IN YOUR OWN WORDS | Birthday Cake Stories
Thanks so much for sharing your birthday cake stories! I truly enjoyed reading all of them and I appreciate you taking the time to share your memories with me.
As March comes to a close, let us sit back and relax with a favorite beverage and enjoy reading these wonderful memories celebrating with birthday cake... There's plenty of humbling, laugh out loud and heartwarming stories.
| Ok, I'm now dreaming of chocolate ganache right now! We love buttercream frosting around here and my daughter has been using a recipe she found online since she loves to bake a lot. I love that you all go all out celebrating your birthdays, it's so important and keeping with a family tradition along with revisions! I do remember those carousels like candles back in the day... Now I'm on the hunt for those! Thanks so much for sharing your story with me. - Mary |
| For my son’s first birthday, we were in Cape Cod for the weekend and decided to go on a whale watch on his actual birthday. My husband and I had done a few whale watches at this point but had never seen humpback whales, so we were hoping this would be the trip! Not only did we see a pack of 8+ humpback whales, but we saw a mom with her baby and they stayed right near our boat almost the entire time. My son won’t remember it, but we have the video of that trip to show him every year! - Rachel |
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Cindy!!! I had no idea you made cakes!!! Trevor’s sister is a professional cake decorator/maker and she has made my kids birthday cakes every year! My requests have been outlandish from a carousel cake for Juliette’s 4th birthday to a Herbie the car shaped cake for Landen. She even made a cake with an aquarium and a real Gold fish swimming around! Hold for photos. You will
Love them I am sure of it!!! Xoxoxox - Elise |
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Hi Cindy and Happy Birthday Month! I am a self-professed sugarholic, so cake is easy to talk about lol! Although I have many birthday memories that are special, one that speaks to me regarding cake is about my grandmother. My grandmother is a caterer, and can cook and bake circles around anyone! She's made wedding cakes for hundreds and serviced many a party with her exquisite skill! However, for my first birthday during the pandemic, she not only surprised me with a visit, but made my favorite, strawberry shortcake, for my birthday! Needless to say, I felt the love she had for me in every bite, and cherish the fact that she would still make time to celebrate me with so much uncertainty going on! Thanks for the opportunity to relive this moment! - NLU |
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I'm so curious what you'll be doing with these cake stories. In the least, I hope you'll share photos of the cakes you mentioned in your story! While I love traditional cake, too, I grew up having Carvel ice cream cakes for my birthday. Well, for all of our family birthdays, come to think of it. They had "Happy Birthday, Jennifer/Christopher/Mom/Dad!" written on them with a pink or blue syrupy goo, in the sloppy script of a teenage cashier. Sometimes we had Flying Saucers, too, but that distinct, creamy chocolate taste -- I always skipped the vanilla -- will be forever paired with the scent of blown-out birthday candles in my mind. I had moved across the country just before the pandemic, and when I finally reunited with my parents after not seeing them in person for two whole years, we shared a Carvel cake to celebrate my 36th birthday with my husband and newborn son, starting the tradition for the next generation. spoiler alert: they're still good! (If you've never had one, skip the whipped cream frosting and make sure you get extra crunchies!) Thanks for finding unique ways to engage with your jewelry-lovers. This was fun. : ) - Jen |
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I think most people in my family would admit we really enjoy cakes and desserts, even my grandparents who ate dessert most days until they each passed away at 98. And we’re quite lucky that my Mom is an especially good baker, and did our birthday cakes growing up. The family classic is a chocolate cake with a rich chocolate icing, though as I got older I swapped it for a (non-traditional) lemon poppyseed cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. For a period of time growing up our family friends had an ice cream shop, so we also got ice cream cakes- I distinctly remember an amazing one shaped like a cat.
