Metatalktails: birthday cake! July 13, 2024 11:49 PM Subscribe
It's Metafilter's birthday month, so let's celebrate the end of the week with cake!
Do you like cake? Do you not like cake? (I am open to discussing pies and other desserts!)
Have you eaten or baked amazing cakes? What is "birthday cake flavour" to you?
Or just feel free to let us know what's up with you this week (no politics thanks!)
Do you like cake? Do you not like cake? (I am open to discussing pies and other desserts!)
Have you eaten or baked amazing cakes? What is "birthday cake flavour" to you?
Or just feel free to let us know what's up with you this week (no politics thanks!)
I am absolutely obsessed with lemon cake at the moment! We have to order slices because a) there's just two of us, and we really shouldn't be eating whole delicious, delicious lemon cakes. Or should we?
Luckily there are a couple of places nearby that deliver and make divine lemon cake with perfect lemon icing. I'll probably order some today! 🍋🍰💖
Aside from lemon, I also especially love Red Velvet Cake (my birthday cake when growing up), Carrot Cake, and Gingerbread Cake.
(also, btw, this has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog! Happy Mefi Birthday, everyone!)
posted by taz (staff) at 1:35 AM on July 14 [8 favorites]
Luckily there are a couple of places nearby that deliver and make divine lemon cake with perfect lemon icing. I'll probably order some today! 🍋🍰💖
Aside from lemon, I also especially love Red Velvet Cake (my birthday cake when growing up), Carrot Cake, and Gingerbread Cake.
(also, btw, this has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog! Happy Mefi Birthday, everyone!)
posted by taz (staff) at 1:35 AM on July 14 [8 favorites]
I no longer eat desserts, but I'm happy to toast anyone here with a cup of gazpacho! Here in Spain you can simply go to the grocery store and pick up a bottle of ready-made, delicious, five-ingredient gazpacho. It's pretty cool.
Happy that Metafilter is still here. I started lurking around 2003 and gradually became more and more active. Much has changed about me, Metafilter, and the world in general, but I still visit the site several times a day.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 4:57 AM on July 14 [11 favorites]
Happy that Metafilter is still here. I started lurking around 2003 and gradually became more and more active. Much has changed about me, Metafilter, and the world in general, but I still visit the site several times a day.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 4:57 AM on July 14 [11 favorites]
We had dinner with some friends on Friday and they fed us Malaysian sponge cake with strawberries. Divine, absolutely divine.
posted by eirias at 5:28 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by eirias at 5:28 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
The only thing I request for my birthday each year is this cake*. Turtlegirl is kind enough to make it for me each year, even since she has had to go gluten-free. I thought eating a whole cake by myself would be a challenge, but it ends up it isn't. Judge me all you want.
* self-link
posted by terrapin at 5:35 AM on July 14 [5 favorites]
* self-link
posted by terrapin at 5:35 AM on July 14 [5 favorites]
I'm going to be making an angel food cake later today. To be served with fresh peaches and whipped cream.
posted by brookeb at 5:37 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by brookeb at 5:37 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
There are two concepts of birthday cake. One is the petit-fours from Boonzayers in Kalamazoo, with mocha butter cream frosting.
More deep seated, though, are the birthday cakes my mom made for me as a little kid. She was a gifted artist, and a pretty solid baker to boot. She would make a banana cake in a sheet pan, then cut in into a shape, cover it with frosting, and then paint it with food coloring. I had an R2D2 cake as a kid that was essentially like eating a photo. Another cake was a perfect green frog sitting on a lily pad over deep blue water. I have almost no memories of my life before five or so years old, but I distinctly remember those cakes, the sugar crunch creaminess of the frosting, and the depth of love (and hint of vanilla) that came from the soft, not too dense banana cake underneath. If I had it in me, I’d be passing a slice out to everyone who stops by this thread.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:38 AM on July 14 [10 favorites]
More deep seated, though, are the birthday cakes my mom made for me as a little kid. She was a gifted artist, and a pretty solid baker to boot. She would make a banana cake in a sheet pan, then cut in into a shape, cover it with frosting, and then paint it with food coloring. I had an R2D2 cake as a kid that was essentially like eating a photo. Another cake was a perfect green frog sitting on a lily pad over deep blue water. I have almost no memories of my life before five or so years old, but I distinctly remember those cakes, the sugar crunch creaminess of the frosting, and the depth of love (and hint of vanilla) that came from the soft, not too dense banana cake underneath. If I had it in me, I’d be passing a slice out to everyone who stops by this thread.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:38 AM on July 14 [10 favorites]
Black Forest Cake. yum. Happy Birthday Mefi!
posted by bluesky43 at 6:59 AM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by bluesky43 at 6:59 AM on July 14 [1 favorite]
I'm more of a pie person, or some kind of dessert involving fruit, but I'm not one to turn down a slice of cake. Cake is, generally speaking, a better delivery vehicle for chocolate than pie, though.
I do like a slice of lemon loaf. Or seed cake, but around here that's something you have to make yourself. Or angel food cake with strawberries and cream.
The Hollywood Brown Derby grapefruit cake is pretty tasty, even if you're not normally a fan of grapefruit.
posted by jedicus at 7:00 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]
I do like a slice of lemon loaf. Or seed cake, but around here that's something you have to make yourself. Or angel food cake with strawberries and cream.
The Hollywood Brown Derby grapefruit cake is pretty tasty, even if you're not normally a fan of grapefruit.
posted by jedicus at 7:00 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]
Cakes eaten so far this summer, here in rural Worcestershire (picture album to date), include:
- An excellent coffee and walnut cake, at the summer fete of a private school.
- A rectangular slice of a pie-like double lemon cake, at a loud and busy school summer fair.
- A three sponge vegan cake, at a Druid camp (meet-up).
- A Victoria sponge variation, having a Biscotti topping and an apricot jam filling, eaten in a yurt.
