Birthday Cake 101

Lets be honest. You simply cant have a birthday without a birthday cake. No matter where you are or who you are with, if it is your birthday someone will find a cake to stick a candle in and sing happy birthday. It was the ancient Romans who started the birthday cake tradition and it is probably the one tradition shared by everyone on the planet at least once in their lives.

The basics of a birthday cake remain the same: flour, sugar, milk, eggs, butter. Mix it up, pour into a pan and bake. Cover with frosting. That will get you a cake but it will be a very boring cake. The way to make it special is through the choice of flavors, frosting and decorations. There are as many birthday cake options as there are birthdays to celebrate.

If youre making it from scratch, kids birthday cakes are easy to whip up. All you need to do is decide on the flavor. Chocolate or vanilla will do. Pick an icing color and add to that any number of action figures or tiny dolls that would appeal to the youngster. Kids dont care so much about the decorations as they do about getting to the cake. If a grocery store has a fresh bakery, chances are they can whip up a great kid birthday cake. You can get even more of a variety of flavors and decorations at bakeries that specialize in cakes. You could also pick up an ice cream birthday. As great as they may taste, ice cream cakes are a bit more troublesome to handle and cant really be left out on the counter to pick at.

The older you get, the less important are the decorations and more important are the tastes. Popular grown up birthday cake includes red velvet cake, carrot cake or any choice of mousse. The popular Food Network show Ace of Cakes features a cake company that specializes in one of kind birthday cake decorating. You pick the theme and theyll come up with a great cake. One of the most crucial elements in this type cake decorating is the fondant icing. This is the Playdough version of icing that can be made in any color and stretched into any form. Fondant icing is also very popular with wedding cakes to give them that smooth looking finish.

If youre still on the lookout for a fresh idea, think out of the birthday cake box. You could substitute the traditional birthday cake for Twinkies, brownies, doughnuts, smores, Moon Pies or pizza-size cookies. The bottom line is that as long as you can put a candle on top, you can make anything a great birthday cake.