Alternative Birthday Cakes
Do you ever get tired of the same old birthday cakes? The typical boxed cake or bakery cake can get a bit boring, and in this blog post I will give you a few suggestions and recipes for an alternative cake or dessert to try for the next birthday party you host.
When my oldest son was still a baby, my sister and I took a cake decorating class at Michael’s craft store. I remember it being a lot of fun, and for quite a few years after that, I made a lot of “character cakes” for my kids out of the formed pans that go along with themes, and I even made a really pretty baby shower cake for one of my friends.
These days, I still make my own cakes for family birthdays, and I let each family member choose what they’d like for me to make for them. It’s funny how everyone has their own favorites, but I can’t remember anyone ever being actually disappointed by anyone else’s choice!
I’m going to include the recipes for our family favorites, and maybe you can try one of them for an alternative to the usual layered birthday cake. I was planning on making one of each of these recipes before writing this blog so that I could take pictures to show you what they all look like, but I ran out of time and there’s no way we could have eaten all of the examples, so I’m choosing to make MY favorite and will show you a picture of that one. For the others, I’ll give you the recipes and you will have to use your imagination as to how they will look. I promise you that they are all our family favorites and they are all delicious!
Cannoli Cake
My favorite cake is actually super easy. I found this recipe only a year or two ago on Pinterest, but the recipes I found were all too sweet, so the one I’m giving you is my variation of it and it’s just a little less rich than the original. The recipe is for a cannoli cake, and it’s so easy because it starts out with a cake mix. One thing that I remember learning during my cake decorating class is that they always recommended using Duncan Heinz over all of the other boxed brands because they said it is the most homemade tasting. I’ve never done a taste test to see, but that’s still the brand I always use.
This cannoli cake has a frosting that’s made with just ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar. I’m addicted to this cake! I definitely don’t wait for a birthday to make this one, and my family became fans of it immediately, too.
Cookie Pizza
If you have younger kids, I have something for you to try that I bet they will love. I shouldn’t say that it’s just for younger kids because my middle son chose it last year for his 23rd birthday, but it was always a big hit with my boys and their friends when they were little. We called it the cookie pizza birthday cake. You may have seen similar desserts, but I just kind of made this up one year and it was very popular so it was frequently requested on birthdays. The recipe is included, but basically you just take a pizza pan (I use a pizza stone) and use premade chocolate chip cookie dough as your “pizza crust”. My “sauce” was made using marshmallow fluff. I know, you’re beginning to wonder if this is a low-cal recipe, right? It gets worse! The toppings are chocolate chips, little marshmallows and slice strawberries. The sliced strawberries make it healthy, am I right?
Chocolate Éclair Cake
This next dessert is a guaranteed popular one! I was given this recipe by one of our best friend’s mom. She was a very sweet woman and made this for us for dessert when we were first married, and I’ve been making it ever since! This chocolate éclair cake is easy to make, and it is requested often, especially from our oldest son. Make it early in the day or even the day before, so the graham crackers have time to fully soften up from the custard filling. The chocolate layer that goes on top is amazing!
Washington Cake
The final cake is for the chocolate lover in your family. Our youngest son has requested this one for his birthday several times, and I like to make it for family gatherings, too. My sister’s mother-in-law called this Sunday Cake, and we had a neighbor years ago who made it, and she called it Minnesota Cake (guess where she was from!). So, I don’t know what the actual name of it, but you could just call it Delicious Chocolate Cake and that would be accurate. It has buttermilk in the actual cake and also in the chocolate frosting that goes on top. Here’s a tip: if you don’t have buttermilk at home, you can substitute for it using 1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for every cup of plain milk you use. You put the vinegar into the measuring cup with the milk and leave it for a few minutes. Don’t be alarmed when you see that it curdles some of the milk, because that’s what it’s supposed to do, and it acts like buttermilk in your recipe.
These are just a few of my family’s favorites. None of these recipes will look like a traditional birthday cake, but once you put some candles in the top, nobody will care. None of these cakes are difficult to make, and I always like to give my family something homemade for their birthdays. I hope you’ll give one (or more) a try. If you do, please comment below and let me know how it turned out!
