Preparing the birthday cake for your children or a loved one has a very special connotation. You put all your heart, all your love and much more into it. Of course, for birthday parties you offer as is the tradition of small gifts. But offering a cake is a more special attention; you take your time to make a personalized pastry for the one you love to celebrate the day of his birth with relish.
Originally, the birthday cake tradition is a Greek custom. For their birthdays the Greeks would go with a round honey cake in honor of the goddess Artemis to bring them a new year of prosperity. In the 20th century, Christianity incorporated this tradition with a candle to ward off bad luck and bring fortune, health and happiness to the loved one.
Today, this tradition continues and the homemade birthday cake is making a comeback. But it's not always easy to find THE ideal cake recipe for your child, parent, spouse or friend. In this article, a wide choice of birthday recipes , each as delicious as the next, awaits you, sorted by category to make your life easier!
Find all the pastry utensils at the end of the articles to create even more beautiful and tasty creations!
10 original birthday cake ideas
It's not easy to combine everyone's tastes in the same cake! To accompany you in your quest for the ideal birthday cake for your event, let yourself be guided by our different categories and be ready to bake!
Easy birthday cake category
1. Swiss roll
What if you swapped the traditional yogurt cake for a fabulous roll cake and a personalized decoration?
An easy and always tasty recipe. It goes very well with children, but satisfied adults just as much!
- For the cake:
4 eggs 110 g flour 100 g sugar 10 g icing sugar
- For the ganache:
200g dark chocolate 20cl full cream
The advantage of this rolled birthday cake , besides the fact that it goes very well in the mouth with a wide audience, is that it can be very easy to cook and decorate.
You can cover it with chocolate ganache or prepare a white chocolate ganache with food coloring (blue, pink, purple or even create a rainbow of colors) to match everyone's personality.
A few small birthday decorations can also decorate the whole thing for a more festive visual of your chocolate roll cake .
2. Rainbow Cake
In recent years, the Rainbow Cake has been very popular. The ganache makes the cake very gourmet and offers a beautiful material for decoration. When cut, a nice surprise with pretty and colorful slices for a successful birthday !
- For the sponge cakes (6 sponge cakes of 250 g of dough each):
6 eggs - 400 g sugar - 400 g flour - 200 g melted butter - 1 sachet of baking powder - 1 sachet of vanilla sugar - 100 g grated coconut (optional) - 1 tbsp. coffee baking soda - 20 cl of light or full liquid cream - 10 cl of milk natural or artificial food coloring (rather in powder… if not liquid).
- For the white chocolate ganache:
500 g mascarpone - 400 g white baking chocolate.
- For the whipped cream:
50 cl of very cold whole liquid cream - 100 g of icing sugar.
Gourmet birthday cake , do not plan this kind of dessert after a heavy meal. However, it is perfect for a birthday party or after a light meal. Adults love it and kids love it!
3. Chocolate Birthday Cake
We reveal to you THE secret of an easy and pretty chocolate birthday cake ! The recipe for a melt-in-the-mouth cake, generous in chocolate, tasty and gourmet...
- For the cake:
240 g of flour - 150 g of sugar - 1 sachet of baking powder - 1 pinch of salt - 4 whole eggs - 1 sachet of vanilla sugar - 2 yoghurts (250 g) - 70 g of soft butter - 3 tablespoons of powder of almond.
- For the vanilla syrup:
20 cl of water - 2 tablespoons of liquid vanilla - 50 g of sugar
- For the chocolate cream:
500 g mascarpone - 20 cl full cream - 220 g dark chocolate - 1 tablespoon butter - 90 g icing sugar
+ 100 g of white chocolate (for decoration).
Very simple to make, this chocolate cake is ideal for budding pastry chefs. Visually, it is worthy of a great pastry shop and you can impress your family with a sublime chocolate cake and a very fine decoration to please the happy chosen one.
Children's birthday cake category
4. Baby birthday cake (for 1 year old, 2 year old and 3 year old)
Do you want to mark the occasion? You want to create a homemade birthday cake with your little hands and with love to celebrate the birth of your child who is already growing too fast in your eyes. Why not start with a Number Cake ? This surprising and original shape for a baby birthday cake is very easy to decorate and make. Your little one who blows out the candles of his Number Cake will create wonderful memories.
