Tag: Birthday Cake

Why Making Your Own Birthday Cake is Awesome

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Yesterday was my birthday, and I made my own birthday cake.   Some seem to think that’s wrong, because on your birthday you should not do the work.  But let me just tell you… making your own birthday cake is actually awesome.

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Obviously if you hate making cakes, it’s not awesome. But if you like baking, you should consider making your own birthday cake because…

  1. You can make it as ridiculous as you want.  I wanted a tall cake, so I decided 4 layers was essential. Let’s be honest, 4 layers is really unnecessary, but hey, it’s my birthday.  4 layer cake it is!

  2. It will be exactly what you want.  I love lemon.  8 lemons went into my cake with lemon cream filling and raspberry whipped cream.  I’m not sure who else would take the time to do that if not me.

  3. If you mess it up, it’s ok.  It’s your cake.  No one can hate you because it’s your birthday.  My cake was slightly crooked.  Eh! I’ll survive.

  4. Your birthday is a pretty darn good reason to make a cake, and it’s fun!

  5. It’s basically a gift to yourself.  You’re awesome.  Celebrate you with cake!

  6. You won’t be disappointed, because you know exactly what to expect.

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So if you’re birthday is coming up.  Consider making your own birthday cake.  I promise, it’s more awesome than it seems.

Of course, if you make a cake for yourself, don’t eat the whole thing yourself.  Make sure people sing to you…

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then slice it up and share with the world!

Thanks for everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday and Happy Birthday to everyone celebrating their birthday as well!

What’s your ideal birthday cake? 

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First Birthday Cake

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Today is my nephew’s first birthday! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since he was born.  The kid just keeps getting cuter.

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This past week I’ve been agonizing over the fact that I was going to make him a birthday cake.  I started feeling extremely guilty that I was going to make a 1 year old a mini birthday cake full of sugar and fat, because at this point he’s too little to actually know he wants it. Earlier this week, my guilt got the best of me and I decided I was going to make a (refined) sugar-free cake.

I tried out a recipe, and it was a flop.  The next day I discussed it with the baby-daddy (aka my brother-in-law) and he made a good point: It’s his birthday.  He’s NEVER eaten cake. He probably won’t again until his next birthday.  It’s ok for him to have cake on his birthday.

That’s when I decided to make a regular cake.  Despite the fact that I felt like I was killing his little insides and firing up a sugar addiction, the reality is, that’s probably not true.

Graham is getting this cake.

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It’s the Little Banana Cake with some whipped cream as filling and icing.  I made this a few months ago, but this time even littler.  I think it’s kinda cute and I can’t wait to see him dig into it.

What do you think? Should we give One-Year-Olds a regular cake or a lower sugar version?

P.S. Obviously I don’t have kids and am not an expert. I’m just a loving aunt who doesn’t want her nephew to develop a sugar addiction.  So feel free to comment regardless of whether or not you have kids.

P.P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAHAM!

Italian Buttercream Birthday Cake

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Today is a special day for a few reasons.

First, I conquered Italian Buttercream.  For some reason, streaming hot sugar syrup into meringue scared the crap out of me.  But I did it.  It was fun.  Now I feel bad ass.  My finished product: the bad ass version of dainty…

That’s yellow cake with apricot filling and amaretto italian buttercream.

Yeah, bad ass.

Speaking of bad ass, so is my sister, and it’s her birthday!  She also makes cool cakes.  See!

I’m not as talented.  I should take notes from her.  In a perfect world, we would live 10 minutes away from each other, my cake decorating skills would be as good as hers and I would deliver a rocking cake to her doorstep.

But sadly, we live about 2 hours away from each other and my cake decorating skills are subpar.  A simple, but delicious cake, or photo of a cake, will have to suffice.  Realistically, my italian buttercream tastes a million times better than fondant.  I feel like that makes my pansy-looking cake into a bad ass.

Happy Birthday to my favorite bad ass sister!!