Cute cakes/muffins/other for daughter's eighth birthday?

I loved the sprinkles baked into yellow cupcakes when I was a kid, but maybe that's been done so much that it's not exciting for them anymore - lol. For great tasting recipes, I'd highly recommend Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country recipes!

I love, love, love Molly Yeh's cake ideas and I think they could work well for a birthday party. She has some posted on food52, particularly adventures in funfetti, but for them all, her site is www.mynameisyeh.com

If you go to her "recipes" page, the first section is cakes.

I once made an icebox cake with chocolate cookie wafers & shaped it into a caterpillar. This was for a 2yo's birthday. Decorated it with Twizzlers for legs, M&M's for eyes, and colored sugar on the body. Simple, no-bake, and fun.

https://food52.com/recipes/37046-classic-icebox-cake

For kids parties, I like to make homemade versions of things one can get at the store. "Snack cakes" like homemade twinkles, chocolate "cupcakes", snoballs, ho-hos, oreos, oatmeal creme pies, pop-tarts. They sell relatively cheap silicone molds for some of them and flavors can be switched up to suit guests....though I find that the traditional goes over best. I have come to appreciate individual desserts for children as well.

Something else I've done recently was using small, sweet brioche buns, filled with ice cream and chocolate sauce, topped with confectioners sugar, a berry, and skewered with a burger pick. It takes a bit of imagination, but they kinda look like little sliders.

Other ice cream sandwiches made with homemade cookies, pound cake, banana bread, brownies, large macaron shells, etc.

Something fun and delicious, mini s'mores tartlets made with a speculoos crust, ganache (I sneak a little caramel in there) and topped with toasted Swiss meringue.

Something a little interactive are little shortbread "fingers", sprinkled in fine sugar and served with a little cup of dipping mousse. Or even little brioche donuts to dip in.

An oldie but goodie is a chocolate cup filled with mousse, cream, berries, nuts, etc.

I LOVE making shortcakes/sweet biscuits/scones and serving them with seasonal fruit and cream. Its endlessly versatile with flavors, components can be made ahead and are simple to serve.

I'll look through my lists and see what else I've done in the past.

Not a recipe, but I've seen gummy candies in Lego shapes - probably available online - that you could use to decorate cupcakes. A quick Google also turns up Lego printed cupcake wrappers. You could get an inexpensive tiered cardboard cake stand at a party store and stack her favorite cupcakes interspersed with Lego figures (maybe Star Wars or HP themed ones). For kids that age, presentation is 2/3 the fun.

If you have the space and stamina, you make the basics and let the children assemble their own desserts, for example:

strawberry (or peach or whatever) shortcake
black forest muffins
banana split
croque en bouche aka chocolate eclair
individual cheesecakes or creme caramel or chilled sweet souffle
Mont Blanc
refrigerator cookie cake (have the kids make them at the beginning of the party, stuff in freezer for an hour or two, unmold, serve)
crepes
cake in a jar (in the microwave)