- A regular Victoria sponge cake, consumed at a church fayre where most of the games were in the graveyard.
- (unpictured) A toffee and almond cake (messy) held in the cleavage of a bodypainted firedancer during a Pagan ritual.
- A splendid dark chocolate cinnamon bun, consumed in a cafe where I hold some meetings.
posted by Wordshore at 7:01 AM on July 14 [14 favorites]
- An excellent coffee and walnut cake, at the summer fete of a private school.
- A rectangular slice of a pie-like double lemon cake, at a loud and busy school summer fair.
- A three sponge vegan cake, at a Druid camp (meet-up).
- A Victoria sponge variation, having a Biscotti topping and an apricot jam filling, eaten in a yurt.
- A regular Victoria sponge cake, consumed at a church fayre where most of the games were in the graveyard.
- (unpictured) A toffee and almond cake (messy) held in the cleavage of a bodypainted firedancer during a Pagan ritual.
- A splendid dark chocolate cinnamon bun, consumed in a cafe where I hold some meetings.
posted by Wordshore at 7:01 AM on July 14 [14 favorites]
My mom sometimes got us Baskin-Robbins ice cream cakes.
posted by NotLost at 7:42 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by NotLost at 7:42 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
I’ve made this Dream Cake from the King Arthur site three times in the last month. Super easy and always perfect. It’s not a whipped creamy kind of thing, the whipped cream serves as the base for the batter. But what makes it is the crispy coconut/brown sugar caramel top.
posted by chococat at 7:57 AM on July 14 [5 favorites]
posted by chococat at 7:57 AM on July 14 [5 favorites]
That sounds amazing. King Arthur is right up the road from me! I love cake. I don't eat cake nearly enough. Birthday cake for me usually has some sort of coconut in it. I'm trying to remember where I had my best recent cake which was some sort of lemon-y sponge with raspberry filling in it... it was divine. Happy birthday/anniversary. I love you nerds.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:30 AM on July 14 [11 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:30 AM on July 14 [11 favorites]
I think of myself as a cake sort of person. I even bought some cake forks the other day. I don't actually get to eat really good cake anywhere near as often as I'd like, which has a lot to do with how picky I am about what constitutes really good cake. But given the opportunity, I would make cake a regular part of my day.
I still mourn the loss of various excellent loaf cakes that could, at one time or another, be bought from one supermarket or another; everything on offer now seems lacklustre. In particular, back in the '90s and early '00s, there was a truly splendid lemon cake sold by the Co-op and made by a company with a Dutch name. Van de Graaf? De Groot? I can find no trace of it on the internet. I miss it.
Once, just once, I happened upon a perfect slice of chocolate fudge cake on the sandwich shelves in Marks & Spencer. M&S doesn't sell chocolate fudge cake by the slice, and yet, there it was. Mystifying. Delicious. Never to be seen again.
Anyway. A birthday cake? It's a two-layer sponge cake, probably chocolate but maybe coffee or lemon, with buttercream icing and some sort of decorations on the top. Chocolate dinosaurs? Jelly diamonds? Perhaps not the shiny but perilously hard silver balls, now that my milk teeth are a distant memory.
As for baking amazing cakes... Now that I no longer work in an office, baking a cake means eating the whole thing myself, which is a bit of a commitment. Nevertheless, I've made this chocolate orange olive oil cake a few times over the past couple of years, and will be doing so again next weekend. It's very easy, and just absurdly good.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:40 AM on July 14 [6 favorites]
I still mourn the loss of various excellent loaf cakes that could, at one time or another, be bought from one supermarket or another; everything on offer now seems lacklustre. In particular, back in the '90s and early '00s, there was a truly splendid lemon cake sold by the Co-op and made by a company with a Dutch name. Van de Graaf? De Groot? I can find no trace of it on the internet. I miss it.
Once, just once, I happened upon a perfect slice of chocolate fudge cake on the sandwich shelves in Marks & Spencer. M&S doesn't sell chocolate fudge cake by the slice, and yet, there it was. Mystifying. Delicious. Never to be seen again.
Anyway. A birthday cake? It's a two-layer sponge cake, probably chocolate but maybe coffee or lemon, with buttercream icing and some sort of decorations on the top. Chocolate dinosaurs? Jelly diamonds? Perhaps not the shiny but perilously hard silver balls, now that my milk teeth are a distant memory.
As for baking amazing cakes... Now that I no longer work in an office, baking a cake means eating the whole thing myself, which is a bit of a commitment. Nevertheless, I've made this chocolate orange olive oil cake a few times over the past couple of years, and will be doing so again next weekend. It's very easy, and just absurdly good.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:40 AM on July 14 [6 favorites]
My kid turns 19 today and they asked for a specific ice cream cake so Dairy Queen is doing the honors. I'm still just making sandwiches. I just crossed the 100th sandwich mark so that was kind of noteworthy.
posted by Stanczyk at 9:18 AM on July 14 [6 favorites]
posted by Stanczyk at 9:18 AM on July 14 [6 favorites]
I hope the cake is not a lie
posted by skippyhacker at 9:46 AM on July 14 [5 favorites]
posted by skippyhacker at 9:46 AM on July 14 [5 favorites]
I’m gluten and dairy free so my cake experience varies but I had an excellent chocolate cake made by my mum for my birthday in June!
posted by ellieBOA at 9:47 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by ellieBOA at 9:47 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
Trader Joe's now has tres leches cake in their frozen dessert section.
I had half last night, and the other half this morning for breakfast.
Tomorrow, I'll have a tough two-hour swim workout.
It's all good.
posted by jgirl at 10:13 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]
I had half last night, and the other half this morning for breakfast.
Tomorrow, I'll have a tough two-hour swim workout.
