We celebrated Ben’s birthday on our front porch two Saturdays ago. It was one of those unseasonably warm early spring days that encourages everything to blossom. What better way to celebrate Ben and spring than with birthday cake? I LOVE homemade birthday cake. I’m not a good cake decorator, but that doesn’t stop me because a simple, yet well baked 8-inch double layer cake appropriately commemorates special l.
I often make an 8-inch round for family birthdays. Last year I made an all-chocolate cake for Ben’s 8 year old Covid lockdown birthday. We used newly built Lego Movie II characters as cake toppers. Tom got the same chocolate cake for his 38th birthday this past February, but we topped his with 38 multicolored candles! I also made a homemade funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting for Josie’s first birthday. Cut a slice of cake, pair it with a cup of tea or milk, add some nice conversation with family and friends and you’re good to go!
If you’re like me, and you’re not a cake artist and probably never will be, it is nice to have a go-to cake recipe that can be modified to suit the occasion. Honestly, even a boxed cake mix that you love will do. My favorite from-scratch recipe is Beatty’s Chocolate Cake by Ina Garten. The recipe consistently produces a cake that is richly chocolate (aided by the secret ingredient: a cup of hot coffee) and has a light, moist (sorry if you hate that word) consistency. When I was a little girl I would get so excited when my mom made a Duncan Hines fudge marble cake.
For Ben’s 9th birthday, I decided to put a twist on Beatty’s chocolate cake by making a vanilla buttercream frosting instead of the chocolate frosting that goes with the recipe. It is honestly the best thing I have ever baked in my life. The chocolate and the vanilla complemented each other perfectly. In celebration of spring and the start of little league, I made the cake into a baseball by coloring some of the frosting red and piping laces onto the cake.
That’s all I have to say about cakes: they should be delicious and simple. Feel free to share any cake experiences or links to simple but delicious recipes!