If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen that Aron and the kids made me a cake for my birthday. My request this year…
Exactly the cake we made Hudson for his birthday.
He had asked for a white cake with chocolate chips inside, and vanilla frosting—plus some details about the tiers and decorations, but that’s another story. We’d read tips for keeping the chips suspended and evenly distributed in the batter, but alas they still all sunk to the bottom of the baking pans anyway. The result turned out to be a happy accident: the bottom of each cake layer was like a giant, buttery, dense chocolate-chip cookie. It complimented the super-sweet vanilla buttercream frosting so well!
We cheated that day and used a Duncan Hines boxed mix for the cake, and between the chocolate chips and the buttercream, I didn’t notice the difference. So I suggested they do the same for me. And then the kids were in charge of decoration (so sweet), but I actually could taste the difference in the colored frosting, so I suggested they make faces on plates with Ritz crackers. That was a huge hit! They got to use (and eat) more frosting, and I got to keep the cake more-or-less dye-free.
I love cake—all cake—so I might not be able to stick to any single-choice tradition, but this was just right. Here are some more photos from the morning…
What kind of cake (or dessert) do you request for your birthday?
P.S. Some thoughts on homemade versus store-bought cakes. Where do you land? Also, a simple buttercream frosting recipe—for one—that can be scaled.
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