The Melissa and Doug Birthday Cake is a ubiquitous toy in crunchy circles and why not? It has lots of play value and is appropriately made of natural materials. The wooden slices attach together with Velcro and enable children to practice their cutting skills with the wooden knife.

Because this toy has a number of pieces, it can be played with in a wide variety of ways. Children take the candles and make towers. The cake slices are integrated into their pretend play as pizza, or pita bread or what ever they can imagine. The cake goes into a play oven and comes out as something totally different.

Because of that flexibility this toy can last a long time. Aware parents keep it around long after one would think that a child had tired of it. As a child ages it is played with in a whole new way. It’s OK if some pieces get lost along the way as the child just fills in the missing pieces. I’ve found that this cake gets pulled out every year at birthday time and helps a child process the new year of his or her life. A nice memory for him or her and the satisfaction that a toy for a young child is being used even by an older one.