Hello All,
My niece is turning 16 this year and she wants me to make her cake. She wants one covered in buttercream with rainbow sprinkles all over. This is not the issue for me. My niece wants the top tier to be just cake. No icing covering it and no icing in between the layers. She just hates icing.

Should I proceed to make the entire cake with buttercream and sprinkles and make her a small cake just for her or it is possible to have the top tier with just cake? I am not sure how it will hold up and I don't think that it would stick together. I suggested that we just put icing in between the layers of the top tier and none surrounding it, but she doesn't want that either.

Any advice? Thanks

What about a fruit filling and wrap the whole thing in acetate?

Other than that, you could do any of the tube-style cakes that get some nice height, but are delicious on their own. Louisiana ring cake, bundt cake, angel food cake and chiffon cake are all good choices for height without layers and frosting.

My dad was never big on frosting, and is even less so now that he's been diagnosed with mild type-2 diabetes.

For his birthday this year, I made him a pound cake, in a Bundt mold, and the only frosting was the decoration on the side (in very simple single-line block letters, in BC that was almost too stiff to go through the piping bag tip).

I've seen some very fancy Bundt molds (castles, cathedrals, and so forth) that would probably be perfectly suitable for an unfrosted tier of even a wedding cake.

I love cake with no buttercream. Many cakes can stand on their own. That is my test for good cake.

What flavor does she like? Maybe you can get some good stand-alone recipes if we know the flavor.