Make (birthday) cake!

Birthdays—complete with cake and a round of obnoxious singing—are one of the most joyful celebrations to take place in a kitchen. I’m a firm believer that everyone, regardless of age should be celebrated on their special day. Candles in a donut, ice cream pie or stack of pancakes are all perfectly acceptable. It’s the love that goes into the celebration that makes all the difference. Sure, birthdays lose some luster as we age. But what’s wonderful is that once we have kids, we can start counting all over again. 

Most kids excitedly anticipate their birthday every year. I would start planning months in advance with my kids, as I was always one for grand-themed birthday parties. And from time to time, I even celebrated their half birthdays by picking up half a cake at the local grocery store or in later years, taking them on a Starbucks date after school. I also came to realize that it’s maybe even more important to kids that mom and dad are celebrated and have candles on their birthday cakes.

I’m pretty sure my love of birthdays comes from my own childhood. Mom would make our cake of choice with the help of Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. Mine was always German Chocolate with Coconut Pecan Frosting. Quick aside: A good friend on my dorm floor freshman year had the same birthday as me (did I mention that she’s the niece of the Sam Elliot?) Well, anyhow, German Chocolate was her favorite too. 

One of my earliest memories is of my fourth birthday on Skipper avenue. What I remember most is that my dad made a low table out of plywood (benefit of working at a plywood mill I suppose) so we could all sit on the floor and my mom made a pink elephant cake. Another favorite birthday was celebrated at Farrells Ice Cream Parlour – we ordered “the Zoo” where they’d run around the restaurant to the sound of sirens and bells carrying a giant tub of umpteen flavors of ice cream smooshed together with plastic zoo animals thrown in. Hence why I randomly purchased these nostalgic, look-alike drink markers decades later. They would have been right at home in the Zoo.

Birthdays may be for kids but my adult children still humor their mom by letting me make cake. At our house, we’re midway through cake season with birthdays falling between August and November. This year I decided to make 6-inch cakes since we can’t and shouldn’t eat a huge cake. Plus I like the look of a tall-small layer cake. Here’s a helpful primer on adapting your recipe to different pan sizes, as I’ve found it a bit challenging to find recipes that use smaller pans.

For my daughter’s birthday I made The Best Chocolate Cake Ever in three 6” pans (below). I put homemade raspberry jam and dark chocolate frosting in between the layers and topped with more frosting and a few berries and chamomile from my garden. It turned out perfect and was decadently delicious.

Ahh, but the pressure of cake goals are real. Baking, frosting and decorating a layer cake can be intimidating. For my husband’s birthday, I baked a Marbleous Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake in 6” rounds and frosted with a yummy cream cheese frosting. After chilling, I topped with a salted caramel drip. And for fun, I made caramel and chocolate shards. This one was a lot of work and although we all agreed It tasted wonderful, I had what I call a couple “cake-tastrophes” along the way . . . whose fingerprint is that on the chocolate? For sure, next time I would make the salted caramel thinner so it drips in a prettier fashion.

So now I’m thinking about November birthdays - and my own birthday in particular. (Skipping my son cause he doesn’t eat sugar or dairy or flour - gonna order something from Bougie Bakes - stay tuned for how that goes!) Back to me. My inspiration is this Pumpkin Carriage Sprinkle Mix described as the “perfect mix of classic autumn and whimsy” in shades of rose gold, burnt orange and powder blue. I’m contemplating flavors of maple, cardamom, ginger, pumpkin, or maybe that yummy salted caramel again. The frosting will of course need to be the right shade of caramel to showcase these sprinkles.

So while it’s much easier to wait in line at the AMAZING Deep Sea Sugar and Salt, practice does make perfect and there’s something really satisfying about baking your own cake and getting the frosting just so.

I’ve found it’s easier if you follow these four rules:

1.     Have a plan and break it up in stages. First, read your recipe(s) all the way through. Day 1 bake the cake. Wrap it in plastic wrap while still slightly warm to keep moisture in. (Freeze if not using within 3 days.) Day 2 or 3 make the frosting(s), assemble the cake and decorate. Totally fine to do the day before the party. Don’t rush it. Spreading out the steps makes it much more manageable.

2.     Make sure you have the right equipment. A KitchenAid mixer definitely makes the mixing easier, but you can use a hand mixer. A rotating cake stand is a must. I really wanted this Ateco one with a cast iron base or this beautiful marble and walnut version, but ended up with an inexpensive plastic stand that works perfectly fine. Cardboard cake rounds, parchment rounds, a serrated knife to slice the layers horizontally, offset spatulas and a variety of plastic cake scrapers for frosting/smoothing the cake all contribute to better results.

3.     Use top quality ingredients. Use unsalted butter and the best chocolate you can find. I recommend Droste dutch-processed cocoa powder, and I often choose recipes that rely on black cocoa powder for an intense shade of chocolate. Nielsen Massey vanilla paste is my vanilla of choice. For coconut, use Bob’s Red Mill or Trader Joe’s.

4.     Show off your cake. I like to transfer my cakes from the decorating/plastic stand to a pretty cake pedestal atop a paper doily. This trick makes even a store-bought cake look fancy. As I’m not an expert at piping, I use a combo of fruit, edible flowers, chocolate curls/shards and sprinkles. Think about what you can use that hints at the flavor inside. I also try to always have a variety of candles on hand in various colors, sizes and heights. 

And, if you do have a cake-tastrope , you can usually remedy it with strategic application of frosting. To troubleshoot what may feel like a disaster , check out How to make cake: top 10 problems fixed.

But remember, the most important ingredient is love. Try not to tell everyone what went wrong (like I tend to do) and just eat cake!