Top Birthday Cake Ideas
Struggling to find the perfect birthday cake for your friend or family member? We’ve curated some ideas and themes to help you start out!
A tres leches cake. More on this below.
Picking the perfect birthday cake can be a nerve-racking experience. After all, what better way to show that you care about your loved one than by making sure they have a tasty treat to celebrate?
The examples below have been carefully curated to give you some great starting ideas on a birthday cake your friend or family member might be interested in.
Cake With Fruit Toppings
One of the most classic pairings with pastries is fruit, and for good reason! The strong sweetness of a strawberry or the subtle tanginess of a kiwi will surely be a winner no matter what cake fillings or frostings you may choose.
If you’re looking for an easy way to please any kind of crowd, look no further.
Floral Decorative Cake
For the person that values aesthetics just as much as taste, a nice floral decorative cake will do just the trick. Picking a nice white chocolate filling, paired with a vanilla-based cake and a buttercream frosting is a classic choice to impress. That is, if you dare to eat something so pretty!
For brownie points, buy a bouquet of roses or two to further set the scene.
Ice Cream Cake
It’s hard to go wrong with a nice ice cream cake. Becoming more and more popular in recent years, an affordable ice cream cake can be found from professional bakeries and ice cream shops alike.
Every few years or so, my family likes to switch it up and order an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (our favorite) to provide a quick and easy solution that satisfies large get-togethers.
Image courtesy of Dairy Queen
Tres Leches Cake
A tres leches (or three-milk) cake is a popular Nicaraguan and Mexican dessert that has a very light and spongey texture. This cake is the very opposite of dry, and is a perfect match for any meal that it may follow.
This cake’s refreshing sweetness will delight and never disappoint. If you’re not in a pinch for time, be sure to check with your local bakeries and see what the prices and delivery times would look like in your area.
A Pie
It’s very possible that after looking at several pictures of cake you’re coming to the conclusion that maybe cake just isn’t the right fit for your vision. That’s okay, it happens!
Ignoring the weird candle situation in the picture above (we didn’t have a candle that said “6”), you can see that a different kind of dessert, such as a pie, will do the trick just as well.
Variety is the spice of life after all, right? And who wouldn’t love a good pie?
Heart-Shaped Cake
We all know that cakes can come in all sorts of different colors and sizes, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that cakes can come in all sorts of different shapes too — they don’t have to be circles!
Take a beautiful heart-shaped cake with intricate decorative frosting, for instance. While a cake such as this may be a bit more difficult to find in your average grocery store, a professional bakery would be able to provide quotes for more difficult cakes, allowing you to build the perfect cake for that special someone.
Or, if that option proves to be too expensive, you could always try to…
Bake One Yourself!
Sometimes, it’s more fun to bake a cake yourself anyways! Taking it a step further, you could even make it a group bonding activity. No matter how the cake actually turns out, it would be a special moment that you are sure to remember for a long time.
Pictured above is our attempt to make the aforementioned heart-shaped cake. Suffice it to say, it did not go as planned! It didn’t taste great, but we had a lot of fun in making it, and really isn’t that all that matters?
Go To A Restaurant
Maybe you’re short on time and baking’s not really your thing. No problem!
Restaurants can provide a great option for those looking to sample luxurious desserts of all sorts (if you have enough room after your meal, that is).
Typically, if I’m ordering dessert from a restaurant, I prefer to go with cheesecake — like the Cheesecake Brûlée with caramelized sugar from Fogo de Chão pictured above.
Novelty/Joke Cake
If you know the person you’re celebrating well, a funny novelty or joke cake can be just the thing you need to put a smile on their face and keep the conversations going at the party all night long.
Something as simple as a cake decorated as a hamburger or just a normal cake with a silly message is all that’s needed to ensure it’s a birthday they’ll never forget.
Looking for more tips or ideas? Be sure to visit our Food & Recipes section or browse some of our recent articles below.
