Oh what a fun party!

If you do put 100 candles on that cake, be sure to have a fire extinguisher nearby! hahahahah!!! Maybe you could all wear fire dept helmets (party store) and hold hoses... that's be so cute!

You say you'd rather keep it simple, so how about baking a sheet cake, and instead of 100 candles, decorate the cake with sugar cookie numerals. Place marshmallows or sugar cubes where the cookies will rest on the cake, to keep from coming in contact with the buttercream, or place the cookies directly onto the iced cake. Few people would complain of buttercream-tainted cookies. [g]

You could also decorate the cake with edible -and free of pesticides- flowers, e.g. pansies, violets, etc.

Sol

Or perhaps a big texas sheet cake, with candles arranged into the shape of the number 100, which would give you the effect without the fire hazard! :-)

You could also make a 9x13 and two 9" rounds and cut out the numbers 1, 0, 0.
Jane

Then again, if you have the right kind of sense of humor there are always these:

Here is a link that might be useful: Roman candles by Fred

What fearless said .
Write out 100 with the candles. We do this a lot because
everybody's getting older.
Too many candles !!!!!
Lou

Roman numeral candles is a clever idea. Unfortunately, one hundred is roman numerals is just "C", not too impressive.

Jim

Why not just dump a quart of gasoline on the cake and set it alight? The flame/heat output would be about the same!

All I can say is you'd better have several people lighting the candles at the same time.

I'd just get some wilton numerals..of course won't look as impressive....but it's only 3 wicks..that way the first 10 won't be melting in the cake be the time you finish the last 10.

I would bake 2 9 by 11 cakes....get someone to cut a board so you can put them end to end covefer with parchment paper....frost as one and put 100 candels on them...you will need help lighting them all....but it would be a major giggle!
Linda C

A few people armed with those inexpensive butane BBQ lighters would get 100 candles lit in short order. A hundred candles would be fun and memorable.

Jim

Oh, is this gonna be fun! I love all your suggestions - Thank you so much! I just talked with DIL, not exactly sure what we're going to do yet...but it will be with party fire hats for everyone and a fire extinguisher nearby! I guess we'll have to get big candles and set them in marshmallows or something, or we WILL have a fire.

This is completely out of character for me, so hub and everyone else will be completely surprised. Thanks again!

Sherry

Sherry please take pictures to show us!! I love fun/funny party themes!

Roman C would be kind of dull, but what about in English as "100"

roman candles- see, I stink at these things. I was imagining some sort of MCXX kind of garble. Not only would C be dull but nobody on earth would get it (except for my husband). I still think they're cool.

Not nearly as impressive as 100 candles, though!

Nina

Nina, my family would get it, too. Actually, Hub would laugh his head off. I think it would be very funny, but I think I'll try to set the place on fire with 100 candles, anyway. We need a fireproof frosting!

Sherry

when my Mom hit 90, she was in a nursing home. I bought two dozen cupcakes ... and the nice folks at the bakery arranged them on a huge platter and spelled out

H A P P Y
8 5 th
E M I L Y

we then wheeled her around so she could share with the staff.

we did it twice 85th and 90th... by the time she was 90, I had to do the sharing.

The party was a lot of fun, but we didn't use 100 candles. Too many little kids. Instead I baked two round and one square cake, cut out the middles of the rounds with a glass, cut the square in half, used the second half of the square as an exclamation point with one of the middles of the rounds. We lit candle numbers on sticks - 68 and 32. I had a lot of batter left over so I made a jillion tiny cupcakes that the GKs loved - their eyes lit up almost like 100 candles at the site of so many tiny cupcakes! It was very cute, but I wish we had lit 100 candles.

Thanks for all the inspiration!

Sherry

Glad you all had fun~