My Mom and I have birthdays a week apart and even though we live in Vermont/DC, we still sometimes manage to get together between our birthdays two years in a row. While neither of us baked this year, we got local DC cupcakes to celebrate. Cheers, Emily |
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Hi Cindy! Growing up, my mom (almost, because life) always baked us our birthday cakes for our actual birthday, and I always asked for chocolate, usually with chocolate frosting. She makes great tasting cakes, and they usually look good, too! I've tried to continue the tradition for my son, and a few years ago he asked for a cookies and cream cake. It turned out great, but it was huge (those are mini Oreos on top)! It took the three of us a whole week to finish. - Tess |
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Hi Cindy, Here's my story, which is sort of birthday cake, sort of not, but you'll see. :) My Grandma, Dorothy, LOVED birthdays. We'd get the store bought cakes with the characters, the frosting-penned messages, the extra little puffs of sugary goodness along the side. We'd meet up halfway in between her town in Forrest City, Arkansas, and my hometown of Memphis, always with a cake in tow for someone. She also would have cake on her own to celebrate someone's birthday if she wasn't near them so that they could still feel loved and celebrated (and let's be real - so she could have cake too!). I have followed this tradition, and when Iris Apfel turned 100, I sang "happy birthday" over a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. There was one birthday in particular that stands out, and I have a photo of it. My brother is a baby, I'm about 5 or 6, and it's my Grandma's birthday. We got a cake, but they put "Meemaw" on it, which wasn't what we usually called her. We mostly found this funny as kids. The three of us took a photo together, and it's a high favorite. I turned it into a magnet several years ago, and it now sits on my fridge, dead center, so that I see it everyday. There's cake, love, and celebration. And shouldn't every day feel like those things? Thanks for the fun writing prompt! - Heather |
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Happy Birthday Cindy! My story started with my late in life daughter was about to celebrate her 1st birthday. Her Dad & I decided to get her a Baskin Robin’s birthday ice cream cake! In January of this year Claire celebrated her 33rd birthday with another Baskin Robbins ice cream cake from the same store. She stills loves this tradition!!! - Carolyn |
| My birthday cake stories are so ungrateful, I’m almost ashamed to admit it. My mom always made home made cakes for my bday parties growing up and rather than be grateful for the delicate flavors, I wanted a boring cake like all my friends had at their parties that said happy bday in frosting from the store. Had I took a second to think about it, my mom probably couldn’t order cakes if she wanted to bc her English was so bad and it was probably daunting for her. Ugh. I appreciate all those cakes so much more now.. in retrospect ❤️ thank you mommy!!!!! You’re the bestest. - Kuri |
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Yesssss! I also have a deep love cake — cake-only recipe books, cakes to celebrate life and business wins, cakes stashed away in the freezer for whenever I want them :P My mom took a cake decorating class at Sears when I was little so we had so many interesting molds around the house, too, and my most favorite was a safari-themed birthday cake: a horseshoe shape with a gel "waterfall" falling over the side into the center and little plastic animals all over it. That birthday got cancelled because of a snowstorm, so she ended up having to make it twice (which I was very, very excited about). - Sara |
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It’s all about the cake! I like to infuse mine with liquor 🥃 - Helen |
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My mom used to make me orange marmalade cake from the Mitford recipe book (those are her favorite books) the cake was very labor intensive, but it tasted sooooo good! I love these earrings, they are so cute! - Hannah |
| Cake. 😍 My absolute favorite thing to have on my birthday, whether I celebrate or not. My favorite will forever be the cakes my grandmother made for me: yellow cake with chocolate frosting and decorated with candied numbers/letters she purchased. Always delicious. Always my favorite. 🙏🏾. Happy bornday, my friend! 😘 - Karen |
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In high school, I became a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. For my birthday my senior year of high school, my mom and brother made me a cake and frosted it with Alfred’s silhouette. It looked and tasted amazing! - Richelle |