It's all good.
posted by jgirl at 10:13 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]
My birthday is approaching toward the end of July and I'm thinking of requesting a carrot cake from Lloyd's Carrot Cake (outposts in the Bronx (Riverdale) and East Harlem for those of you nearby enough to take advantage of the recommendation). They have carrot cake with nuts&raisins or carrot cake without nuts&raisins.
If you've ever been an NYC-area cross-country runner, and you've ever run a race in Van Cortlandt Park, Lloyd's is the cake place across Broadway from the Tortoise and Hare statue.
When my husband and I got married we just bought small, medium and large carrot cakes from Lloyd's. They're delicious and have the right ratio of richness:sweetness and deliciously understated cream cheese frosting.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:33 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
If you've ever been an NYC-area cross-country runner, and you've ever run a race in Van Cortlandt Park, Lloyd's is the cake place across Broadway from the Tortoise and Hare statue.
When my husband and I got married we just bought small, medium and large carrot cakes from Lloyd's. They're delicious and have the right ratio of richness:sweetness and deliciously understated cream cheese frosting.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:33 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
I'm not a cake person in general, but I can get behind around a good carrot cake.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:00 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:00 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
All cake is fine (except the carrot cake: somebody else, please - help yourself) and the flavor of birthday cake is of course chocolate.
posted by Rash at 11:06 AM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 11:06 AM on July 14 [1 favorite]
We are eating pineapple upside down cake today (ostensibly for my father-in-law’s birthday). My only regret is that I forgot to put on my Metafilter shirt. Oh well.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:32 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by caution live frogs at 11:32 AM on July 14 [2 favorites]
All my birthday cakes growing up and all my kids' birthday cakes were 2-layer chocolate cakes made using a recipe my mom got from her aunt. With chocolate icing, of course. My mom usually used store-bought icing and put pretty colored icing decorations and writing on top. I make the icing myself but don't add any decorative touches. This cake is wonderful - moist, delicious, and not overly sweet because I make the icing myself and don't make it overly sweet. I've posted the recipe before - here's a link.
I think of myself as a cake lover because when I think of cake I picture that birthday cake, or maybe a nice Texas sheet cake. But the reality is that about 90% of cake I don't make myself is not even worth eating. The last cake I made was a Texas sheet cake using this recipe from the NY Times (my apologies if you can't access it.) I left out the pecans. It was wonderful, but for some reason my kids are convinced sheet cakes are bad and I don't think either of them even tried any.
posted by Redstart at 11:36 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]
I think of myself as a cake lover because when I think of cake I picture that birthday cake, or maybe a nice Texas sheet cake. But the reality is that about 90% of cake I don't make myself is not even worth eating. The last cake I made was a Texas sheet cake using this recipe from the NY Times (my apologies if you can't access it.) I left out the pecans. It was wonderful, but for some reason my kids are convinced sheet cakes are bad and I don't think either of them even tried any.
posted by Redstart at 11:36 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]
I am on Team Cake.
I like most cake, but there's a lot of Bad Icing. easily removed. great, now I want cake.
We love you, too, jessamyn!
posted by theora55 at 1:25 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
I like most cake, but there's a lot of Bad Icing. easily removed. great, now I want cake.
We love you, too, jessamyn!
posted by theora55 at 1:25 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
birthday cake is plain sponge cake with plain unflavoured, uncoloured icing, thank you.
posted by scruss at 2:05 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
posted by scruss at 2:05 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
Cake is the only True Dessert, and then only chocolate cake in its purest forms or a plain "vanilla" white cake with some sort of sweet icing. Leave your blasphemous fruit and vegetables out of the sacred food, please, at least if I'm invited to have a slice. That includes any jam between layers or other failures to appreciate what cake is meant to be. And cake is served room temperature or even cold, but never hot, so no "volcano" cakes or hot sauces (if we had been meant to eat liquid chocolate we'd live in ovens, or Texas, or somewhere equally improbable).
Growing up, my mom made a "sour cream chocolate cake" which was divine. No idea on the specifics of the recipe, not being a food prep person, but the cake was moist and very slightly dense without being a brick, tasting only of chocolate--but not too sweet--and the icing was again chocolate but not overly fluffy nor a resinous glaze. Yum.
The biggest cake disappointments of my life have been when handed what looks like plain vanilla cake and have it turn out to be lemon flavored, or ordering "chocolate cake" and finding out someone has desecrated it with raspberry filling and/or (gods forbid) coconut.
As you can guess, I'm a "good plain food" type of person in general and don't understand when someone cannot enjoy something without making it complicated and/or "sophisticated". (I'm boring, in other words.)
posted by maxwelton at 2:18 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]
Growing up, my mom made a "sour cream chocolate cake" which was divine. No idea on the specifics of the recipe, not being a food prep person, but the cake was moist and very slightly dense without being a brick, tasting only of chocolate--but not too sweet--and the icing was again chocolate but not overly fluffy nor a resinous glaze. Yum.
The biggest cake disappointments of my life have been when handed what looks like plain vanilla cake and have it turn out to be lemon flavored, or ordering "chocolate cake" and finding out someone has desecrated it with raspberry filling and/or (gods forbid) coconut.
As you can guess, I'm a "good plain food" type of person in general and don't understand when someone cannot enjoy something without making it complicated and/or "sophisticated". (I'm boring, in other words.)
posted by maxwelton at 2:18 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]
We must take a moment, even in 2024, to appreciate the humble Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.
posted by kensington314 at 2:48 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by kensington314 at 2:48 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
Growing up, for me birthday cake was absolutely Hershey's syrup cake (see the notes on this blog about whether you can also use the syrup from the can or if the squeeze bottle is okay (it is not)). Actually, my birthday is Christmas Day and so I'm usually with my family and so that is still usually my birthday cake.
