If your calendar always seems to fill-up with birthday parties or baby showers this time of year, you’re not alone. The CDC reports the months of August and September have the highest numbers of birthdays nationally, and there’s one thing no birthday would be complete without; birthday cake!
Whether you’re looking for ways to elevate your cake baking skills or have never made a cake before, our birthday cake survival guide will turn this year’s creations into a cake walk. Read below to learn more on the science behind cakes, how to detect what went wrong in your cake making process (and how to correct it) and uncover new tips for frosting.
The first step to achieving birthday cake greatness is to identify what type of cake you want. We often distinguish cakes by their flavors, but most chefs classify cakes based on what ingredients are used and how they are combined. Here are a few of the most common types of cakes:
Also known as creamed cakes, butter cakes are characterized by their rounded top and light texture. A classic butter cake is made by first creaming the butter (or shortening) and sugar together, then adding eggs to aerate the batter. Often the dry ingredients and wet ingredients are added alternately to the batter. This allows the cake to stay moist, velvety and slightly crumbly. Chocolate, white, marble, red velvet and yellow cakes can all be part of the butter cake category.
Similar in mixing method to butter cake, pound cake was traditionally made with one pound of butter, one pound of flour, one pound of sugar and one pound of eggs (this is where the name comes from). Modern recipes now have slight variations in ingredient amounts. The primary difference between pound cake and butter cake is that the proportion of ingredients used in pound cake results in a finer textured, dense and moist cake.
These airy cakes are made with beaten eggs, resulting in a very light texture. They are lower in fat than butter cakes. Vegetable oil or egg yolks are the most commonly used forms of fat for foam cakes. Foam cakes include varieties such as angel food, sponge, chiffon and genoise.
It’s a favorite of chocoholics and delivers a rich, dense, and decadent cake by omitting the flour, which means this cake is also gluten-free.
For inspiration and ideas for different types of cakes to make, check out our favorites here at Nielsen-Massey:
If you are new to baking, one of the biggest faux pas people sometimes make is underestimating the importance of using the exact ingredients and proportions. Unlike in cooking, subbing something like all-purpose flour for cake flour, or adding a half teaspoon too much of baking soda can literally sink your cake. So, it’s best to stick with the exact ingredients and directions when first starting out.
Here is your standard cake ingredient list:
Flour is the pillar that holds your yummy dessert together and the foundation for which cake comes to life. However, not all flours are created equal. Used incorrectly, flour may be the ingredient to blame for your overly dense cakes or sagging centers. Knowing what flour to use for your recipe is an essential component for a birthday cake that looks just as good as it tastes.
If you’re looking to bake a gluten-free cake, you can use one of the specially formulated, gluten-free baking flour blends readily available in grocery stores. These can often be substituted for cake or all-purpose flour at a 1:1 ratio.
Fat’s major role in cake is to improve texture by creating a tender, moist crumb. One way to achieve this is to use the creaming method with a solid fat to aerate the batter and produce a delectably light cake. Solid forms of fat include butter, margarine and shortening, while liquid forms include various types of oils and egg yolks.
Sugar serves many functions in a cake recipe including sweetening, flavoring, aiding in the browning process, tenderizing and absorbing moisture. Different types of sugar include granulated sugar, brown sugar, molasses and honey.
Eggs have a multi-functional purpose that is crucial in baking. They add moisture to cakes, bind ingredients together, add color, and thicken sauces and custards. Be careful to note if your recipe calls for a whole egg, egg whites, or just the egg yolk.
Not sure how to properly separate eggs? Check out this informational video to learn how and #BetterYourBake.
Both baking soda and baking powder can leaven a cake, but they work in different ways.
Baking soda is 100 percent sodium bicarbonate. It’s an alkali and needs acid to activate and offset its bitter taste. Most commonly used acidic ingredients in baking include sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, vinegar, molasses and citrus juice. Recipes using baking soda should be baked immediately because the baking soda will lose its leavening ability if it sits too long after being mixed. Baking soda also aids in the browning process.
Baking powder contains sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), tartaric acid and starch. It already contains the acid needed to activate, so baking powder is most effective for baking cakes.
Some recipes will call for just baking soda or baking powder, while others will call for both. You sometimes need to use both for a proper lift on your cake when the recipe doesn’t contain enough acid to use only baking soda. Using leavening agents is all about balance.
