I’m turning 31 this week and it’s become something of a tradition for me to make myself a birthday cake (not in a sad way, I do it for fun). I’m also my family’s cake baker so I’m pretty much making birthday cakes consecutively every month from January-December. I love making cakes for my family but when I’m making other people’s birthday cakes I’m confined to their own preferences. German Chocolate for my Dad and Chocolate Raspberry for my Mom. Boston Cream, Carrot and Strawberry Shortcake for my brothers, respectively. Cherry Cake for my husband and Chocolate for my sister-in-law. The only family member who provides me with a real challenge is my nephew, Elliott. My favorite being the year he asked me for a cake “shaped like a baseball with flames coming out the back.”
I love a playful birthday cake, too. When I’m designing my own, kitsch is my number one priority. So as I was looking for inspiration for this year’s birthday cake, I kept coming back to an image of a cake shaped like a present from Betty Crocker’s Cake and Frosting Mix Cookbook (1966). I love the idea of the gift-wrapped cake because I really do think making someone a birthday cake is a present in and of itself. An act of love with thought and effort, so what better fitting a design than to make one shaped like an actual gift? It’s perfectly meta. The other reason I love this idea so much is because it is easy for anybody. If you can frost a cake and fill up a simple piping bag, you can make it too. The design can be as simple or as fancy as you want. You can keep it pretty simple (like mine) or really go over the top with some piped flowers like the one below.
I have really clear memories of how viscerally thrilling my birthday used to feel when I was a child. It’s hard to describe but the anticipation of gifts, cake, and celebrations just for ME was almost too much for my little heart to handle. I’ll admit that as I get older, it gets a little more difficult to feel that same kind of excitement on my birthday. So, in a small way, designing and making my birthday cake is a way to capture just a taste of that joy. Whether you make this for yourself, someone you love, or just take delight in looking at the pictures, my birthday wish–now and always– is that it sends a little retro joy your way, too.
XOXO,
Hannah
laretrorecipe.com 