Let's Have a Very Controversial Conversation About: Having CAKE on Your Birthday!! (Do You Still Splurge?!)

[Lanolin]

Don't believe everything you smell. They have all kinds of flavors in vapes these days.


Walk down the street and smell cinnabon... Yeah, I could go for a cinnamon roll right now. Then get around the corner and it's just Kevin and his cloud of LIES!

Wot?
Oh
No vapes do not smell like food...they smell like artificial junk that the factory people put in lollies. If your nose knows, it knows!

I can also tell the difference between a real rose and an artificial perfume. Perfumes have alcohol in them, and I can smell the alcohol

Maybe its my Asian flat nose? Can't snort drugs because it's not easy to get things up there. Thus I am more sensitive to cooking smells perhaps.

Also kiwis have nostrils at the end of their beaks, not at the beginning.

 

[Godsgirl1983]

.they smell like artificial junk that the factory people put in

Well, have you read the ingredients list for most US prepacked foods?
That's basically what it is...
artificial junk that factories put in.

 

[2ndTimeIsTheCharm]

The other thing, some restaurants have 'dine free on your birthday' ...so make sure you do it! You'll have to bring at least 2 or 3 friends though. They may even give you special cake treat and a birthday card, and some servers WILL sing Happy Birthday to you, if the restaurant is a happy one!

I used to work at Chi-chi's which was a Mexican restaurant when I was and we had to drop what we're doing to gather and sing for whoever had a birthday too! It was fun, so why not?


🕊

 

[2ndTimeIsTheCharm]

As long as I am the cake maker here there will always be cake on my birthday!
Unless I don't feel like making one, then there will not.

Since you like to bake, what is your favorite cake to bake fo special occasions like birthdays?

I like to bake too. On day to day occasions I'd just make a plain cake that's unadorned. But on special occasions, I like adorning cakes either with fruit and whipped cream or for chocolate cakes with ganache and other things that compliments chocolate.

I had a recipe for sundae cake that's made with banana cake, ganache, strawberries, peanuts and whipped cream. I moved several times and now I can't find that recipe!


🕊

 

[zeroturbulence]

Hey Everyone,

A long-distance friend recently had a birthday. Though I couldn't make it there in person for a celebration, I texted him a greeting and joked that I was just looking forward to the cake!!

He answered matter-of-factly that he was an adult, and that the time for having a cake on his birthday had long past.

I was a aghast!! Do adults not have cakes on their birthdays anymore??

I was thinking about his answer in contrast to a flour company commercial that's been playing all over my YouTube feed. A woman (probably in her 60's) says in summary, "Any gathering without a cake -- is just a boring meeting."

My own family is very health-conscious and some members avoid sugar as much as possible. Me, on the other hand -- I always say that I don't have a sweet tooth, but rather, a whole set of sweet teeth. Alas, birthdays in my family are celebrated with some kind of dessert that includes fresh fruit, and IF a cake is bought (usually only on my birthday because no one else really splurges,) it will be one of those jumbo cupcakes -- cut up and split among at least 6 people.

I don't find it worth it to buy or make my own REAL-sized cake because I'll be stuck with the majority of it, and seeing as sugar is already the bane of my existence, I just don't need the temptation.

So...

I am very curious.

* Do you (and your adult-aged loved ones) have cake on their birthdays?

* If so, what kind? (And does it need to be themed, have sprinkles, the latest trend in baking, etc.?)

* If not cake, what other treat do you celebrate with? Does just a nice meal suffice?

* At what age should someone stop having cake on their birthday?

I'm going to try to create a poll -- it allows about 10 answers and will be multiple choice -- but if you don't see your answer listed, be sure to come back and post it here!

Just for fun, the answers will be visible so we can see how our fellow CC'ers feel about this VERY important topic.

And you all know what I'm already going to say...

Let Them Eat Cake!!

I must have cake! It's one of the few things to look forward to on my birthday.

 

[Godsgirl1983]

I must have cake! It's one of the few things to look forward to on my birthday.

So what kind does it have to be?

 

[zeroturbulence]

So what kind does it have to be?

Chocolate!

 

[Lanolin]

I remember mum always making Madeira cake that was bright yellow in the inside from all that butter.
She also made sponge cake and would drop the sponges to the floor, (in their tins) for some strange reason. To put air in? Sponge cake was my favourite, made with cornflour with fresh whipped cream inside and maybe a dusting of icing sugar.

Mum never liked bought cakes, she always made them for our birthdays and didn't like us buying them for ourselves. She also couldn't eat icing, and I can't really eat it either.

The other cakes she made...banana, apple
There is this steamed cake that is a chinese specialty made out of mostly eggs.

Just remembering the homemade birthday cakes of my childhood.
My uncle was a baker, and he also made sponge cakes, but filled the cream filling with bits of fruit salad. And he could make different shapes, and make words out of chocolate and the icing or surround would also be fresh cream. It had to be eaten on the day (of your birthday). I remember one year he made a Garfield cake for me, except Garfield was white because he was made with fresh cream and his stripes and features were made out of the piped chocolate.

