Australian children can have their cake and eat it

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Never mind rising mortgage rates, petrol costs and high inflation, when it comes to birthdays some Australian children are seemingly able to have whatever cake they like and eat it.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that parents are paying up to A$2,500 ($2,315) for designer birthday cakes in a trend that has seen demand double in the last seven years.

"They're not buying a cake -- if you want to buy a cake you go down to your local bakery. They're buying a serious edible statement," Paris Cutler, owner of a cake shop in the wealthy inner Sydney suburb of Balmain told the tabloid newspaper.

Cutler said cakes at her shop cost on average A$400, with the designs becoming ever more elaborate. She said the trend was being sparked by competitive parents who "may have a few old scores to settle."

The A$2,500 cake was bought by a couple for their daughter's second birthday and is designed as a memory of their recent safari holiday in Africa.

A photo of the cake in the paper showed sand-colored sculptured rocks, miniature pink flowers and trees surrounding a blue waterhole, and seven animals including a giraffe, elephants and lions and a hippopotamus wallowing in a mud bath.

"It was pretty full-on," Cutler told the paper.

(Reporting by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)