For my spouse's birthday and other current holidays here in Atlanta, our birthday cake is the Vegan Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake from Southern Sweets Bakery in Scottdale. I don't know why more Atlantans don't know about this place in the back of an industrial park across the street from Your DeKalb Farmer's Market, but their cakes (vegan and not) are absolutely amazing. I know lots of folks here just always go to Piece of Cake or just want another fucking Publix sheetcake, but y'all are missing out.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:37 PM on July 14 [6 favorites]
For my spouse's birthday and other current holidays here in Atlanta, our birthday cake is the Vegan Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake from Southern Sweets Bakery in Scottdale. I don't know why more Atlantans don't know about this place in the back of an industrial park across the street from Your DeKalb Farmer's Market, but their cakes (vegan and not) are absolutely amazing. I know lots of folks here just always go to Piece of Cake or just want another fucking Publix sheetcake, but y'all are missing out.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:37 PM on July 14 [6 favorites]
My mum has the same Women's Weekly cake book so I had a different one each year, inclusing the swimming pool cake. Any cake that doesn't involve marzipan is fine by me! Well, except for the 'chocolate surprise' cake mum tried on us once - the surprise was that it included a tin of tomato soup! Bloody horrible.
Happy birthday metafilter! Thanks.
posted by goo at 3:39 PM on July 14 [5 favorites]
Happy birthday metafilter! Thanks.
posted by goo at 3:39 PM on July 14 [5 favorites]
My birthday cake of choice went from angel food cake to strawberry topped cheesecake over the years. And now I'd rather have lemon bars than a cake at all.
I am fascinated by this swimming pool cake though, and might make one for my next work potluck. The work potluck is the perfect venue for the fascinating dish I'm quite sure I don't want to eat the entirety of.
posted by the primroses were over at 3:41 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
I am fascinated by this swimming pool cake though, and might make one for my next work potluck. The work potluck is the perfect venue for the fascinating dish I'm quite sure I don't want to eat the entirety of.
posted by the primroses were over at 3:41 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
This seems like the place to workshop my "lemon or chocolate" theory, the theory being that nearly everyone prefers either lemon or chocolate cake. Based on completely unscientific exit polls of people who eat cake, most (>85%) prefer either lemon or chocolate, with (from my estimates) a 60/40 split towards chocolate. Carrot accounts for a significant but minority opinion of ~5%. Regional or strawberry cakes account for most of the rest, but even among those they will migrate to the chocolate or lemon dichotomy if denied their preferred slice. There is no reliable predictor if a carrot person will break toward chocolate or lemon upon duress.
There’s also a rare but countable number of people who will eat EITHER, with no preference given. "Cake is cake" I was told. Popular opinion with schoolkids and overworked people.
Cheesecake people remain uncounted in my impromptu surveys.
posted by fiercekitten at 4:53 PM on July 14 [7 favorites]
There’s also a rare but countable number of people who will eat EITHER, with no preference given. "Cake is cake" I was told. Popular opinion with schoolkids and overworked people.
Cheesecake people remain uncounted in my impromptu surveys.
posted by fiercekitten at 4:53 PM on July 14 [7 favorites]
I like cake, especially a great cheesecake. Unfortunately, great cheesecakes are few and far between so I've mostly stopped buying them for fear of once more being dissapointed.
posted by dg at 5:03 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by dg at 5:03 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
This is just to say I ate the cake that was in the fridge. I was saving it for today. Please don't judge. It was so frosting and much fluffy.
That is all.
posted by not_on_display at 5:55 PM on July 14 [8 favorites]
That is all.
posted by not_on_display at 5:55 PM on July 14 [8 favorites]
Most of my birthday cake memories are of my mom baking a duncan hines strawberry cake, in the heart-shaped pan. [feb. birthday]
Back in the day, it would take my mom about 5 hours to make a cake-- having four kids will do that to you!!
I also recall the 'fourth of july' flag cake she tried to make...the food coloring was off and ended up the vaguely mint/avocado green of the kitchen wall paint.
It isn't surprising that she preferred pies for her birthday dessert.
RIP Mom! Love Ya!
posted by calgirl at 6:05 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
Back in the day, it would take my mom about 5 hours to make a cake-- having four kids will do that to you!!
I also recall the 'fourth of july' flag cake she tried to make...the food coloring was off and ended up the vaguely mint/avocado green of the kitchen wall paint.
It isn't surprising that she preferred pies for her birthday dessert.
RIP Mom! Love Ya!
posted by calgirl at 6:05 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]
No cake here, but there were nice cupcakes today for my daughter's much-belated 16th birthday party. (And by "party" I mean a bunch of teens sitting around in the back yard, pinned to chairs by the suffocating humidity & heat -- though they certainly perked up for ice cream!)
Tomorrow morning I will make a loaf of zucchini bread; perhaps I'll arrange chocolate chips to spell out "25" on the top in MeFi's honor!
posted by wenestvedt at 6:19 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
Tomorrow morning I will make a loaf of zucchini bread; perhaps I'll arrange chocolate chips to spell out "25" on the top in MeFi's honor!
posted by wenestvedt at 6:19 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
Years ago, on a big birthday, my work family made me a special cake. I was on a low carb diet at the time, so they stacked sliced deli meat packages into a cake shape and frosted it with spray-can cheese. It was glorious.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:55 PM on July 14 [4 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:55 PM on July 14 [4 favorites]
A block away from my office there's a bakery which does a watermelon strawberry cake. It's fine, honestly, as cakes go. The bakery has become a huge Instagram location, though, and all day there are people on the footpath photographing themselves, with or without the watermelon cake.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:00 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:00 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
Lemon vs chocolate: I will happily eat either but my choice under no constraints is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. That’s rarely on the menu, though.
posted by eirias at 7:14 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by eirias at 7:14 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
Lemon and Chocolate: Why not both? My mother used to frost her brownies with a delicious lemon topping.
posted by Rash at 7:45 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Rash at 7:45 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]
Happy Happy!
posted by OmieWise at 8:10 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]
posted by OmieWise at 8:10 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]
Chocolate cake with chocolate cream filling between layers, and chocolate frosting!
posted by billsaysthis at 11:06 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
posted by billsaysthis at 11:06 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]
I made Raymond Blanc's lemon cake for my father's eightieth birthday yesterday. I do not understand why the recipe has two layers of glaze. Cake was ok, a bit one note, but I left out the rum as I had none, so maybe that was the problem. I also took brownies made from Ghirardelli mix. Uptake was four-sixths cake, two-sixths brownies, but we didn't give my father a choice so that may have skewed the data.
posted by paduasoy at 12:49 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]
posted by paduasoy at 12:49 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]
Is this the voting site? Because they are all good cakes, even the weird ones (although the "surprise" meat and spray-can cheese entry is disturbing).
