January is meant to be about contemporary begins, good intentions, and possibly ingesting extra water. Fortunately, considered one of my most dependable habits is birthday cake. Whereas the remainder of the world is easing again into routines, I’m over right here daydreaming about frosting swirls, that romantic wisp of candle smoke, and all of the birthday muffins I need to bake for buddies, household, and finally… myself. Birthday cake is a human proper. I cannot be taking questions at the moment.
Over the past decade-plus, we’ve baked various birthday muffins round right here — the basic, the inventive, the no-bake, and those that require a little bit endurance and a number of sprinkles. It is a assortment of my highest birthday cake recipes: muffins meant for gathering, for singing loudly off tune, for making a want and blowing out the candles.
From timeless vanilla birthday muffins, muffins that decision for the Bundt pan, to crepe muffins and icebox muffins, there’s one thing right here for each type of celebration. I hope you discover a cake (or three) to mark the yr forward — as a result of birthdays are coming whether or not we’re prepared or not, and cake makes all the pieces higher.
Conventional Cake Recipes
Everyone’s Vanilla Birthday Cake
Let’s begin with the classics: my greatest yellow cake recipe. It is a easy, moist and stacked basic birthday cake made in two spherical cake pans or a 9×13-inch sheet pan. It’s a candy, velvety cake batter with a cute crumb, fluffy texture and loads of vanilla extract. My favourite birthday muffins are topped with the perfect chocolate buttercream frosting and this vanilla cake is the right base.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2016/01/everybodys-birthday-cake/
Everyone’s Chocolate Birthday Cake
The place there’s vanilla, let there be chocolate!! This cake recipe is so moist and decadent it’s a chocolate lovers DREAM! The chocolate frosting additionally has a wholesome scoop of peanut butter (which you’ll be able to completely skip in the event you favor) that cuts the sweetness and provides a pleasant depth of taste to the already bonkers cake. Is it even a birthday celebration with out this chocolate cake? Possibly however barely.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2021/01/everybodys-birthday-cake-chocolate-peanut-butter/
Funfetti Birthday Bundt Cake
That is my aunt’s basic pound cake — wealthy with butter, sugar, and eggs — dressed up for a birthday celebration. A splash of almond extract (endlessly my favourite) provides it that bakery-case magic, whereas rainbow jimmies are folded proper into the batter for optimum cheer. I prefer to tint a portion of the batter pink or sunny yellow, simply sufficient to present the cake a little bit wink whenever you slice into it. The very best half? No frosting, no stacking, no stress. This bundt is a complete stunner and stays tender and celebratory for days — the type of birthday cake that quietly steals the present.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2022/02/funfetti-birthday-bundt-cake/
The Distinguished Company Birthday Cake
This cake comes from a 1934 cookbook I discovered whereas packing up my New Orleans home, which already tells you all the pieces it’s essential know. It’s a fluffy white cake made additional gentle by folding in stiff egg whites, layered with a straightforward pecan caramel, and wrapped up in a swoon-worthy chocolate buttercream. It’s a little bit of a mission, sure — however the payoff is a very particular, old-school elegant birthday cake that feels celebratory, spectacular, and really a lot worthy of the visitor of honor.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2023/05/the-distinguished-guest-birthday-cake/
Angel Meals Cake with Raspberry Rose Cream
I’ll quietly admit it: I love an angel meals cake for my birthday. It’s a light-weight, cloud-like pillow of a cake that gives completely zero resistance to the fork — simply candy air and ease. For me, the topping is all the pieces, and it must be simply as delicate because the cake itself. Enter softly whipped cream scented with rose and rippled with raspberry for the prettiest colour and a mild, floral fruitiness. It feels female, beautiful for a spring birthday, and completely celebratory in a not-too-much type of means. Bookmark this magnificence for a warm-weather birthday cake second.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2023/03/angel-food-cake-with-raspberry-cream/
The Good Chocolate Bundt Cake
I don’t absolutely perceive the sorcery of this chocolate cake, however I belief it fully. Cocoa powder will get whisked with sugar, oil, and occasional, the batter comes collectively free and straightforward, and in some way it bakes up right into a moist, bouncy, deeply chocolatey bundt that appears like way over the sum of its elements. That is an unfussy however deeply celebratory birthday cake. Only a easy bathe of powdered sugar and a room full of individuals prepared to chop in.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2024/01/the-perfect-chocolate-bundt-cake/
No-Bake & One-Pot Cake Recipes
Neapolitan Rice Krispie Deal with No-Bake Birthday Cake
Too scorching to bake? I put collectively this full layer cake with out a lot as pre-heating the oven! This no-bake cake is made with three completely different layers of candy and stretchy Rice Krispie Treats. A chocolate layer, a vanilla layer, a strawberry layer all stack collectively to create a tall layer cake. Prime with dots of buttercream and chocolate shavings and it’s a really completely happy summer season birthday. This no-bake particular is on the prime of the listing for greatest birthday cake recipes!