| My birthday is December 25th so as you might guess I got a Christmas tree cake growing up. The best part was decorating it with my mom! She loved it so I did too:) - Sam |
| You brought back so many good memories of all the cakes I made my girls over the years. Think my favourites would have to be Elmo, Spot the Dog and Dipsy from Teletubbies. ❤️ - Kathy |
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My mom made our cakes growing up. She had all kinds of cake pans. One of my favorite was the 3 dimensional bear. She would also make dirt cakes in pots with shovels to serve it. - Bethany |
| My mom used an old flour sifter for every baked good she made. I always teased her about how battered and dinged up it was, and she would tell me jokingly that it was going to be my grand inheritance and that everything would taste better for it. It became just that two years ago, and this year I used it to make my brothers birthday cookies (her cookie recipes were far more famous than her cakes). As I was using it and slapping it to get all the dry ingredients out, I found my hands settling into the same dents her hands had made over decades of baked goods. I miss her so much when using it, but also remember us laughing about the state of the poor thing and how amazing things that came out of her kitchen tasted, and I like to think they elevated those birthday cookies. There’s something deeply special about birthday baked goods isn’t there? - Lisel |
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Funny thing is, I don’t remember having birthday cakes for myself growing up… I’m sure someone must have but I don’t remember. Weird. But, I have always LOVED making my kids’ Birthday cakes… even the challenging ones. I would always get so excited to make the themed cake with whatever their Birthday theme was. I think I especially loved making a Lego one and angry birds one. - Jaime |
| I love imagining that skate cake with doughnut wheels! For some reason I pictured cinnamon sugar doughnuts. Maybe they seem the most sturdy/reliable to me. My mom made me a log birthday cake for a camping bday when I was 12. The party was kinda a disaster (as sleepover parties tended to be for this overwhelmed introvert), but the cake was magical. Tiny marshmallow mushrooms and chocolate bark on a rolled-up chocolate sponge cake. - Lucy |
| I am not much of a baker at all, from a line of non-bakers! My firstborn I remember, making a cake that contained no eggs, and minimal potential allergens… I was one of those mothers who was really very cautious about introducing different foods. By the time I had my twins (kid three and four), we were buying Australia’s very famous mud cakes from Woolworths! All our families best cakes have been made by someone else. ;) - Ruby |
| I was trying to be healthy and ordered from a new bakery in town that was all natural etc. It was the worst cake ever but my whole family powered through and ate without one negative comment it until I finally spoke up laughing about how gross it was and we went out for dessert instead! - Stace |
| I am one of those people who loves icing! I live the sugary sweetness and buttercream wonder! In my family we used to make a big deal about birthdays, gather with the extended family, and have gifts. Not so much anymore…maybe a phone call, if anything! For one of my childhood birthday celebrations I recall the cake very clearly. It was a layer cake, maybe three layers? Round with white icing and a beautiful single red rose in the middle. The birthday kid gets to cut the cake so I cut towards the middle and around the entire rose—that was going to be my piece! I remember a big hullabaloo from the adults when they realized how I intended on cutting that first piece and that it would leave the rest of the cake very lopsided and absent of any part of the red rose. I’m pretty sure I had to recut or at least alter the next cut so I would only get my equal share of the rose-maybe 1/10th. I think the birthday kid should get the whole rose! - Lisa |
| My mom had a Pyrex large bowl, the old one with the pour spout large and small handles on the rim. She produced all birthday cakes (and lots of other family favorites) with it. She bought one in an antique/second hand store for me after I got my first full time job and rented a small house. She passed, 6 years now. That bowl is still in her kitchen and I still think of her when I use mine. |
| I’m terrible at baking so in a pinch I bought two generic bday cakes and scraped off all the icing and smooshed them together and refrosted, stuck Nerf darts on top and my son was totally impressed 😂 thanks for the opportunity!! - Emily |