My husband likes the cake his mom makes for birthdays, a German chocolate cake with homemade coconut pecan frosting.
My mom always made chocolate/chocolate.
I like some version of the layered refrigerator cake -- a sheet cake topped with pudding, then fruit (drain if canned), then whipped cream, and finally some sort of decorations.
The chocolate version can eliminate the fruit layer.
White or yellow cake - vanilla or banana pudding - sliced banana - whipped cream - coconut or crushed nilla wafers
posted by TrishaU at 2:41 AM on July 15 [3 favorites]
My husband likes the cake his mom makes for birthdays, a German chocolate cake with homemade coconut pecan frosting.
My mom always made chocolate/chocolate.
I like some version of the layered refrigerator cake -- a sheet cake topped with pudding, then fruit (drain if canned), then whipped cream, and finally some sort of decorations.
The chocolate version can eliminate the fruit layer.
White or yellow cake - vanilla or banana pudding - sliced banana - whipped cream - coconut or crushed nilla wafers
posted by TrishaU at 2:41 AM on July 15 [3 favorites]
Strawberries have been cheap and delicious in our neck of the woods recently, and so my wife requested a strawberry cake a couple of weeks back. None of the recipes I was seeing were quite what she'd envisioned so I ended up doing something I've never done before: I made up a baked good. Standard two layer yellow cake with pastry cream and a homemade strawberry compote in between the layers, frosted with strawberry whipped cream and topped with tons of berries and a bit more compote. It was glorious.
posted by saladin at 3:56 AM on July 15 [9 favorites]
posted by saladin at 3:56 AM on July 15 [9 favorites]
As my BiL dryly observes at birthdays among the family we both married into: "Ah, the bold flavor of white cake."
posted by wenestvedt at 6:25 AM on July 15 [4 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 6:25 AM on July 15 [4 favorites]
We have come to call it "the birthday cake" although it's just a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. No other birthday cakes shall come before it.
I am now in search of a proper lemon bundt cake recipe.
posted by majick at 6:32 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]
I am now in search of a proper lemon bundt cake recipe.
posted by majick at 6:32 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]
My cake history is complicated. Despite being a candy monster kid, I really hated my family's traditional angel food cake with 7 minute frosting (Italian meringue) and evil horrible frozen crystal homemade ice cream but it was never creamy and it was so sweet on top of that cake. Waste of perfectly lovely seasonal strawberries, and one time I got my wish and had pie for my June birthday. Cooking professionally means that a lot of people think I like to make wedding cakes, which I don't; my piping skills are atrocious, chocolate cake and frosting never taste like chocolate actually, if I could stack deep fried ranch dressing in cake form that would be swell.
But...there is this long slow cycle I go through, where I start thinking about cake one day, flavors, looking at interesting books, noticing what's in season, and so I start to plan some occasion to make a big cake production. It's about ten years for this cycle; the last time was for father's day for my father in law, we had epic hangovers and I worked very slowly all day to make schwarzwalder kirschtorte from scratch. It was fantastic, light, melt in the mouth, full of flavor (and cherry bounce + cherries, the hangover source). Before that, a wedding cake for a dear friend (my last wedding cake, but they were a dear friend and had an extra fridge) of a honey cinnamon genoise with mango cream filling and honey whipped cream decorated with pineapple flowers and candied jalapenos that I burned my hands cutting up because I stayed up all night cutting them without gloves. The ER tech had never treated someone with capsaicin poisoning before. That was a good cake, though, for a very hot day. So now it's about ten years since and my partner has decided they'd like to have a party for their birthday this year, and we're talking about cake. I could do that black forest cake again, easier (no hangover this time) but I'm thinking about all the lovely seasonal fruit right now. And then I think about marjolaine, which isn't cake but it's put together like cake and is sufficiently complicated to qualify, and is really good. Or Sicilian cassata, or tres leches but maybe mocha? Or that one time I made a really big elaborate coconut cake that is kind of a combination of tres leches and cassata. Hmmmmm.
Shoutout to EmpressCallipygos for mentioning an interesting cookbook, Gateau the Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes.
posted by winesong at 10:10 AM on July 15 [5 favorites]
But...there is this long slow cycle I go through, where I start thinking about cake one day, flavors, looking at interesting books, noticing what's in season, and so I start to plan some occasion to make a big cake production. It's about ten years for this cycle; the last time was for father's day for my father in law, we had epic hangovers and I worked very slowly all day to make schwarzwalder kirschtorte from scratch. It was fantastic, light, melt in the mouth, full of flavor (and cherry bounce + cherries, the hangover source). Before that, a wedding cake for a dear friend (my last wedding cake, but they were a dear friend and had an extra fridge) of a honey cinnamon genoise with mango cream filling and honey whipped cream decorated with pineapple flowers and candied jalapenos that I burned my hands cutting up because I stayed up all night cutting them without gloves. The ER tech had never treated someone with capsaicin poisoning before. That was a good cake, though, for a very hot day. So now it's about ten years since and my partner has decided they'd like to have a party for their birthday this year, and we're talking about cake. I could do that black forest cake again, easier (no hangover this time) but I'm thinking about all the lovely seasonal fruit right now. And then I think about marjolaine, which isn't cake but it's put together like cake and is sufficiently complicated to qualify, and is really good. Or Sicilian cassata, or tres leches but maybe mocha? Or that one time I made a really big elaborate coconut cake that is kind of a combination of tres leches and cassata. Hmmmmm.
