Last week my youngest son turned 18. It hit me that he’s a man and about to head out into the world to make his mark. I am so excited for him and looking forward to watching him and his brother become their own men, but it’s a touch bittersweet to watch them take off into the world. This birthday will be marked by several cakes and desserts, as we do around here. For his actual birthday, I was traveling and left him a flan, a long time favorite birthday request. The next day, when I returned from my trip I was met by the latest Bake From Scratch cookbook and immediately flipped to the Birthday Cake chapter. Sometimes we just want the classics, and there is nothing better than a really good white cake with vanilla buttercream. It’s probably the most popular cake combination, for good reason. I am perhaps the last baker on the internet to make a Funfetti Birthday Cake, but this occasion called for a bit of celebratory color!! I simply added sprinkles to the Bake From Scratch White Cake.
In the spirit of my son’s birthday, I have partnered with Brian Hart Hoffman and the excellent folks at Hoffman Publishing to Give Away a Copy of the Bake from Scratch (Vol 3): Artisan Recipes for the Home Baker
People ask me where I find inspiration and the truth is, EVERYWHERE! The decorations for this funfetti birthday cake were inspired by a Netflix special and a place card. I was watching a documentary about the fashion designer, Alexander McQueen, and I told my husband his dresses would make incredible cakes, especially a dress covered in feathers that already looked like a cake. The place cards from my friends at The Punctilious Mr. P’s Place Card Company arrived and they were pictures of gorgeous birds that looked like cake toppers. It wasn’t inspiration as much as fate! The feathers are easy to make with white chocolate, which you can watch me make in my instagram video. Funfetti Birthday Cake recipe and chance to win the book are below!
(place cards and holders by Mr P’s Place Card Company)
Funfetti Birthday Cake with Chocolate Feathers
Funfetti cake:
White Cake recipe from Bake from Scratch (Vol 3), fold in 1/4 cup colored sprinkles just before pouring into prepared pans. I baked the cake in three 6-Inch Cake Pans
Vanilla Buttercream from Bake From Scratch
You can find my crumb coat and cake decorating videos on YouTube (where you will see some vintage Zoë):
White Chocolate Feathers – 6 ounces white chocolate chips
Thank you to Martin and Karen at Mr P’s Place Cards for the beautiful inspiration!
Your desserts are the best. Will probably make it this week
Being Dutch, our perfect cake at home is and always will be our apple pie. We double the recipe and fill it to the brim with about large 10 apples. I always try new things with birthdays, to have some variety for the guests, but none ever defeated our apple pie!
My ideal cake would have like a lot of layers inside, like Vanilla bean Flan, raspberry Creme Legere, rose gelatine and a tres leches pana cotta! With my Marcuya Fondant and/or Italian Meringue
My husband makes me funfetti every year for my half birthday! I was born close to Christmas, so my parents always had a half birthday party for me in June so I never felt gypped with Christmas and my friends could be there! Luckily I found a guy who embraces the celebration and always “surprises” me with a cake!
Anything Chocolate! My
sister who is a professional baker from Ukraine, makes this amazing cake that has a layer of chocolate cake, layer of meringue with lots of nuts, thin layer of apricot preserves and buttercream frosting; out of this world!!! My most favorite cake!
This cake is stunning. My ideal bday cake is chocolate with chocolate and some chocolate, maybe with a side of chocolate
My perfect birthday cake is a lemon chiffon with whipped cream frosting! My dad and my grandpa always insisted on having that for their birthday cake and it’s honestly so good that I want it too!
My perfect birthday cake would be Chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting and marshmallows
rich chocolate cake with a dark swiss meringue and salted caramel filling, maybe some toasted almonds on top?
Wow. This looks amazing. Vanilla birthday cake is my favorite!
My perfect birthday cake would be chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate ganache! You can never have too much chocolate!
Love this cake!! My ideal birthday celebration cake is a dense chocolate cake with stick to your fork crumbs and a deep chocolate flavor. Minimum Italian meringue chocolate buttercream and a bit of vanilla ice cream.
My perfect birthday cake would definitely have to be carrot cake with cream cheese frosting or my dad’s homemade angel food cake with my grandma’s chocolate frosting
My perfect birthday cake would be a hot chocolate cake with roasted marshmellow frosting.
I really can’t decide. Probably a fingertip cake with a good Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream. Maybe with a mousse or curd in the middle.
I love mousse cakes. Not too heavy but are works of art and are absolutely delicious!
My favorite birthday cake is a super yummy chocolate cake recipe that my mom has, and when I was in high school I made it so often that I ended up tweaking the ingredients to make it even better 🙂
The perfect birthday cake ? Just a banana cake.. moist and perfectly sweet, remembering my childhood. 🙂
My perfect birthday cake is always a Devil’s cake. The more chocolate the better!! hahaha
My perfect birthday cake would be chocolate with chocolate frosting and maybe a a little caramel.
What a FUN Tastic Cake! Lovely and inspirational as always.
Maybe I could talk my husband into making one for me for my birthday this Saturday.–probably not, since baking is not one of his skills. I guess I’ll wait until Sept and make it for his!
My perfect birthday cake would be a butter cake with German butter cream.
I love the detail you provided in this post! The video is very helpful!
I’m a child at heart and my ideal birthday cake would be an ice cream cake! Maybe get fancy and use gelato instead? Possibilities are endless 🙂
this is so fun! My go-to birthday cake is a simple strawberries and cream sheet cake from Southern Living. I swear it helped snag my husband in the early months of dating and I make on every year for his birthday now!