Is it OK to make a birthday cake for yourself?
Hmm, OK, I'm not trying to imply that I don't have wonderful people around me who love me, but I love to bake. The thing is, whenever I go to the trouble of baking and icing a cake from scratch, it's always for someone else's birthday, so I am usually making their favorite. My birthday is this week and I am considering making my own birthday cake, just to get to make something I chose for once. It feels kind of strange, though. So, my question: Would you bake your own birthday cake, and what cake would you make? Please be specific on details like icing, number of layers, etc ;)
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43 Comments:
i often make my own cake. this year it was a two layer banana cake with cream cheese frosting. it was delicious, if i do say so myself. in the past it's been cheesecake, chocolate, pumpkin, or whatever strikes my fancy. i do it because i bake better than my friends and i can have exactly what i want.
just do what makes you happy and don't worry about what other people think.
cybercita at 2:17PM on 10/13/08
Of course! Chocolate cake with chocolate icing decorated with Smarties...
PeanutButter at 2:19PM on 10/13/08
This is a great question. Your damn tootin you can. And if anyone says you cannot tell them to shut it. If you want some good cakes sometimes you got to bake them yourself.
JerzeeTomato at 2:34PM on 10/13/08
I totally agree, JerzeeTomato. Nothing tastes like homemade, not even the most expensive bakeries, in my opinion, though the high-end cakes are definitely good, they seem to be missing something that you only get when you make something in your own home, and you see all that goes into every crumb of it.
efreehling at 2:42PM on 10/13/08
At my previous job I said I wanted to make and bring in my own birthday cake and it pissed people off for some reason. But they asked what I wanted to do so they had no reason to complain. I had made many of their birthday cakes and no complaints there.
All the same I would create for myself a lemon cake filled with raspberry and covered with a thick layer of buttercream. Yaaay!
My birthday is in a week and a half. I may do it anyway.
DCraver at 2:45PM on 10/13/08
I firmly believe in celebrating one's self. Happy Birthday, and happy baking!
AliceBlue at 2:46PM on 10/13/08
Absolutely! It's your birthday, you can do whatever you like. And happy birthday!!
CookiePie at 3:00PM on 10/13/08
Go nuts. I make my own cake (and everyone else's) every year, too. Happy Happy!
BangieB at 3:18PM on 10/13/08
i love having cupcakes and telling ed that we had extra from work. he doen't know and i don't have to feel funny. the firt time i felt so sneaky that i bought candles and put one on the plate. i even lit the wick to make it look good.
dearrie at 3:50PM on 10/13/08
i should read what i wrote before i sent it. does this thing have spellcheck
dearrie at 3:54PM on 10/13/08
@efreehling and DCraver - Happy Birthday! I think there's nothing wrong with baking your own birthday cake at all. In fact, thanks for the idea, since last time somebody actually baked a birthday cake for me happened a very long time ago, but for some reason it never occurred to me to go the DYI route:-). It's your birthday - do whatever makes you happy, and if it includes baking your own cake, so be it.
To answer your question - if I were to bake my own cake, it would actually be a no-bake mousse cake. Or a very good cheesecake - such as Baileys cheesecake or white chocolate & raspberry. Although I'd love to recreate one of my Gran's spectacular "wet" layer cakes.
brooke29 at 4:11PM on 10/13/08
Hells yeah, you should bake your own cake (if that's what makes ya happy). Your B-day is a time for self indulgence, and if baking the cake that your little heart desires does the trick, go for it!
BTW, my B-day cake would be either lemon-yogurt pound cake, or Lemon Lulu.
Kerosena at 4:29PM on 10/13/08
I baked mine this past year - I was helping out my wife (who was working three jobs at the time). Yellow butter cake with dark chocolate ganache frosting/icing from Williams Sonoma. Delicious!
renoles at 4:50PM on 10/13/08
Do whatever makes you happy. AND... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I too have a birthday this week, only I like my sisters chocolate on chocolate cake better. Four layers, did I mention chocolate? Also, I enjoy my birthday so much I started to have a birth week, then birth month, now I actually celebrate a birthday SEASON! Because I'm the "baby", my family totally supports this decision. Try it, then you too can have all different flavors of cake. Happy celebrating, and please let us know what kind you decide on.
floridagirl at 5:02PM on 10/13/08
If I was good at baking, I would definitely make my own cake! I mean, who cares? Go for what you want! And besides, if someone else winds up making you a cake too, is extra cake really a problem?! :)
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:07PM on 10/13/08
i always make my own bday cake, if i didnt i wouldnt get one unless is was store bought, which to me, no matter how good isnt worth the calories! I love the idea of the bannana cake, Cybercita can you post your recipe, i still havent found one that really appeals to me yet. my usual bday cake is a really rich vanilla cake with deep fudge icing with a little ceyanne for flavor and punch.