Shoutout to EmpressCallipygos for mentioning an interesting cookbook, Gateau the Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes.
posted by winesong at 10:10 AM on July 15 [5 favorites]
Here's the cake I made for Seattle's MetaFilter 25th anniversary BBQ. I used this WaPo Vanilla Sheet Cake recipe, the icing with lemon zest instead of freeze-dried strawberry, and my best approximation of MeFi blue with blue food coloring with a touch of cocoa. For the letters I cut out a template with 450 point Helvetica Neue and used color mist food spray.
posted by ShooBoo at 10:24 AM on July 15 [8 favorites]
posted by ShooBoo at 10:24 AM on July 15 [8 favorites]
Today is the 3rd Birthday of Best (and only) Granddaughter. She is having store bought vegan strawberry cheeze cake for her birthday, her favorite (egg allergy / vegan uncle for the win.) She is also having a party at the park playground starting at 5ish which means she is coming to my office at 3, where she will receive this birthday gift from Mum-mum, who is me - look, I was trying for Grandmama, which I felt had heft and solemnity to it but I ended up with Mum-mum, which frankly is better - then walk over to IT, where they have a corgi puppy, and be made much of by many adults.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:03 AM on July 15 [7 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:03 AM on July 15 [7 favorites]
Wow, a post just for me!
Re: lemon vs. chocolate, I like both equally, but I can tolerate a mediocre chocolate cake, whereas a mediocre lemon cake fills me with despair. But maybe this means that I actually do prefer lemon cake and that's why I take it so personally when it isn't very good?
Also in my expert opinion birthday cake is either yellow cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles or rainbow chip cupcakes with rainbow chip frosting and reynolds foil cupcake cups. The rainbow is important.
posted by birthday cake at 11:29 AM on July 15 [3 favorites]
Re: lemon vs. chocolate, I like both equally, but I can tolerate a mediocre chocolate cake, whereas a mediocre lemon cake fills me with despair. But maybe this means that I actually do prefer lemon cake and that's why I take it so personally when it isn't very good?
Also in my expert opinion birthday cake is either yellow cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles or rainbow chip cupcakes with rainbow chip frosting and reynolds foil cupcake cups. The rainbow is important.
posted by birthday cake at 11:29 AM on July 15 [3 favorites]
A block away from my office there's a bakery which does a watermelon strawberry cake.
I was introduced to this cake this year when an Aussie friend here in Vancouver made it.
One of my all time favourite cakes is this chocolate cake with cream cheese and Bailey's icing from Restaurant Gus in Montreal. So good.
posted by praiseb at 3:21 PM on July 15 [1 favorite]
I was introduced to this cake this year when an Aussie friend here in Vancouver made it.
One of my all time favourite cakes is this chocolate cake with cream cheese and Bailey's icing from Restaurant Gus in Montreal. So good.
posted by praiseb at 3:21 PM on July 15 [1 favorite]
We have to order slices because a) there's just two of us, and we really shouldn't be eating whole delicious, delicious lemon cakes. Or should we?
I got around this problem recently by purchasing a 4-inch cake pan.
The cookie is my usual baking art form, but my partner's birthday was in June and I wanted to make him a cake. So I got a set of 4-inch steel cake tins, and a pack of parchment discs to fit them.
Having made some discreet enquiries, I gathered that a Victoria sponge would be most desirable. I followed this recipe, but divided the recipe into 2 tins rather than bisect one cake. Between the layers, instead of jam, I used fresh strawberries, halved and tossed with powdered sugar and lemon juice. The vanilla whipped cream held things together nicely.
(Some people make Victoria sponges with buttercream frosting and jam in the centre; this is perfectly valid but I prefer whipped cream and fresh strawberries).
It turned out nicely! I haven't made any more cakes since then, but I would definitely like more recipes that would suit my 4-inch tins, if any of you happen to have a favourite?
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:52 PM on July 15 [5 favorites]
I got around this problem recently by purchasing a 4-inch cake pan.
The cookie is my usual baking art form, but my partner's birthday was in June and I wanted to make him a cake. So I got a set of 4-inch steel cake tins, and a pack of parchment discs to fit them.
Having made some discreet enquiries, I gathered that a Victoria sponge would be most desirable. I followed this recipe, but divided the recipe into 2 tins rather than bisect one cake. Between the layers, instead of jam, I used fresh strawberries, halved and tossed with powdered sugar and lemon juice. The vanilla whipped cream held things together nicely.
(Some people make Victoria sponges with buttercream frosting and jam in the centre; this is perfectly valid but I prefer whipped cream and fresh strawberries).
It turned out nicely! I haven't made any more cakes since then, but I would definitely like more recipes that would suit my 4-inch tins, if any of you happen to have a favourite?
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:52 PM on July 15 [5 favorites]
I am now in search of a proper lemon bundt cake recipe.
majick, may I suggest the stellar Lemon Bliss Bundt cake from King Arthur Baking? It's become one of my most-made cakes. Personally now I only make it with the glaze, not the icing, but it's great both ways.
posted by rachaelfaith at 6:15 PM on July 15 [2 favorites]
majick, may I suggest the stellar Lemon Bliss Bundt cake from King Arthur Baking? It's become one of my most-made cakes. Personally now I only make it with the glaze, not the icing, but it's great both ways.
posted by rachaelfaith at 6:15 PM on July 15 [2 favorites]
To celebrate the end of The Bad Year, I ordered a sheet cake from Costco decorated with "Go to Hell, 2020!" on it and porch-dropped slices (okay, slabs) to friends and neighbors and it was one of my favorite things.