Liquids are essential to giving your cake body and texture. They moisten the baking soda and baking powder to help activate them. Dairy-based liquids also provide protein to support cake structure, and the fat from the dairy will further tenderize your cake.
While everyone recognizes vanilla’s unique and exotic flavor, many people are not aware of the flavor-enhancing role pure vanilla plays in cakes, cookies, pies and a plethora of other desserts. A quality pure vanilla extract will make your chocolate cake taste more like chocolate, meld spicy and sweet flavors together in an Indonesian Spice Cake, and give your cake that extra oomph to make it a truly memorable experience.
At Nielsen-Massey Vanillas we hand select all our vanilla beans to ensure they align with our strict quality standards. Then, we use a proprietary slow, cold extraction process to preserve the bean’s more than 300 distinct flavors and deliver the richest tasting pure vanilla extracts. All of our products are all-natural, allergen-free, certified Kosher and Gluten-Free, and Non-GMO Project Verified.
We offer five distinct single-origin pure vanilla extracts from around the globe with their own flavor profiles, similar to wine or coffee, that you can use to perfectly pair with the flavors in your cake. However, if you only have room for one vanilla in your cabinet, we recommend reaching for our Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Pure Vanilla Extract. If you want the look of real vanilla bean specks in your cake or frosting, try our Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste. Madagascar is home to 80 percent of the world’s vanilla. It delivers an unforgettable creamy sweet flavor that is perfect for any recipe.
What happened? Your oven temperature may have been too hot. When the oven is too hot, the outside of the cake will bake faster, leaving the middle under baked.
It’s also possible there was too much baking powder or baking soda. Too much of either leavening agent will cause the cake to keep rising in the oven and then collapse once it is out. Over-creaming and over-beating are also common causes for a sunk cake.
Future Solutions: Because all ovens are different, check your oven temperature by placing an oven thermometer inside the oven before preheating. It will give you the true temperature of your oven and help you determine if any adjustments need to be made before putting your cake inside. Make sure all your ingredients are measured exactly, and don’t overmix them. Mixing together dry ingredients and slowly adding them to wet ingredients will ensure your batter doesn’t get overmixed. Test cake doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. When the birthday cake is done, no wet batter should be sticking to the toothpick; only a couple of moist crumbs should appear.
What happened? If the cake cracked while still in the pan, the oven was most likely too hot. It is also possible the cake tin was overfilled, or there was too much baking powder or baking soda. If the cake was cracked during transfer, it probably hadn’t cooled completely, or it was handled a bit too aggressively.
Future Solutions: Check your oven temperature by placing an oven thermometer inside the oven before preheating. It will help you determine if any adjustments need to be made before putting your cake inside. Take extra precautions to make sure you are adding the proper amount of baking powder or baking soda. Wait until the cake is completely cooled before unmolding and moving.
What happened? Your oven temperature was too hot, there was too much sugar added to the batter, or too much baking soda added.
Future Solutions: Check your oven temperature by placing an oven thermometer inside the oven before preheating. It will help you determine if any adjustments need to be made before putting your cake inside. Lightly cover the top with aluminum foil if it’s browning too quickly. Double-check that ingredients have been measured correctly or consider using a scale to weigh ingredients.
Check out our complete list of busted baking myths for more dos and don’ts.
Regardless of how your cake looks when it comes out of the oven, frosting can save the day. If you’re looking for a clean, professional finish, here are a few tips and tricks to help you achieve the desired look.
Tip 1: Stay calm, COOL, and collected. Let your cake cool completely before frosting. If your cake is still warm, your frosting can melt off. Patience is key!
Tip 2: Try adding a crumb coat to hide those pesky crumbs that stick to your frosting. A crumb coat is a thin layer of icing that is meant to trap crumbs that want to come off the cake. After this layer is applied, refrigerate the cake for an hour and then resume frosting like normal.
Tip 3: Enlist help. While not necessary, there are a few tools to make frosting your cake much easier. A turntable will help you frost the cake evenly and smoothly. You can also use cake levelers to slice a cake in half (or cut the rounded top off) cleanly and without hassle. To up your frosting game, use a cake scraper and offset spatulas for more control and a flawless, professionally frosted look.
Now that you have a perfectly frosted cake, the only thing left to do is serve and eat! The hard part is over, so sit back, get your party hat on and enjoy! Share your birthday cake creations with us using #NielsenMasseyInspires.
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