huneybumper at 5:43PM on 10/13/08
Thanks, now I am pumped! The hard part is definitely going to be choosing what to make. I have a chocolate cake-chocolate icing recipe that I LOVE, but have made that a few times for other peoples' birthdays. I am tempted to try a traditional Southern caramel cake with caramel icing, that one's been on my list for a while now. But then I am a sucker for anything with cream cheese icing, and I've never made carrot cake! Oh, decisions...
efreehling at 5:45PM on 10/13/08
I agree with everyone else, bake away! I'm NOT a cake person, and one of the best bakers in my family so I made myself Cooks Illustrated's New York Style Cheesecake (my favorite!) for my birthday this year.
My oldest sister's b'day is 4 days from mine, I have a cousin with the same b'day, and often they fall on or near Mother's Day, so I was always sharing b'day cake growing up, and I love being able to not have to eat cake if I don't want to anymore! Granted you'll probably end up with another birthday cake anyway--always seems to happen! So you myswell make something you're craving and love, then smile, and be polite when another one shows up!
I just made my mom Cooks Country's Chocolate Shadow Cake for her 60th and everyone loved it if you're a chocolate cake person.
bobcatsteph3 at 5:47PM on 10/13/08
Oh heck yeah. For my birthday dinner, I designed the whole thing around what I wanted to eat that day. I enjoyed the cooking, the eating, and the next-day leftovers, with no regrets.
If it was my birthday today, it would probably be something with chocolate and peanut butter for the cake.
dbcurrie at 6:32PM on 10/13/08
Oh yes! Make your own cake! White cake with home made lemon curd filling - FOUR LUSCIOUS LAYERS - with a buttercream frosting and lots of coconut. My mouth is watering. :-)
Nat427 at 6:33PM on 10/13/08
Happy Birthday!
I think if you want to celebrate, it's fine to make your own cake. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want. Whatever your style. You know you'll like it too. It's 13452342343x better than people who beg for others to celebrate their birthday. Or getting stuck with a chocolate cake when you don't like chocolate (me at work one year) or some other concoction.
For a while, it was customary at work that the person celebrating their birthday bring their own cake. I forgot which culture it was that it was taken from. I like that, actually. No one feels OBLIGATED to celebrate.
For my cake, I'd either make a cassata cake with the customary layers -- white cake, Boston creme, cake, sliced strawberries and boston cream, cake and light frosting with whole strawberries on top -- or a gigantic 1-layer carrot cake with lots of carrot slivers very few nuts and a thin layer of cream cheese icing (what I had at work this year since I ordered it - 5" high 1/2-sheet cake of carroty goodness). I could only wish to make these, btw.
Cassaendra at 7:41PM on 10/13/08
HELL YEAH.....you can and should make your own cake!!!!When my birthday comes I'll for sure be doin' mine.When my kids were little I used to make ALL their cakes and to see where I ended up go to
http://www.mattthebutcher.com/
onepercent99 at 7:51PM on 10/13/08
P.S. when I make my b'day cake it's gonna be homemade carrot cake,7 layers with cream cheese icing.Plenty of raisins and walnuts !!! (sorry,I forgot to put this in my last post)...lol
onepercent99 at 7:57PM on 10/13/08
Oh for sure!
You say you love to bake,
do what you love on or for your birthday!
I particularly love angel food cake with frozen or fresh strawberries and home-made whipped cream! Or I would even do créme fraiche!
Mmmm... nom nom nom
hungrychristel at 8:06PM on 10/13/08
@hunnybumper,
here's the link for the recipe. seriousone posted it for me in july when i asked for a good banana cake recipe. i used a regular old cream cheese frosting with a little banana flavoring, since i'm not one for coconut. it was just fantastic -- deeply banana flavored and moist without being overly dense. i'd make it again if i wasn't so afraid of eating the entire thing.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/BANANA-CAKE-WITH-COCONUT-FROSTING-233280
cybercita at 8:27PM on 10/13/08
By all means, make your own cake. And make it the biggest and baddest birthday cake yet. :) I wish I'd thought of your idea long ago.
Happy birthday!
holdthemayo at 9:04PM on 10/13/08
It is definitely okay. I had to make my own this year. My mom knows I love to bake so she surprised me with the makings of my favorite birthday cake instead of a pre-made bakery cake. My little sister helped and we had a blast.
