Birthdays are a special time of the year for many of us. Albeit not all, most of us take the opportunity to gather our loved ones for birthday cakes and food. That's because birthdays are a great excuse to bask in the love of your family and friends. Now, choosing from all the birthday cakes available for the special day is no easy task. To begin, if you have a party, the cake should match the party theme. It is also important to consider the tastes of your guests when planning which birthday cakes to get, or it will end up as a mere piece of decor. To help make your decision easier, we have prepared a list of 19 Types of Birthday Cakes for Your Next Birthday Party based on our own favourites. For related activities and articles, do check out the tabs linked below:
So without further to do, here are 19 Types of Cakes for Your Next Birthday Party!
The number one trending cake on the internet! Get ready for birthday cakes that feed the eyes before they feed your stomachs! The tsunami cake has its icing held in place at the top of the cake with acetate. The idea is to carefully and slowly lift the acetate up, allowing the icing to cascade in a 'tsunami effect' down the sides of the cake. Choose this cake if you want something that your family and friends can share on their social media!
For people who love ice cream more than anything, you can now have ice cream birthday cakes! A popular form of this cake is a three-layer cake, with a layer of ice cream in between. These cakes are served frozen so that they melt over your tongues the moment it enters your mouth. This birthday cake is especially suitable for the hot weather in Singapore as they keep guests refreshed and wanting more.
This cheesecake is the alter ego to the classic New York-style cheesecake. Inspired by a Basque version, this is a cheesecake that is burnt, cracked, and cooked at high heat. It is different and unique because of its texture: despite its crusty exterior, it has a molten inside. The caramelised flavour of the burnt top makes the cheesecake irresistible while the creamy vanilla filling makes the cake hard to go wrong.
If you are a big fan of chocolate, you can opt for the Kit Kat cake. This cake is formed with a Kit Kat wall which makes up an edible chocolate bowl, then filled up a choice of chocolates, fruits or other toppings inside. With the choice to have the cake base removed, these cakes are suitable for people who don't like to eat cakes but still desire one for photo-taking. After all, you can't deny that this cake looks captivating!
Looking to break the stereotype of having a beautiful cake? The dirt cake is made from sandwich cookies and vanilla pudding in combination with other ingredients to create a dessert that has a resemblance to soil or earth. It is made by combining crushed Oreo cookies on top of vanilla or chocolate pudding and adding gummy candy worms on top. Despite how it looks, it actually tastes really amazing. It'd also be perfect for a garden-themed birthday!
A cake you hardly see during large birthday parties because durian can be an acquired taste. The king of fruits, durian, is not for the faint-hearted. Known for its pungent smell, this fruit is a mixture of sweetness and bitterness in its creamy texture. However, for people who enjoy it, having a whole durian birthday cake would be such a treat. If you're looking to have a small private party for friends or family, you can still indulge in this wonderful creation.
Red velvet experienced an explosion of popularity and has found its place as a classic flavour in the last few years. It is made with cocoa powder, vinegar and buttermilk. The chemical reaction between these ingredients helps give the cake a deep maroon colour. Red velvet cake's main flavour note actually comes from the cream cheese frosting. The bites of fluffy moist cake with a very creamy delicate frosting give a really wonderful mouthfeel. It's basically a rich, “velvety” (hence the name), dark chocolate cake, and it is more buttery and moist compared to plain chocolate cake. It happens to look pretty, too!
A classic chiffon cake is a hybrid of an oil cake and sponge cake. It includes baking powder and vegetable oil, except the eggs are separated and the whites are beaten to soft peaks; before being folded into the batter. This creates a cake with a tender crumb and rich flavour like an oil cake, but with a lighter texture that’s reminiscent of a sponge cake. Chiffon cakes can be baked in tube pans or layered with fillings and frostings.
Any recipe for a cake that begins with “cream butter and sugar”, is a butter cake. After creaming, eggs are added to aerate the batter a bit, followed by flour and milk to give it structure and texture, and baking soda or baking powder to ensure that it rises in the oven. The different types of cake batter within the butter cake family include chocolate, yellow, white, and marble. For white and yellow cakes, colouring typically depends on whether they have whole eggs, extra egg yolks, or egg whites only in them. Those with extra egg yolks will be yellow in colour, while those with egg whites only will be white in color.
