The Birthday Cake Book: 75 Recipes for Candle-Worthy Creations

The best kind of cake out there is undoubtedly the birthday cake. Kids look forward to them with barely contained excitement and, even if you don’t have cake the rest of the year, the odds are good that you’ll encounter a cake – or at least a slice – on your birthday. The Birthday Cake Book: 75 Recipes for Candle-Worthy Creations offers readers recipes for birthday cakes for both kids and adults, all of which would make a birthday celebrating even more special.

Birthday cakes are typically signified by candles and with fanciful or personalized decorations that you might not put onto an everyday cake. The cakes can be any flavor or type of cake, from angel food to white chocolate, and this cookbook covers a wide range where everyone should find something to appeal to them. The book starts out with some basic cake recipes and some basic buttercream and frosting recipes. These recipes are the building blocks for any number of cakes, and it is easy to mix and match to come up with your own cake combinations. The rest of the book is dedicated to the full birthday cakes. These cakes are the heart of the book: fully decorated and use a specific combination of cakes and fillings almost guaranteed to wow a birthday boy or girl. This setup works well because it gives you the freedom to pick and choose from the basic recipes when you are looking for a specific cake flavor, but it also gives you a lot of options for completed cakes that have a definite “wow” factor to them. The recipes are clearly written and easy to follow along with, which makes even the more complex cakes seem accessible.

The book starts out with an introduction to baking cakes and covers the equipment and ingredients that you’ll be using. It also spends some time discussing what you’ll need to know about making layer cakes that you intend to decorate, giving you tips on timing (whether you can bake the layers a day ahead), decorating (how to move layers from one place to another) and on serving and storage. There are more baking tips throughout the book to help you along and there are many beautiful photos of the completed cakes to inspire you. There is a list of suppliers given towards the end of the book, which will help you track down some supplies in case there isn’t a good cake supply store in your area.