- For the Leopard cookie:
80 g melted coconut oil - 80 g olive oil - 250 g vanilla soy milk - 3 tablespoons cider vinegar - 130 g sugar - 100 g ground almonds - 100 g chestnut flour - 100 g brown rice flour - 50 g cornstarch - 1 packet of yeast
- For the chocolate ganache:
200 g of dark baking chocolate - 10 cl of soy cream
- For the speculoos cream:
125 g speculoos - 10 cl vegetable milk - 2 cl melted coconut oil - 1 g agar-agar
5. Birthday girl cake
Little girls dream of a magical world of princesses and magic. Many children's cakes mix marzipan or sugar paste to create unique patterns and shapes in the likeness of their favorite character. You can create Cinderella or little cat cakes , but here, we offer you the end of the end, the star of birthday cakes for girls : the unicorn cake !
unicorn birthday cake
All little girls dream of princesses, fairy tales and unicorns! They are very happy to see this kind of cakes for their birthday. With pretty stars in their eyes and a smile, they discover this sublime unicorn enthroned on the table at their birthday party … just for them! The little girls are happy to be able to impress their friends with such a pretty pastry creation .
- For the almond and vanilla biscuit
100 g flour - 55 g ground almonds - 5 eggs - 155 g caster sugar - 1 tbsp. Madagascar vanilla powder
- For the creamcheese frosting
150 g softened unsalted butter - 500 g natural cream cheese - 250 g icing sugar - 100 g mascarpone - 100 g fresh raspberries Food colorings
- For decoration
6. Boy Birthday Cake
As for little girls, sugar paste and marzipan allow them to work on the decoration in order to offer original cakes with the effigy of their favorite heroes. Many little boys love Spiderman, dinosaurs or firefighters. For this cake, the editorial staff made the choice of universality with the car cake .
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Car track cake
Boys are often fans of mechanics and speed. Even the little ones have fun with the little wheels of their vehicles. This car circuit cake will make people happy, that's for sure!
- For the sponge cake:
4 eggs - 120 g sugar - 120 g flour - ½ packet of baking powder
- For the whipped white chocolate and mascarpone ganache:
160 g of white chocolate - 110 ml of liquid cream with more than 32% fat a vanilla pod - 270 ml of liquid cream with more than 32% fat - 150 g of mascarpone
- For the syrup:
70 gr sugar - 100 ml water - 1 tbsp. vanilla sugar
- For decoration:
White sugar paste - black sugar paste - gray sugar paste - some toy racing cars
To gain a little height, you can mount 2 to 3 sponge cakes one on top of the other. The chocolate-based ganache has always been a great success with the youngest. So you take no risk with this boy cake , it will necessarily be appreciated.
Adult birthday cake category
Adults also have the right to their beautiful decorated birthday cakes ! To please your loved ones, bet on originality and surprise. Your cake should live up to the occasion. Whether you are celebrating 20, 30, 40 or 70 years, special attention to celebrate the birth of a loved one with a pretty personalized cake is always a pleasure.
7. The pink cake
Depending on the color of food coloring you use, you can create it festive (rainbow), glamorous (pink, purple) or gourmet with vanilla and chocolate praline flavors.
- For the sponge cake:
160 g of sugar - 5 eggs.- 50 g of melted butter - 1 sachet of vanilla sugar - 160 g of sifted flour.
- For the cream
- For garnish
250 g raspberries - 500 g mascarpone with natural rose flavor (or vanilla depending on taste and color choice) - 80 g icing sugar.
The little roses created thanks to your piping bag will have their little effect with your loved ones. It gives a refined and festive side at the same time and you can, thanks to the food coloring, create it with taste according to the personality of the loved one. Discover decoration ideas with the airbrush and its food colorings in our other article.
In order to give your cake a little height, you can mount two sponge cakes on top of each other with a thin layer of filling between the two to hold them. This cake goes very well in the mouth thanks to the combination of sponge cake and mascarpone.
