Welcome to The Kitchen Club! This week is extra special to me as I am sharing my favorite birthday cake. Your subscription to The Kitchen Club helps these recipes get developed, tested, and sent out to you. Thank you!
The best birthday gift you can give me is giving your friend, your family, or loved ones a subscription to The Kitchen Club. The holidays are coming up and I have lots of fun recipes coming at ya! Don’t let them miss out on it.
One of my favorite things about being an adult is being able to make your own traditions and I have a few things that I do for birthdays. The most important one is the birthday affogato. Marco and I make each other a special birthday coffee and since it is enjoyed on our birthdays the calories and sugar don’t count. It is the one day where we fully enjoy ice cream for breakfast. The next tradition only applies to me. I make myself a cake, decorate it, and have a mini photo shoot with it. Why do I do this? One, I love baking and cake decorating. That was the thing I wanted to do when I started culinary school. Two, I’m the only one in my family that can actually do it. Three, it’s fun to put make-up on and take silly pics with a cake. Lots of giggles are had.
This year was no different. I set out to make the cake a week early to test it and send it out to you guys. Well, as you read on Sunday, I had a few bumps in the testing process. This wasn’t a huge deal but I was on a time crunch and I was extra confused because I never had issues with this recipe before. I baked a fifth cake and whipped up a third batch of frosting on Monday. I am delighted to report that both were made successfully and I figured out what was going on. I am going to sound redundant but because I am a scale advocate, we are going to touch on the weight vs. volume topic again. This recipe was originally measured in volume and I figured out that when I measured the baking powder with measuring spoons, it was about half of the amount that should be added when measured by weight. I had four cakes turn out dense and not desirable. As soon as I adjusted it, my problem was solved and the cake baked perfectly. I ran it over to my neighbors for a taste test and we all agreed it was perfect. I have lots of notes to pass on to help everyone make a successful birthday cake. The first being, we are using a scale.
Today’s recipe is a simplified version of my three-layer birthday cake—The Vanilla Birthday Cake. It is a single layer with frosting on top and fruit for garnish. I will add some notes at the end on how this recipe can be made into three layers if you are up for the challenge. There is a story highlight saved on my Instagram with tips on layer cakes and you can message me for more help. Let’s dive in!