| My mom made all the cakes when my brother and I were younger. They were just box cakes with frosting but we loved them! And when we got older, we had cookie cakes. One of my fave pics is from my third birthday beaming with my chocolate sheet cake. My almost one year old brother is in a nearby high chair. How did our families get good shots when we were kids and they couldn’t tell how the pics would turn out? Anyway, I love your birthday cake stories! I love that you had the perfect roller skate cake and tried so hard to make your babies a perfect cake for them. 🥰🎂 - Sandy |
| My cake memory is pretty recent! My husband and I watch the great British baking show sometimes, and one of the technical challenges was to make a Swedish princess cake. It has so many elements- cake layered with raspberry jam and custard, topped with whipped cream and all covered in marzipan. Well last year my husband made it for me from scratch! Every element except the raspberry jam was completely made from scrac It was AMAZING and I was shocked at his baking skills 😂. Truly one of the best cakes I've ever eaten. - Marisa |
| My dad made our cakes growing up. I don’t remember the actual cake but I have heard the stories and seen the photos. At around 3, months before my 4th birthday I insisted I wanted a purple Christmas tree cake. My parents made a Christmas tree cake on Christmas, hoping to get it out of my system. Nope, April rolls around and I still want a purple Christmas tree cake and my dad obliged 😂 - Olivia |
| Not cake but my grandma used to make squash pie with her own crust every year for Thanksgiving (WAY better than pumpkin in my opinion) and for my 18th birthday she made me a squash pie even though it was way after Thanksgiving 😊 - Rachel |
| My grandma would make dirt cake for us on our birthday. I was really craving it this year so attempted to make it myself. Not exactly like hers but still hit that nostalgic feeling. Plus non of my friends had heard/tried it before so it was pretty cool to share something I love with them. - Samantha |
| Remember when I was growing up my mom would bake a “bunny” cake cut from a rectangular cake pan. It had white frosting covered with shredded coconut, gummy candy eyes and liquorice whiskers. Comparing it to current cake designs it was pretty basic but my siblings and I thought it was the fanciest cake ever. Hmmmm…I think I will bake one for my grandchildren! - Nina |
| On one of my birthdays, my cake had one of those big sparkler candles that you can’t blow out. After trying (and failing) to blow it out a couple of times, I pulled the candle out and turned it upside down and shoved it back in the cake, proclaiming “I beat the candle!” Quickly, the entire cake started smoking, so it’s safe to say the candle won. We were able to put out a small fire, and we still ate the cake, it just tasted grilled 🎂:)! - Malorie |
| I didn’t do many fancy cakes for my kids. My daughter liked confetti cakes and my son didn’t care. My grandson on the other hand wanted a John Deere cake so my daughter and I got together and did the green fondant thing and shaped the cake. It wasn’t professional but it wasn’t too bad. He loved it and that’s what counts. We had a lot of fun putting it together! - Kathie |
| Happy birthday Cindy! This year, my son & my mom baked me a lemon tart with poppy seed shortbread crust. It was perfection. I hope yours is too. - Judith |
| My cake story is about my favourite cake flavour: Chocolate raspberry. When I turned 18 my parents threw me a combined high school graduation and birthday party, and ordered a giant chocolate raspberry cake from a local bakery. It was a great party and a great cake! Years later I threw myself a birthday picnic, and I went back to the same bakery for their chocolate raspberry cake, and it was just as good as I remembered. When I met and started dating my husband we did years of long-distance, and it was several years before I was able to spend *his* birthday with him. But one year I scored a ride with a friend who was driving to Pittsburgh for the weekend, where my husband lived at the time, and I was able to surprise him on his birthday! While I was there I wanted to make him the best birthday cake I could think of, so I made him a chocolate raspberry cake. It must have worked out well enough, because now we've been married for seven years! - Isabel |
| When I was younger my mom was dating a very kind and lovely man. He always wanted me to feel extra special around my birthday so he would always get me a very fancy French silk pie. It was my favorite! Still to this day it’s my favorite dessert! - Ash |
