The Boy’s birthday was this week. Since it was a weekday, we didn’t have a big celebration but to make his day a little bit special I wanted to bake him a birthday cake. (Last year I made him individual chocolate lava cakes that were a big hit.) I have to say, researching cake recipes is so enjoyable, except for the constant cake cravings. In the end, I narrowed it down to these four amazing recipes:
1) Yellow layer cake from Smitten Kitchen
To me, this is the quintessential birthday cake. It’s such a glorious reminder of birthday parties from my childhood and I still think it’s delicious. I also thought the sprinkled confetti on top make it look stunning and just so happy! For this cake, I quite liked the idea of this Instant Fudge Frosting.
2) Flourless chocolate cake by Sophie Dahl
A friend who cannot have gluten always has a cake like this one for her birthday and it is so very good. I think this is the ultimate cake for chocolate lovers, i.e. me. However, because it lacks flour, this is not cake that stands tall and proud so I was a bit unsure about it.
3) Torta alla Gianduia by Nigella Lawson
This is from How to be a Domestic Goddess which has the most glorious chocolate recipes. It’s basically a Nutella cake. I feel that no further explanation is needed.
4) Strawberry milkshake cake by The Hummingbird Bakery
This is a recipe for cupcakes from Home Sweet Home that Laura was kind enough to sent to me. She guaranteed they are delicious and I was confident the recipe could easily be adapted to make a great cake too. The fact that it uses strawberry Nesquik has the sweetest childhood associations too.
When presented with these options, it took all of a second for The Boy to say he wanted the flourless chocolate cake. It was wonderful, basically like gooey chocolate heaven and we each had more than one portion. It has an almost mousse-like texture but it also feels a bit like a brownie. I think the cream and summer fruit on top make it look quite pretty as well.
Do you have any favourite cake recipes that are always a hit on birthdays? Up until a year and a half ago, I had never baked a cake so I’m looking to expand my repertoire.
P.S. I loved these tips for layer cakes from Smitten Kitchen.
And here’s a wonderful lemon drizzle cake with black tea frosting that I made about a year ago.
A little adventure 
I love cake! I even love the word CAKE. lol I am definitely going to check out that recipe for the lemon drizzle cake. That is my Mom’s favorite and I’m thinking of making it for her for Mother’s Day. Thank for sharing!
Beautiful! The flourless chocolate cake would have been my choice, too, although anything with Nutella is very tempting.
Strawberry milkshake cakes sounds like something my daughter would be ALL ABOUT. Thanks for the cake links. I’m with Lisa on this one–I even love the word cake. lol.
Wow, all of those sound like winners. I think I’d go with the yellow cake from Smitten Kitchen. I hope your son had a wonderful birthday!
Haha The Boy is my boyfriend actually! But yes, he did enjoy his birthday 🙂
One of my kids’ favorite cakes was actually made from a mix. The spin was that you used melted ice cream (strawberry in our case) for the liquid! I got it from the first Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. Scratch is better, but this one was very good.
With all those berries it has to be healthy right?
The flourless chocolate cake sounded the most intriguing to me too. Glad to see it was delicous!
Oh yum, I’m drooling over my laptop. Love the pic. My son has picked his cake choice for his birthday this week, a Swedish Chocolate cake, Might do a post for next weekend.
What a fabulous cake roundup! My guy would have gone for the yellow layer cake, but I’m keeping that flourless cake in mind for my friend who is gluten intolerant.
I favor any cake recipe that doesn’t require me to separate the eggs and beat the egg whites. But I don’t make cake often. Sometimes, only for my husband’s birthday. His favorite is a Devil’s Food cake with the coconut pecan frosting for a German Chocolate cake.