Ultimate Birthday Cake From 'Baked Occasions'

Three layers of densely spongy "very vanilla" cake are enveloped in layers of bright white frosting and coated with rainbow sprinkles. [Photograph: Brian Kennedy]

Nearly every cookbook has one crowning jewel of a recipe. One big, beautiful must-try. In the case of Baked Occasions, this is that recipe. Three layers of densely spongy "very vanilla" cake are enveloped in layers of bright white frosting and coated with rainbow sprinkles. Cutting into the cake reveals more sprinkles, folded into the cake batter. The effect is childlike and utterly charming, with the innocent sweetness of vanilla providing the perfect backdrop.

Tips: You'll be using up to one and a half cups of rainbow sprinkles for this cake, so please, skip the bargain sprinkles that taste like flavored wax and spend the extra couple of dollars on something you would want plastered all over your birthday cake. On the other hand, there is no need to splash out on anything fancy; think of the jimmies that the ice cream man dipped your vanilla cone in. Those are the ones you want.

Tweaks: If you want your cake to look like it came from the Baked ovens, follow the suggestion in the book to invest in a heavy-duty cake decorating stand. It's essentially a base with a spinning plate that allows you to turn the cake while frosting it, achieving smooth (or swirled) results. It's how the front-cover cake got so pretty.

As always with our Bake the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Baked Occasions to give away.