish, Feb 24 2003


I think it would have to be eaten with a a knife that resembled a miniature wood axe. TIMBER!
-- Jinbish, Feb 24 2003


Hehe, yes I agree [Jinbish].
-- RoboBust, Feb 24 2003


Rather than create a new idea thread, I'll post here:

Banzai Birthday Cake
Happy Birthday wishes from Kato (Burt Kwouk)

A special birthday cake delivery service by a comically psychotic oriental gentleman that springs out of nowhere.
-- Jinbish, Feb 24 2003


I've always fancied growing a bonsai baobab - but I have a feeling it will just look like a potato.
-- PeterSilly, Feb 24 2003


UB: ones with short stubby trunks, I would think (but then, that's probably most of them).
Jinbish: I actually labeled this Banzai Birthday Cake, before noticing my Freudian slip.
-- DrCurry, Feb 24 2003


You could injection-mould chocolate into a tree shape ..... mmmmmmm.

Croissant.

By the way, a "Banzai" birthday cake would have to be delivered by a Ninja who leaps through the window, throws the cake in the air, and slices it into neat segments with a whirling Katana, each piece landing neatly on a guest's plate, candles still burning.
-- 8th of 7, Feb 24 2003


[DrCurry]: I had a funny feeling that was the case.
[8th]: I dunno - I kind of fancy the slapstick approach that would be gaurunteed by Mr Kwouk. Maybe not as 'killer cool' but would have me in stitches.
-- Jinbish, Feb 24 2003


"Show me: Frost-the-cake... Aghhh! no yeah yeah yeah... little circle, control. Look eye. Always look eye. Breathe in... breathe ooout..."
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 24 2003


//Giving people bonsai as birthday presents carries the same overhead as giving puppies or kittens.//

Okay, I can't be the only one who read "bonsai kittens" in that sentence.
-- Tabbyclaw, Apr 02 2003



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