 

[Godsgirl1983]

Chocolate!

Aaaaaaannnnndddd....
what type of frosting?

 

[zeroturbulence]

Aaaaaaannnnndddd....
what type of frosting?

I like the Hershey's triple chocolate mousse cake

 

[Godsgirl1983]

I like the Hershey's triple chocolate mousse cake

View attachment 288082

So, uh...
When's your birthday?
We all wanna come celebrate with you.
I'll bring the cake(s).

 

[zeroturbulence]

So, uh...
When's your birthday?
We all wanna come celebrate with you.
I'll bring the cake(s).

Thanks but I don't want any attention.

 

[Ceph]

Hey bakers, have you snatched up those random recipie magazines I see sold as tabloids in grocery stores, and offered for free in hospital waiting rooms?
I remember reading through some and thinking that they're a good recource for cooking ideas.

 

[Lanolin]

The Edmonds cookbook was the staple of every nz kitchen for home bakers.
They made baking powder and cornflour...and self-raising flour

I found out that their famous baking powder that was 'sure to rise' contained cream of tartar, which was derived from grapes.

It was/is more reliable than yeast.

The other thing that almost all cakes have is butter, has to be real butter not margarine.
Sugar unfortunately, have not come across a cake that is without sugar sometimes by the cupful. So, you cannot live on cake, its only really meant to be a sweet treat once a year!! But then if you have a lot of friends and families with birthdays, then you in big trouble, cake wise, you could be having cake every month/week.

I don't know why I post these things. I suppose I am trying to be educational/edifying but it don't always work because people can just buy cakes made by someone else. Though some mums call that cheating. Everything must be made from scratch otherwise you can't really call yourself a mum but just someone who phones it in.

 

[Tazzo]

This this this, I have been sooooo long meaning to write here, but I don't seem to find words, or get all in written form.. then I lost the whole thing I had written!

Let's try again. If I can at least put up something..

I don't celebrate my birthdays, why would I, it means I need to add another year to my age.. I won't say no to a cake if it is there, but won't bother making one for myself. I will for others tho. Like for my mum, her birthday is nextweek.. I'll be making a cake, tomorrow.

Also, I kind of would like to make more cakes, practise different kind ones, decorating it etc.. But, then it comes to that, who is going to eat it..
Few times I have made cakes for my friend' kids birthdays, but kids mostly want the cake for how it looks (last time it was butterfly/princess theme), they don't really like cakes that much, weird? (Also my friend' kids don't like cheese either, well, that is weird at least!) They eat little bit of the cake but candies takes the podium.

It feels like kids nowadays want just candy and chips, not just my friend' kids, but their friends as well.
When I was a kid, I loved cake on birhtdays, it was the best. Back then kids ate cake, even tho we had candy and such also.


And a plain whipped cream sponge cake with berries or fruits, is best for me. And it needs to be moist! I don't care for cake trends, nothing fancy either. I don't like super sweet cakes either, hence the berries not overly sweet jam in it.

I have never tried the US version of cakes.. So I cannot say what those are like. What is your regular birthday cake type like?

 

[Lanolin]

US version of cakes seem to be Pancakes.

They flip them in the air and put heaps of butter and maple syrup on them. Sometimes they are called hotcakes.
If you want a birthday cake size big enough to put candles on, you'd have to stack several pancakes on top of each other, and maybe put cream and jam in between layers.

At least that's what I believe USAsians do. They also have this place called IHOP which is International House Of Pancakes. Not to be confused with International House of Prayer.

 

[Billyd]

I had so many candles on my last birthday cake that we had to get a fire permit to light them.

 

[Lanolin]

Birthday coming up
If can't have mum's sponge cake, I'm hoping for pizza. Pizza cake.

It's round, can be sliced up and shared, and burned in oven, so no need for candles. Also if you drizzle bbq sauce on it, you can make the words Happy Birthday on it. Or make the letters out of pepperoni, Or cheese.

 

[Lanolin]

Still if you do want candles...

 

[Godsgirl1983]

Since you like to bake, what is your favorite cake to bake fo special occasions like birthdays?

Sorry, I forgot to get back to this right away.

I don't have a special go to for special occasions, just kind of depends on what the person being celebrated would like.
There's a brand WILTON that used to make character cake pans (I'm not sure if they still make the characters like this anymore or not) and I have a very large collection of them. I used to make those for b-days and special events. But between wanting to eliminate the sugars and dyes from our families diets, as well as the time it takes to decorate, I just don't have a desire to do them anymore.
I also used to free hand draw the designs with frosting and fill them in, which always made me laugh because when it comes to drawing/art I'm not good at that, but to do so on a cake I could.
This isn't a photo of my collection, just a good example I found on ebay. My collection blows this away.