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!
My favorite birthday cake is chocolate with chocolate icing (with a piece leftover for the next morning’s breakfast…)
Favorite birthday is Hungarian Walnut (Dios) Torta.
My birthday wish cake…really good, moist white cake, really good lemon filling, and yummy buttercream frosting.
For my last birthday, I made a tiramisu layer cake with angel food sponge, Kahlua and coffee cake soak, and a whipped cream and mascarpone frosting. It was pretty ideal. <3
Lovely cake! The feathering is so unique and I love that you find inspiration everywhere! I love to bake and share with friends. This will be one we try for just FUN (or funfetti if you like).
P.S. Made the Chocolate Mousse with Toasted Meringue with my 10 year old son and he now is the “keeper of the torch”. We had adorable Valentine sprinkles on them. Thank you!
My favorite cake that I (want anytime but) would love for my birthday is just yellow cake with chocolate frosting… You can’t go wrong at it’s like comfort food to me!
I will always be happy with a good yellow cake with chocolate buttercream. And sprinkles!
My mom was really big on always getting us 5lbs worth of cake on our birthdays (alot of people I didnt know came to every single one of my birthdays till I turned 18). But honestly it was the best cake, it was a nice dense yellow sponge cake with dulce de leche filling and italian meringue icing all over the cake! And for me the best day to eat the cake, was two or three days after. I truly love “old” cake aka my favorite kind of cake.
My mom was really big on always getting us 5lbs worth of cake on our birthdays (alot of people I didnt know came to every single one of my birthdays till I turned 18). But honestly it was the best cake, it was a nice dense yellow sponge cake with dulce de leche filling and italian meringue icing all over the cake! And for me the best day to eat the cake, was two or three days after. I truly love “old” cake aka my favorite kind of cake.
Addicted to your Instagram! Always inspiring and approachable. Also have extreme kitchen envy.
Vanilla cake with Italian meringue buttercream and fresh strawberries:) So simple and I love it.
Wonderful and elegant ! Love white chocolate. I’ll be making for my birthday.
I just love all of your baking posts! Definitely one of my favorite instagram accounts! Especially love the feathers on this cake. Thanks for sharing your tips and tricks, you rock!
It looks delicious, beautiful Andy fun all in one!
My favorite birthday cake was a chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache and a peanut butter frosting. So ggod!
What a beautiful cake!! My fave b-day cake: a lemon meringue cake, with loads of swirly toasted meringue that I got to torch myself 🙂
I would LOVE a copy of your book!!! I’m really trying to improve my baking game and you’re fabulous! Thank you!
Love white chocolate feathers! Simple but elegant. Will try this for my birthday with my twin.
This is beautiful!
Such a fun birthday cake to celebrate your son. I love funfetti cake!
This cake looks absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to share this article with my high school baking class today as it supports our recent discussion about working with a base recipe and then finding inspiration to add your own creative twist. Perfect timing! Fingers crossed that I win as this would be a wonderful book to add to my classroom library. On a personal note, my favorite birthday cake is always a Boston Cream Pie.
Great recipe, beautiful photos.How inspiring!
My favorite cake was a 2 layer sponge cake filled with lemon curd, frosted with sweetened whipped cream & topped with large chocolate curls! My Mom’s creation for a couple of my teen birthdays.
Love ALL cake!!! But why not make them all beautiful too??? This is so much prettier than the construction cake I had to make for my grandson last week! We did do sprinkles though!
Love this!! Just finished my grandson’s “Construction” cake but this would have been so much more fun and much prettier! Next year! Who doesn’t love sprinkles???