8. Choco Yuzu dessert
- Chocolate biscuit :
50 g egg yolk - 75 g egg white - 25 g dark chocolate - 62.5 g sugar (37.5 g +25g) - 30 g flour - 5 g cocoa powder - 10 g of butter
- Creamy yuzu:
60 ml yuzu juice - 60 g sugar - 75 g eggs - 60 g butter - 2 g gelatin
- Milk chocolate mousse:
210 g of Valrhona Jivara 40% cocoa milk chocolate - 6 g of gelatin sheets (soften in a large volume of cold water for 20 minutes) - 15 cl of milk - 30 cl of very cold single cream
- Milk chocolate mirror glaze:
75 g of water - 150 g of sugar - 150 g of glucose - 150 g of milk chocolate - 100 g of liquid whole cream - 10 g of gelatin soaked in a large volume of cold water (6 times the volume) for 20 minutes.
Mirror glazes always have their little effect. When successful, very smooth and shiny, it totally illuminates the table and the eyes of the guests. With a few decorations on top of the cake, it's a birthday dessert worthy of the greatest pastries.
Here again, you can, according to your desires, choose the decorations and the color of the icing to stick as closely as possible to the personality of the recipient of the cake. Here the colors have been chosen to be a birthday cake for women and men of any age.
Special vegan cake category!
Celebrating your birthday while respecting your diet and values is possible and it's even very simple and just as tasty as traditional birthday cakes . Here are two recipes that will amaze your loved ones and delight the most refined palates!
9. Strawberry vegan version
- For the financial cookie:
150 g vegetable yoghurt (soya) - A few drops of bitter almond flavoring (optional) - 100 g icing sugar - 45 ml neutral oil (peanut, grapeseed, rapeseed or sunflower) - 75 g flour - 90 g ground almonds - 4 g baking powder - A pinch of fine salt
- For the diplomat cream:
350 ml vanilla soy milk 1 vanilla pod - 2 g Agar Agar - 70 g caster sugar - 35 g cornstarch a pinch of turmeric to yellow the cream - 200 ml vegetable cream to whip very cold + 20 g icing sugar
- For the syrup:
50 ml of water - 50 g of powdered sugar a tablespoon of strawberry syrup
- For finishing and decoration:
500 to 750 g of fresh strawberries - 150 g of pink or red marzipan - White and yellow sugar paste
The strawberries give pep and a good dose of freshness and lightness to the cake. The almond financier biscuit and the vanilla diplomat cream are very light.
This mixture of flavors, almost exotic, explodes in the mouth and it is a pure pleasure to taste this kind of pastry creation . The visual is very successful and will undoubtedly seduce your guests.
Egg-free category
You have to bake a birthday cake, but you are out of eggs? Here is a cake made with yogurt cake . This type of cake is often criticized for being quite dry in the mouth. Here it is soft and airy and the cream decoration adds a touch of freshness and lightens the texture of the pastry.
10. Chocolate cakes without eggs… but too good !
- For the cake
2 pots of natural yogurt (the pots will serve as a measure later) - 1 pot and a half of sugar - 3 pots of flour - 1/2 pot of oil - 1/2 sachet of baking powder - 200 g of melted chocolate.
- The decoration :
150 gr of white chocolate - 2 ca soup of fresh chocolate cream in vermicelli.
What utensils to make these birthday cake recipes?
To make original creations and more complex services such as mirror glazing , you must have a certain number of utensils in your kitchen.
Here's what to equip yourself!
- For the preparation
• You must have at least 1 large bowl bottom and 1 second one of small or medium size in order to be able to work different mixtures simultaneously.
• A spatula and spatula for smoothing your cakes.
• A whisk to work your dough well.
• A rolling pin
• A pastry brush
• cookie cutters
- For cooking:
• 2 to 3 pans of different sizes depending on the needs of the recipe to work different preparations on your plates.
• Cake molds (prefer silicone to obtain a clean release).
- The decoration :
• The piping bags allow you to create many decorations. Choose a set of several nozzles to vary the pleasures.
• Food colorings
Ready ? … Bake!