Yes, it's mostly doom but you can also have a slice of cake to dull the misery for just a little bit.
HBD, MeFi - your monkey looks/smells never bothered me much.
posted by Twicketface at 7:44 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]
Yes, it's mostly doom but you can also have a slice of cake to dull the misery for just a little bit.
HBD, MeFi - your monkey looks/smells never bothered me much.
posted by Twicketface at 7:44 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]
Happy birthday, MeFi! You're looking swell.
I recently made this Mango Cake from Nik Sharma for my daughter's birthday. It took three days and was pretty much totally worth it.
posted by 40 Watt at 10:30 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]
I recently made this Mango Cake from Nik Sharma for my daughter's birthday. It took three days and was pretty much totally worth it.
posted by 40 Watt at 10:30 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]
The best cake I know how to make is the chocolate chiffon cake from Joy of Cooking. (I've at least once both taken this cake on a plane, and biked with it; it's not the weirdest item I've taken as carryon but it is the tastiest).
Joy's angel food cake is also pretty good (and leads to pie, because you have to use up the leftover egg yolks somehow).
For people who really do like grapefruit, the pie can be grapefruit pie. Take a key lime recipe, replace 1-1 with grapefruit instead (for the juice and the zest). Bonus, takes only one grapefruit, as opposed to untold numbers of limes. Stupid tiny limes. Delicious grapefruit (but, stupid also, for having so many random drug interactions due to some odd enzymes.. my celebration of getting off one such drug was indeed a pile of grapefruit).
I'm excited to try the grapefruit cake mentioned above, but this grapefruit yogurt bundt cake, which I'm sure I found via a mefi comment, is also quite tasty and relatively easy to make.
Happy Bday mefi, and thanks for feeding my baking habit with new recipes for so many years.
posted by nat at 11:00 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]
Joy's angel food cake is also pretty good (and leads to pie, because you have to use up the leftover egg yolks somehow).
For people who really do like grapefruit, the pie can be grapefruit pie. Take a key lime recipe, replace 1-1 with grapefruit instead (for the juice and the zest). Bonus, takes only one grapefruit, as opposed to untold numbers of limes. Stupid tiny limes. Delicious grapefruit (but, stupid also, for having so many random drug interactions due to some odd enzymes.. my celebration of getting off one such drug was indeed a pile of grapefruit).
I'm excited to try the grapefruit cake mentioned above, but this grapefruit yogurt bundt cake, which I'm sure I found via a mefi comment, is also quite tasty and relatively easy to make.
Happy Bday mefi, and thanks for feeding my baking habit with new recipes for so many years.
posted by nat at 11:00 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]
It takes special ingredients, supplies, and time, but I love Milk Bar's Birthday Cake for a special occasion.
posted by sugarbomb at 1:15 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]
posted by sugarbomb at 1:15 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]
Happy Birthday Mefi Community!
Every year I get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for my birthday. Husband calls it "the Walmart of cakes" but I love it.
posted by Kangaroo at 3:32 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]
Every year I get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for my birthday. Husband calls it "the Walmart of cakes" but I love it.
posted by Kangaroo at 3:32 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]
Can we wear party hats?
Always, at any time! The cops can't stop you - there's no law on the books prohibiting it! Fight the power!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:30 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]
Always, at any time! The cops can't stop you - there's no law on the books prohibiting it! Fight the power!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:30 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]
For our new year's party a couple years back I made a pink champagne layer cake with champagne gelee filling and swiss buttercream, and I am very hard on my bakes but I enjoyed the shit outta that cake.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:12 AM on July 17 [3 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:12 AM on July 17 [3 favorites]
After reading this thread, three cakes from my life came to mind. In reverse chronological order:
1. A Middle Eastern restaurant made a mistake with my takeout order, and as an apology/goodwill gesture, gave me a slice of some kind of orange-flavored, very moist cake, that was unbelievably luscious.
2. I made a fruit mousse cake. The kind where the top layer is gelatin mixed with fruit juice, to give it some color and flavor, with sliced fruit submerged in the gelatin. A very beautiful and dramatic look. Everyone oohed and aahed when I placed it on the table and removed the springform pan it had been chilling/setting up in. We gazed in adoration at this delectable treat, mouths watering in anticipation. Which turned to consternation as the cake, in v-e-r-y slow motion, started slumping, and kept slumping; spreading out over the edges of the pan base and onto the table. Ah, the perils of not enough gelatin! (This moment will be deeply etched into my entire being for the rest of my life.) Coming to my senses and ignoring my dismay, I rapidly started scooping up the cake onto plates. At that point it looked a disaster, but it was delicious.
3. My wedding cake was spirit-infused (I don't recall what kind of alcohol was used), and had a thin layer of buttercream covered with marzipan "frosting". It was addictively ambrosial. I'm not sure I ate much else during my honeymoon.
posted by concinnity at 6:22 AM on July 18 [2 favorites]
1. A Middle Eastern restaurant made a mistake with my takeout order, and as an apology/goodwill gesture, gave me a slice of some kind of orange-flavored, very moist cake, that was unbelievably luscious.
2. I made a fruit mousse cake. The kind where the top layer is gelatin mixed with fruit juice, to give it some color and flavor, with sliced fruit submerged in the gelatin. A very beautiful and dramatic look. Everyone oohed and aahed when I placed it on the table and removed the springform pan it had been chilling/setting up in. We gazed in adoration at this delectable treat, mouths watering in anticipation. Which turned to consternation as the cake, in v-e-r-y slow motion, started slumping, and kept slumping; spreading out over the edges of the pan base and onto the table. Ah, the perils of not enough gelatin! (This moment will be deeply etched into my entire being for the rest of my life.) Coming to my senses and ignoring my dismay, I rapidly started scooping up the cake onto plates. At that point it looked a disaster, but it was delicious.