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2021/03/the-no-bake-neapolitan-birthday-cake/
One-Pot Neapolitan Sheet Cake Recipe
This candy little birthday cake comes collectively proper on the stovetop in a single pan, which already appears like a small miracle. The baked cake is topped with a trio of whipped lotions — vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry — and if I’m being trustworthy, the strawberry is the star for me. It’s pink, nostalgic, and turns my childhood goals of Neapolitan ice cream into cake in the easiest means. Straightforward, charming, and completely celebratory with out making an attempt too arduous.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2020/04/one-pot-chocolate-sheet-cake/
Smaller Treats as a Birthday Cake
Considered one of my largest flexes as a baker is popping one stick of butter into TWELVE FROSTED CUPCAKES. In fact I’ve executed it two methods in your choice: Small Batch Vanilla Cupcakes and Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes. The chocolate cupcakes have a secret ingredient: beets! Mainly these cupcakes are salad. That’s how that works. Sprinkles and candles additionally required.
Non-Conventional Birthday Cake Recipes
Carrot Cake Birthday Cake
I contemplate this the one carrot cake recipe you’ll ever want. It’s full of contemporary carrots, pineapple, and walnuts and full of loads of cream cheese frosting. My mother or father’s had a Carrot Cake wedding ceremony cake (such a flex) however I like mine with a birthday candle and music!
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2022/01/the-perfect-carrot-cake-recipe/
Dede’s Strawberry Pistachio Doberge Birthday Cake
On the listing of the numerous nice issues New Orleans has taught me is the Doberge Cake – a tall, six layer cake full of two flavors of pudding and topped with two flavors of buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Lemon and chocolate is conventional for a basic Doberge however, seeing as I can’t go away properly sufficient alone, I made this cake to refine the idea to my superb taste pairing. Speak about a powerful birthday cake! And – don’t stress about baking six good cake layers. We simply bake three layers and slice every in half. And the pudding is zhooshed up store-bought pudding. We take ease once we can get it.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2021/03/dedes-strawberry-pistachio-doberge-cake/
Hummingbird Cake
To not be confused with carrot cake (although they’re pleasant cousins), hummingbird cake is made with ripe mashed bananas, heat spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and sometimes a touch of pineapple for additional moisture and sweetness. It’s tender, aromatic, and layered generously with wealthy cream cheese frosting — acquainted, however simply completely different sufficient to really feel particular. I would adore it much more than a conventional carrot cake, and it makes a superb, barely sudden cake recipe for anybody who desires one thing basic with a inventive Southern twist.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2024/05/my-favorite-hummingbird-cake-has-a-secret-ingredient/
Chocolate Stout Cake with Raspberries and Cream
I’m deeply keen on this wealthy, single-layer chocolate cake — it was the bottom of our wedding ceremony cake a couple of years again — nevertheless it additionally makes a very beautiful birthday cake, particularly within the colder months. Made with espresso and Guinness stout, the cake bakes up dense but surprisingly tender and impossibly moist. I end it with a barely candy Swiss meringue buttercream and a scattering of contemporary raspberries for lightness and distinction. It’s a winner of a cake, regardless of whenever you select to rejoice.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2024/12/wedding-cake-inspo-chocolate-stout-cake-with-raspberries-and-cream/
Texas Sheet Cake Recipe
You’ll discover a Texas Sheet Cake on the dessert desk of actually each Wilson household perform for apparent causes – that skinny layer of cake fudge created when heat chocolate icing meets heat chocolate cake. That is the kind of cake leftovers we half-heartedly cowl with foil, understanding full properly we’re solely 5 minutes away from sneaking again into the pan for a sliver. Additionally crucial, and I can not stress this sufficient: the knife stays within the cake pan. Modest however decadent, that is considered one of my favourite birthday cake recipes.
You may additionally like these fall-flavored variations of the basic Texas Sheet Cake: Brown Butter Pumpkin Texas Sheet Cake and Apple Cinnamon Texas Sheet Cake
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2021/02/texas-sheet-cake-recipe/
Chocolate Chip Cookie Birthday Cake
Birthday cookies? Completely sure! Use an electrical mixer to mix a toasty browned butter combination with dry components (flour, baking soda, and salt) right into a delicate cookie dough. Add chocolate in fact. This cookie cake is dotted with colourful buttercream frosting and completed with rainbow sprinkles. Professional Tip: line the underside of the baking pan with parchment paper to make sure the muffins come out of the pan simply after baking.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2022/01/chocolate-chip-cookie-cake/
Grain, Gluten Free, & Dairy Free Cake Recipes
Candy Laurel’s Grain-Free Chocolate Raspberry Cake
This cake recipe is made with almond flour and maple syrup. I particularly love the contemporary raspberry puree layer however you can actually substitute any fruit puree or jam you favor. Ardour fruit? YES.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2018/05/sweet-laurels-grain-free-chocolate-raspberry-cake/
Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Decadent Chocolate Cake
A cake recipe that requires a GF flour mix and full-fat coconut milk to create a easy and wealthy chocolate ganache. Prime with cocoa nibs an additional crunch.
Full recipe right here: https://joythebaker.com/2020/10/gluten-free-dairy-free-decadent-chocolate-cake/
Whether or not you’re loyal to a basic birthday cake recipe or feeling courageous sufficient to strive one thing new, I hope considered one of these muffins finds its technique to your desk. Might your yr be full of candles to blow out, needs price making, and cake shared with folks you like. Right here’s to a really candy yr forward — one slice at a time. xo