| My mom had several Wilton cake pans... My favorite was Winnie the Pooh. She spent so much time and endured hand cramps piping little stars to decorate the entire cake in Pooh's colors, multiple years. My friends were in awe! 🧸 - Cindi |
| I always wanted an ice cream cake for my birthday but February in Pittsburgh wasn't the time to be able to buy them! So I never got one. Now I make homemade cakes for my husband and daughters for their birthdays and they always request ice cream cakes! Turns out they are pretty easy to make! - Lachelle |
| My favorite birthday tradition is eating the yellow box cake with chocolate frosting my husband makes me every year! It's not "homemade" but it's my favorite thing! - Elizabeth |
| For my 5th birthday, my mom got me the cake that I had mooned over every time we were at the grocery store: a cake in the shape of a half dome with spiked yellow icing made to look like the sun. The best part was that the cake was wearing real sunglasses and I got to wear them afterwards. - Jared |
| First off I love this!! Read loads of stories about cakes and my heart feels so warm. For my story I think I’m gonna have to talk about my mum’s chocolate cake, it’s a must for my Birthday that always tastes like home!! Although I do have some decorative cake stories unrelated to Birthdays haha… my favourite must be the time when I made a zero gravity m&m cake for a bake-off when I was 13! Won for best flavour 🥰 - Lex |
| I coach an elementary school Odyssey of the Mind team, and we celebrate our wins and losses with CAKE! CAKE! became a battle cry when one very quiet and shy team member was asked about something that made her happy, and that she could think of so that she would speak up loud and make her voice heard in performances—she said ‘cake’. So a group cheer of CAKE! became *the* thing. Over the years our cakes have varied through frosting-free, allergen-free, and gluten-free—I rather like the challenge of making a delicious cake that we can ALL partake in together. It has become of symbol of bonding for my teams. 🎂 Happy birthday, Cindy! - Angela |
| My birthday is at the end of this month which means it's fallen on Easter a couple times. I vividly remember my Mom making me a bunny cake one of those Easter birthdays when I was young and it was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut for the fur. Jelly beans for eyes and licorice for whiskers. It was done so well and so delicious. It's the only cake I really remember my Mom making me and to this day carrot cake is one of my favorites 🐰❤️ - Devon |
| My Mom made me cream puffs for my birthdays, they were easily transportable to school and that way, I could always share my birthday sweets! |
| My mom used to make the most delicious Devil’s food cake with marshmallow icing! It sounds so simple, and I guess it was, but I can still smell it baking in the house and remember the spongy cake and the sticky icing that blended perfectly. Drooling over here 🥰 - Kellie |
| I'm not a baker or really found of a lot of overly sweet desserts. But the one cake I do well is cheesecake. Only because my aunt use to bake it every year during the holidays, and I use to help her. That recipe and an orange pound cake stuck with me. Pound cakes happen to be my favorite cake. Plain old pound cake lol. - Maisha |
| I absolutely love eating cake! I also like to make birthday cakes. It's a real joy for me to celebrate my loved ones and making them a cake is just another way to show them how much I love them. I like to experiment and try something new when I make cakes. In previous years, I've experimented with layers and frosting, and my two favorite birthday cakes I've ever made were for my kids, Lego and Hello Kitty. Why? Because I experimented with fondant. Tyler's Lego cake was the first fondant cake I made. It was so uneven and lopsided and the fondant was super thick, but overall, he and his friends enjoyed the cake. Corinne's Hello Kitty cake was more intense. Not only did I make the fondant from scratch, but her cake had so many layers. I remember staying up past midnight trying to make sure the fondant wasn't too thick. When I was growing up my mom had an extensive collection of cake pan molds. I vividly remember the tennis shoe cake pan, it was probably my favorite. She made me a roller skate cake for my birthday one year when we lived in Fort Lewis, Washington. I even helped her decorate it and insisted we use donuts for the wheels. It was so perfect and just right considering I pretty much lived in my roller skates as a kid. - ME |
Oh and don't forget to read last years birthday stories... Cheers!
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