My friend asked me to make a birthday cake for her mom, who doesn't like sweet cake. I was thinking of suggesting a chocolate cake, but wanted to have other options. Does anyone have any suggestions in terms of flavor and recipes?

Thanks for your help.

Meatloaf baked like a cake and frosted with mashed potatoes.

Whipped cream iced lemon poppyseed muffin recipe type cake.

Muffin recipes can be less sweet.

heehee

Thanks K8memphis.

I make a hazelnut cake filled with whipped choc ganache and a thin layer of nutella that I ice with IMBC. That always gets great reviews from people that don't love sweets. Hazelnut is definitely not for everyone, though. In general IMBC is not very sweet so that might be a good place to start.

White cake with strawberry filling and whipped topping/Bettercreme?

Carrot/pumpkin/apple cake and cream cheese frosting?

When she says "not sweet" could she be referring to thick and sugary crisco-type icing? Personally, I don't find your basic yellow, white or chocolate CAKE to be overly sweet. It's the fillings or the icing that seems to make it so.

Give her an apple. Sheesh I just don't get people who want CAKE that's not SWEET..... it's CAKE! Anyhoo, on a more helpful note, I would steer away from cream cheese icing (very sweet) and use SMBC or IMBC if you're comfortable with it - very delicious and not nearly as sweet as ABC. A lot of people who "don't like sweet" strawberry shortcake so maybe white cake, vanilla mousse, and fresh chopped strawberries iced in whipped cream or SMBC.

Lemon-blueberry butter cake with lemon buttercream frosting
Orange Grand Marnier cake
Ginger chiffon cake with key lime curd
Lemon poppy seed cake with almond-cream cheese frosting (I don't think cream cheese frosting is sweet either)

Thanks for the ideas everyone. After talking to my friend about the different options, she ended up wanting a St. Honore cake that she saw on my site. That should work since I can control the sweetness of the filling.