<p>My D will be celebrating her birthday away from home for the first time. Does anyone know of a good place to have some kind of treat delivered, a giant cupcake or small cake, for instance? I have seen floral arrangements made to look like a cupcake and I'm thinking of ordering one of those.</p>
<p>But of course with teenagers something edible is always welcome.</p>
<p>Would like to hear what other very-far-away parents have done. I have been in this situation before but it was quite some time ago and I think I was so poor that there was no possibility of special ordering something above and beyond mailing his gift. I'm thinking of $50 or less.</p>
<p>Sometimes the food service at a school can arrange a cake–they offer this at Andover. Also work with the house counselor/dorm parent. Sometimes you can arrange something from a local bakery and they’re willing to pick it up.</p>
<p>Not cake or cupcakes exactly, but I can vouch for both of these companies in terms of the yumminess of the products and the arrival in great shape after shipping:</p>
<p>On the parent page of the Exeter website, they list local businesses, and several are bakeries. We call and have a simple sheet cake delivered for Ds birthday - and the dorm devours it. Very much appreciated and not expensive (less than 30 dollars).</p>
<p>My kids have Spring B-Days and in the past I’ve arranged for several large pizzas, salad, soda and a sheet cake to be delivered to the common room. The dorm parents gave me all the info and I called it in. The kids love it- especially if it’s warm enough to eat outside.</p>
<p>This year they’re in much larger dorms, so I’ve been brainstorming, too! I might skip dinner and go with a just a cake. Or maybe I’ll just send a card… But with a small dorm you can’t go wrong with a pizza party. You will be everyones hero- the most amazing mom who ever lived!</p>
<p>@creative1- I love Cranberry Island Kitchen!!</p>
<p>You can also call your child’s Advisor, who will know the lay of the land, and could suggest a local bakery as well.</p>
<p>I know things are different all over, but among my 8 advisees, I have one parent who calls a local bakery and then enlists me to go pick up the cake, and one who arranges cupcakes for the whole dorm (yikes), which again, I have to go pick up. For the rest of the gang, their parents have never spoken to me, so I keep their birthdays on my radar and make sure I’ve got some extra time to cook. “Caketebruary” is a particularly challenging month for me (4 birthdays!) but I spend extra time coming up with horrible puns on the kids’ names, and incorporating them into the various decor themes. </p>
<p>Mostly faculty here just go out and buy a cake (we are given a budget of X amount per year per kid to spend), and some do balloons, etc. Odds are there will be people at school happy to collaborate with you on your plans.</p>
<p>Doing the math, I had concluded that the dorm parents couldn’t possibly be involved in baking or picking up birthday cakes because somebody’s always having a birthday, but after reading your replies, I found references to dorm heads baking cakes right on D’s school website. I did not want to add to the dorm parents’ workloads and still want to avoid it but I will definitely confer with them before proceeding. </p>
<p>I will also talk with my D which I was at first trying to avoid, but she might actually like baking her own cake for the dorm, if I send mixes. Then again, she runs with a pretty crunchy crowd and maybe they would be grossed out by her favorite Betty Crocker confetti cake! (I was informed to stop sending sugarless gum because of the chemicals in it. Not that it bothered D but her friends ragged her about it.)</p>
<p>I’ll find out what other dorm bday celebrations have been like. I was trying to keep it under wraps but maybe that’s not necessary.</p>
<p>Turns out, at D’s school, or maybe just in her dorm, the dorm parents bake a cake (student chooses what kind) on the Wednesday nearest a student’s birthday. D already knows what she will request, having the benefit of sampling all the cakes thus far this year.</p>
<p>I saw this thread again and it reminded me of something I wanted to say earlier.
Buying, picking up, and making cakes is not a huge deal for us dorm parents, but everything gets exponentially more complex when we are asked to make it a surprise. Why? Who knows, but all the extra organization and sneaking and whispered conversations are more time-consuming than you’d think, and time is the most precious thing a boarding school has. I’m always trying to sell parents on the beauty of anticipation–how happy your kid will be knowing there’s a treat on its way, that the birthday won’t be forgotten, etc. </p>
<p>Maybe it sounds dumb, but we always brace ourselves when asked to keep everything a surprise, and breathe a sigh of relief when we can organize a day or two in advance with no secrets. </p>
<p>So that’s my plea, parents: we are happy to help, but please don’t get too invested in the notion of a birthday surprise if you cannot be wholly in charge of the event.</p>