3. My wedding cake was spirit-infused (I don't recall what kind of alcohol was used), and had a thin layer of buttercream covered with marzipan "frosting". It was addictively ambrosial. I'm not sure I ate much else during my honeymoon.
posted by concinnity at 6:22 AM on July 18 [2 favorites]
Marble Supreme Bundt Cake. Sander's Bumpy Cake. [FX: dons party hat]
posted by user92371 at 10:50 AM on July 18 [1 favorite]
posted by user92371 at 10:50 AM on July 18 [1 favorite]
It's too hot to make cake, but y'all have had me thinking about cake all week, so instead I now have ridiculously good vegan chocolate pie in the freezer right now.
posted by hydropsyche at 12:45 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 12:45 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]
I think you could make a feature of slumping cakes, concinnity: a mini happening thing, like those desserts where the hot sauce melts the chocolate sphere.
You’d need a bigger dish, of course.
posted by Phanx at 8:19 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]
You’d need a bigger dish, of course.
posted by Phanx at 8:19 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]
So, I've got a pretty good story for you all.
The bomb squad just left.
So, I'm working in my garage office when my wife and kid walk in and my wife asks me what I know about picric acid. Like you, probably, I know nothing. She tells me that picric acid was used in WWII as a disinfectant and wound dressing, especially effective on burns, but it was also used as an explosive. And over time, picric acid becomes unstable sometimes crystalizing and thus becoming highly reactive.
My wife has an antiques business and recently had bought a lot of vintage items at auction. Among those was a Boy Scout First Aid Kit from 1933 that had a 3 inch by 3 inch gauze for burns that was at one time, moist with picric acid. My wife has customers internationally and often has to ship overseas so with something like this, she has to check if anything in the kit is forbidden from international shipping. Then she looked up the picric acid gauze. What she found sent her into my office.
Really? Highly explosive? Are you sure? So I start Googling, and sure enough, every mention of it says if you come across it, immediately call the bomb squad. So, they rushed over with an ambulance, two hazmat trucks, and the bomb retrieval unit. They all knew it was dangerous but it was so rare, that they weren't sure the actual risk factor so with my family outside, we watched a bomb technician suit up, and take a detonation bucket into our dining room to retrieve the offending gauze and kit.
To be honest, I wasn't as scared as I was fascinated. I was suddenly in a thriller/action flick and I had no idea why. Whatever you do, don't open the gauze. Neighbors were filming, the mayor came by to make sure everything was okay. Street closed off and the cop cars lit up. It was .... something. A little scary, but what a great story it's left us with.
posted by Stanczyk at 3:55 PM on July 19 [18 favorites]
The bomb squad just left.
So, I'm working in my garage office when my wife and kid walk in and my wife asks me what I know about picric acid. Like you, probably, I know nothing. She tells me that picric acid was used in WWII as a disinfectant and wound dressing, especially effective on burns, but it was also used as an explosive. And over time, picric acid becomes unstable sometimes crystalizing and thus becoming highly reactive.
My wife has an antiques business and recently had bought a lot of vintage items at auction. Among those was a Boy Scout First Aid Kit from 1933 that had a 3 inch by 3 inch gauze for burns that was at one time, moist with picric acid. My wife has customers internationally and often has to ship overseas so with something like this, she has to check if anything in the kit is forbidden from international shipping. Then she looked up the picric acid gauze. What she found sent her into my office.
Really? Highly explosive? Are you sure? So I start Googling, and sure enough, every mention of it says if you come across it, immediately call the bomb squad. So, they rushed over with an ambulance, two hazmat trucks, and the bomb retrieval unit. They all knew it was dangerous but it was so rare, that they weren't sure the actual risk factor so with my family outside, we watched a bomb technician suit up, and take a detonation bucket into our dining room to retrieve the offending gauze and kit.
To be honest, I wasn't as scared as I was fascinated. I was suddenly in a thriller/action flick and I had no idea why. Whatever you do, don't open the gauze. Neighbors were filming, the mayor came by to make sure everything was okay. Street closed off and the cop cars lit up. It was .... something. A little scary, but what a great story it's left us with.
posted by Stanczyk at 3:55 PM on July 19 [18 favorites]
I am eating dark chocolate chips out of a bag on my desk, while internally thinking "but cake has so much sugar and it's rarely that good."
25 years is a long time. I was 32 when this place launched, a lifetime ago.
posted by mecran01 at 10:47 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]
25 years is a long time. I was 32 when this place launched, a lifetime ago.
posted by mecran01 at 10:47 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]
Years ago a friend of mine made a red velvet cake with chili powder in it and while I feel it was definitely a product of its time, I think about it often, and wish I had the patience to make it, and that the members of my family most likely to enjoy it weren’t allergic to red.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:17 PM on August 6
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:17 PM on August 6
Want to pop in and say happy birthday, Metafilter! I just made my first FPP last week after being a lurker for 23 years. Did the math and I joined this site when I was ELEVEN.
Not sure if it's a false memory but I'm pretty sure I recall trying to convince my mother to write a $5 check to mail in for a membership.
Anyway, thanks MeFi. I love you.
posted by RisforKickin at 9:15 AM on August 9 [5 favorites]
Not sure if it's a false memory but I'm pretty sure I recall trying to convince my mother to write a $5 check to mail in for a membership.
Anyway, thanks MeFi. I love you.
posted by RisforKickin at 9:15 AM on August 9 [5 favorites]
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I was quietly impressed that we managed to turn our normal chocolate cake recipe into a lemon recipe, using lemons that were a thank you from our neighbour (their poor dog had a cone of shame so couldn't use her dog door, so we let her out for business purposes while neighbour was at work.) I think it's the first time we have had something that wasn't chocolate, cinnamon or vanilla cake for a birthday.
posted by freethefeet at 1:24 AM on July 14 [4 favorites]