HeatherB at 10:05PM on 10/13/08
Abso-freakin-lutely! I just made carrot cake for the very first time yesterday with my brand spankin' new food processor and some beautiful organic carrots, and let me just say, Oh. My. God. So, that's what I would make, with plenty of that cream cheese frosting. I just used the recipe that came with the Cuisinart. It's awesome.
buffy at 10:30PM on 10/13/08
Yes, and it's also ok to not share it. Make your favorite and eat the whole thing yourself. And enjoy it.
beth1 at 10:37PM on 10/13/08
@cybercita THANK YOU I know what i'll be making as soon as i'm back running on 2 cylinders ;-) i love bannana cake and since a local grocery now carries tofutti cream cheese i can even make the icing. and if i eat the whole thing well who cares! we only live once;-)
huneybumper at 7:37AM on 10/14/08
Absolutely! You go, girl, and I wish I had thought of that myself instead of moping about my own b-day meal. No one made me or even bought me cake!
I'm pretty boring though, I would make something chocolate all the way, dark, dark as can be!
HeartofGlass at 9:22AM on 10/14/08
Happy Birthday!
Not living anywhere near my mother anymore, I don't have a lot of fellow bakers around either. I think if you love to bake, then it's perfect making your own cake for your birthday!
I think for my next birthday I'm going to make a yellow butter cake with lemon curd and a whipped cream icing. Yum!
Let us know what you end up making!
Laurel E at 9:50AM on 10/14/08
Do it, it's your birthday! Dorie Greenspan has some easy and delicious recipes if you can get your hands on them.
Christina at 10:40AM on 10/14/08
I'm so glad I ended up making my own cake last birthday. it was just what I wanted and I got to spend my birthday doing what I love.
monicabg at 10:59AM on 10/14/08
oh, and for specifics: it was smittenkitchen.com 's chocolate layers (three of them) seedless raspberry filling and seven minute frosting. perfect contrast with the tart filling and sweet billowy frosting.
monicabg at 11:00AM on 10/14/08
I definitely would make my own cake, because I'm not a huge fan of cake. There are only a couple kinds that I like, my favorite being this:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/BLUEBERRY-LEMON-CAKE-WITH-LEMON-CREAM-CHEESE-FROSTING-105375
Junie at 2:16PM on 10/14/08
My birthday is in two weeks (it's the big 3-0!), and I plan on making this cake. What fun is it being a baker if you don't make exactly the cake you want for your birthday?
jenilowrance at 2:53PM on 10/14/08
@jenilowrance - when is your birthday? I'll be 35 on the 29th, so I got you beat there:-).
As I've mentioned before, it never occurred to me to bake my own cake, and I usually tend to be rather depressed round my birthday (it may have something to do with the fact that my Mum passed away 2 weeks before my 18th birthday, 16 years ago today. My birthdays have never been the same since, on so many levels. My apologies though, I didn't mean to be a downer). But I've started seriously considering making (not so much baking, as it's got to be a mousse cake:-)) my own cake this time, thanks to this topic!
brooke29 at 3:16PM on 10/14/08
bake, have your cake and eat it ALL!!!!
I am very easy to please... so for me, in my ideal world, I would make a brownie cake made with Ghirardelli's boxed mix. It's just too good. The sad thing, I can't/should have chocolate even though I LOVE it.
Now... if you are entertaining the idea of baking yourself a carrot cake... here's a recipe inspired by an Alton Brown recipe that is super simple, super reliable and SUPER GOOD!!! People are paying me $$$ to bake them this cake. It's that GOOD.
Happy Birthday and Happy Baking...
Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 6:29PM on 10/14/08
Thanks for all the suggestions. I had a great birthday, and ended up making a Hummingbird Cake, two layers with rich cream cheese frosting. Hummingbird cake is a Southern cake that is so easy---it's basically like making banana bread with pineapple and cinnamon in it and then pouring the batter into cake pans instead of a loaf pan. And since there was fruit involved, it doesn't even count as my birthday indulgence, right?
efreehling at 9:57PM on 10/19/08
Definitely doesn't count as your birthday indulgence. Sounds fantastic, though.
nightowl at 10:11PM on 10/19/08
Definitely make your own cake! And make it your favorite flavor! I've made my own birthday cake for years, because I enjoy baking so much.:) The flavor is different each year but at least it is the birthday girl's fave.;) This year I plan to bake a luscious spice cake (no raisins, please!) with lots and lots of cinnamon-cream cheese frosting!
skyeyes at 11:14AM on 10/20/08
Make it for sure. My birthday is a month away, and I fully intend to make (a few) birthday cakes... hell, it's MY birthday! i'm thinking one lemon cake, one chocolate cake, and something like a pecan pie or cheesecake
alisahno at 11:30PM on 10/20/08