The 60th birthday marks an important milestone in a person’s life. There is therefore hardly a better occasion to surprise the birthday boy or girl with a cake that is not only delicious but also special. Here you’ll find some great ideas.
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Turning 50 is sometimes called your ‘golden birthday’ and, ideally, signifies the start of a ‘golden’ age. It’s all about celebrating what you’ve achieved so far in life. Here you will find the best and most delicious ideas for a 50th birthday cake.
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Turning 40 is all about looking at your life and really evaluating who and where you are. It’s a time to reflect on your career, hobbies, friendships, and place in life. To congratulate in a wonderful way, you will find here 9 great cake ideas for a 40th birthday.
Turning 21 is a big step in every young adult’s life. It marks a defined leap out of childhood and into becoming a grown up. Whether you’re planning a 21st birthday fit for royalty or something a little more low key, our fun and unique cake ideas below offer something for everyone.
Whether it’s for your little toddler or an angsty teenager, birthday parties for girls are incomplete without a cake. Often, the birthday cake is the most crucial part of the celebration – so you really can’t afford to mess this one up. Here you will find 22 beautiful ideas for a girl’s birthday cake.
For your son’s upcoming birthday, don’t settle for anything less than the best boy’s birthday cake. We’ve got all the insights on what’s popular right now, and what will make his day truly special.
Is your partner, father, or brother’s birthday rapidly approaching, but you’re still lost for ideas in the creation of the perfect cake?
Birthdays are worth celebrating, especially for your special man. To help you make their birthday even better, we’ve explored 24 trendy birthday cake ideas for him – regardless of age.
It has been ages since I made a Princess Torte, actually many moons ago for a friend’s little princess 8th birthday. Although not difficult, it is a mini production of its own, the sort of cake that I could see the Daring Bakers attempt one month.
My life in Birmingham is nothing but a series of first. Fall. Winter. Friday nights. Weekends. Dinner with friends. Neighborhood. All a first. Living a long distance relationship with my husband. Definitely a first. Having one puppy at home as my companion. How we have come to rely on each other, the old pup and me. Another first. Which is quite nice knowing that at 16 years-old, he is giving me some precious last moments together.
Everything about settling here as been new and wonderful. I am exploring a lot on my own every chance I get. I have also started a little fun side notebook in which I jot down the places I want to discover as a first with Bill and not just on my own. They can be restaurants, parks, places…I just know him, and I know us, and I know how much more fun and meaningful it would be to do those as a couple.
Spring would definitely be one of the seasons I would want us to experience together here. But, we all know one cannot stop Mother Nature. It will be Summer before he moves here for good. I just have to find the right words, the most descriptive ones to tell him how gorgeous Birmingham is in the Spring. And it is. I know one can say "but it’s the South! You know the South!" Yes. But it is a completely different South. One with seasons, tornadoes instead of hurricanes. One with a different past. One with a different food culture.
A series of first everywhere and all the time…
The first time I turn my favorite sponge cake recipe into Lemon Cakelets With Vanilla Bean Cream. The first time I add deep rich and robust olive oil (from the family batch) to Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Creme.
And guess what…there will definitely be seconds…
I don’t think I could have enjoyed making these Apple Cinnamon And Walnut Cakes more than this weekend. Rainy and grey weather, still getting over a bad cold and terrible news about someone I loved just made me head out to the kitchen and cook, bake, stir and chop. I also went for a long run and ran until my lungs were about to explode. I needed to feel life in me. A tangible happenstance of something as fundamental as taking a breath in and letting a breath out. I had to get into the kitchen, open a cookbook and start a methodological way of going about my day.
Gather ingredients. Follow directions. Measure and stir. Step one would sway me one way. Step two another. I did not want to think. I did not want to guess. I just wanted comfort. Comfort in making a cake similar to the one my grandmother would make when I was little. Comfort in bringing extra cakes to the neighbors on Sunday morning.
Life has funny ways indeed. And for a few hours, I surrendered. I was too tired from thinking, speculating, wondering, being sad, being mad and feeling like a piece of my life of the past thirteen years had been wrongfully taken from me. When someone screams, I get quiet. When someone gets mad, I smirk. When someone decides to check out, deliberately, I check in. I know no other way to deal with loss and grief. And I bake. Or cook.
If you read food blogs, such as this one, I am pretty much reassured that you do the same thing when blue. So I am hoping that you understand when my dealing with uncomfortable moments, makes me reach for the comfort of a soft cake, filled with aromas of apples and cinnamon, the tender crunch of walnuts and crumbs sticking to your fingers. Comforting scents and textures. Like a warm blanket on a cold and rainy day. These cakes will cure many a broken heart, will stop many a falling tear and will become the kindest balm for your soul.
Take my word for it. You can find comfort in taking familiar recipes, childhood recipes, family-hand-me-down recipes and make them yours. I just feel better for reconnecting to the only normalcy I know. Being in the kitchen and making food for the people I love. In memory or not.
This post was written with one single person in mind. Here is to you Tim… With all my love and thirteen years of an honest and seamless friendship between a man and a woman who were just trying to make sense of this life we are in. And for the many cakes I made you sample while I was pastry chef-ing at Mistral’s back in the days… Miss you Mischief. Your Misconduct.