Birthday Cakes 101

I remember at one of my jobs we were talking about birthdays, and I shared that I make my kid’s birthday cakes.
{crickets}
One brave nurse gathered her wits and said, “why?”
“I dunno, my mom did it for me — it’s just how we do it.”
“Oh…” {life resumed}

Be sure to check out the video I created at the bottom!

My mom always made me birthday cakes.  I remember the excitement of a “from scratch” cake (which I still want to try) or even a cherry chip box from the store (my favorite).  I honestly only thought bakery cakes were for show for the longest time.

Of course, I now use Costco for special occasions, you can’t beat their prices for large cakes!

That isn’t to say that I didn’t have a few LARGE failures in my time….

I’ve had cakes that looked like a couple of pancakes stacked on each other, horrible icing jobs and more than I’d care to count of other botched jobs. 🙂

Here’s a few tips I have after almost 15 years of birthday cakes:

1.  Follow the directions.  In my video below I show you some “hacks” to making a boxed mix seem more like a scratch/richer cake.  Things like using butter instead of oil, using milk instead of water, and adding an egg or two can make the cake taste a little more “special” — although I’m not sure my kids ever seem to care.  I make mine in a stand mixer — I have a post about my favorites Kitchenaid vs Bosch mixers.

2.  Tap out the air bubbles.  My mom always dropped the cake on the counter a few times (sometimes that was our first reminder that she was making a cake).  Obviously, you don’t want to do this on cake where you have worked to encorporate air, but in a regular box mix, that will stop you from having air pockets in the finished product.

3.  Grease your pans well.  That moment that you turn the pan, in hopes of a solid cake popping out, requires a lot of faith.  A little less faith if you made sure to grease your pans well.  I often used Bakers Joy when I had it — now I’ll often dust the pans with flour after I grease it to help the cake slip out more smoothly.  If you’re making a chocolate cake, use cocoa instead of flour to match the cake surface a bit more. 🙂

4.  Pre-heat your oven.  Oven temps tend to matter more in baking than in other things, like casseroles.  Cakes aren’t as forgiving as tuna noodle.

5.  Let your cake cook until you push on it and it springs back quickly.  I’m not saying stab your finger into, but a gentle touch and it should spring back nicely.

6.  Let the cake cool for 10 minutes or so after you cook it.  You don’t want to let it cool too long, or it will stick.  You don’t want it to be freakin’ hot or it will fall apart.  I tend to find 10 minutes in the sweet zone.

7.  I have found so many good buttercream recipes on Pinterest.  A good one will spread nicely.  I’ve actually started using more crisco and less butter.  Sure, we’ll all probably die earlier, but it spreads SO much easier than butter.

8. I have given up the picture perfect Family Fun cake.  It just won’t happen.  I end up so frustrated and often yelling at the birthday child that I came up with a new plan that I share in a previous birthday post.  Check it out!

Check out my video below.  Sure, it’s not brain surgery to bake a cake, but this video might make you consider making your child’s next cake:

If you liked this post — check out all my MomHacker posts, and my MomHacker Pinterest board.