Easy Birthday Cake Ideas

My homemade birthday cake recipe (in cake or cupcake form) is so simple to make, yet I've never taken them anywhere where they weren't "ooed" and "awed" over. Your friends and family will think you are a baking rock star when you show up with this cake.


The secret is that they don't know that this cake is "colorful" and are shocked when they cut into it.

I have also used a homemade pound cake, and colored the batter with gel food coloring (about 7 different colors,) and baked it it a tube pan. What a hit. Make a glaze and use some fun sprinkles on top.

SO VERSATILE
Not just a great birthday cake idea; I have since used this recipe to make a "Santa Cake" for Christmas, using plain batter, red, and green. You can use different colors for different holidays...... Red, White, and Blue is great for the 4th of July.

FYI: When you color your batter, you can just "plop" it in the pan. It will marble on it's own while baking.

You will find the paste or gel food coloring at Wal-Mart or Michael's. It is made by Wilton, so any store in your area that carries Wilton baking supplies would be worth checking into. Wilton also makes a powdered food coloring that is good for making intense or darker colors icing, too.

Here are the gel food coloring colors you will need, or want to have on hand: red, orange, yellow, greens, purple and blue.





This birthday cake idea produces a spectacular cake. You may have to hide it because people will BEG YOU for this recipe. Seriously.

RAINBOW CAKE RECIPE

2-3/4 cups cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

WHITE CAKE MERINGUE:
4 egg whites
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3/4 cup homemade unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8" cake pans, or two 9" pans. Place parchment paper in the bottom. (Trace the cake pan and then cut out into parchment circles.) Line muffin tins (makes approximately 15) with cupcake

Measure sifted flour, baking powder, and salt and sift together three times. IMPORTANT to follow these steps.

Cream butter and add remaining 1 cup sugar; creaming together until light and fluffy. Add sifted ingredients alternately with milk a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Mix in flavorings and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar gradually, and continue beating only until meringue will hold up in soft peaks and beat thoroughly into the cake batter.

Divide the cake batter into six separate bowls. Use a toothpick to scoop a dab of paste food coloring into one bowl of batter and stir; add more food coloring, if necessary, to reach the desired shade. Repeat with the remaining colors and bowls of batter.

If you make cup cakes, just pour about 2 cups of the batter into 6 different bowls and add the gel coloring.. blend together and dump a tablespoon of each color into the cups.

Scoop spoonfuls of batter into the prepared pans, alternating the colors. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes for the two 9" cakes OR 25 to 30 minutes for the three 8" pans. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

If you have any birthday cake idea, just contact me.