A relative of the butter cake, the pound cake is named in such a way because it can be measured as a matter of proportion; a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour. In some recipes, you’ll see the eggs separated, egg whites whipped and folded into the batter, to leaven it; while in other recipes, you’ll find leaveners like baking soda and baking powder, bringing it well into the butter-cake fold. These cakes are usually very light flavoured and served plain or topped with a simple glaze. The pound cake is usually baked in a loaf or Bundt pan. Variations of pound cakes include; coffee cakes, fruit crumb cakes, and sour cream cakes.
In France and Italy, a sponge cake is called genoise; where whole eggs are beaten with sugar until they become thick and ribbony. Afterwards, flour and sometimes butter is added to the batter before baking it in a round cake pan. It is then topped off with fresh frosting. Do note that genoise is also pliable enough to be baked in a jelly-roll pan and rolled up into a roulade.
Because genoise lacks an assertive flavour of its own, it is often used to construct rolled or layered cakes; when a lighter texture than butter cake is desired. If you wish to add moisture and flavour to the genoise cake, use flavoured syrup to moisten the genoise cake layers before slicing them into thin horizontal layers and stacking them with rich fillings; such as buttercream. A popular genoise cake is the strawberry shortcake.
Made with egg whites alone and no yolks, the angel food cake is a delicate snowy-white cake made by whipping egg whites with sugar until the mixture becomes firm; before gently folding the flour in. Angel food cakes marry beautifully with fresh fruits and have a spongy, chewy quality derived from their relatively high sugar content and absence of egg yolks.
Biscuit cakes are another type of sponge cake containing both egg yolks and whites; but unlike genoise, the yolks and whites are whipped separately before being folded back together. This creates a light batter that’s drier than a genoise cake but holds its shape better after mixing. Thus, biscuit cakes are often used for pipped shaped cakes such as ladyfingers. If baked in a tube pan, the resulting cake will become very chewy.
These types of cakes include baked cheesecakes and flourless chocolate cakes. For convenient removal, they’re often made in a springform pan. The cake is baked in a water bath; which involves placing the filled pan in a larger pan that’s half-filled with water, to insulate the creamy, delicate cake from the oven’s strong bottom heat. This will give the bakes cake a porous texture instead of a silky one.
As the name suggests, these types of cakes are moulded in a dessert ring or springform pan then chilled in the fridge before unmolding. They often have a crust or bottom layer that’s baked before the mousse is added. Sometimes, other layers such as genoise or biscuit; are alternated with the mousse. Types of unbaked flourless cake include mousse cakes and unbaked cheesecakes.
One of the rare cakes that use vegetables is the carrot cake. The carrot cake originates in Medieval palace cooking as a steamed or boiled carrot ‘pudding,’ cooked low and slow to accentuate the carrot’s natural sugars. This means that carrot cake used to be only for the rich! Nowadays, anyone can get a piece of carrot cake from a bakery and most modern carrot cake recipes have a white cream cheese frosting.
This cake is for people who like gentle fruity flavours. A fresh fruit cake consists of a basic soft and spongy vanilla cake that is layered with fruits and covered with vanilla frosting. It is then topped with fresh fruits and optionally garnished with sliced almonds on the sides. Mostly made with fresh cream, the cake enhances the sweet taste of the fresh fruits (or candied fruits). In return, the vibrant colour of the fruits makes the cake effortlessly beautiful.
The perfect blend of fruits and chocolate. Enjoy the best of both worlds as you dig through layers of chocolate sponge cake, cherries, and whipped cream. The black forest cake is frosted with whipped cream and covered with chocolate shavings and a few cherries for decoration. An authentic cake has an intense chocolate flavour and is the perfect combination of sweet and sour.
One of the rare cakes that use vegetables is the carrot cake. The carrot cake originates in Medieval palace cooking as a steamed or boiled carrot ‘pudding,’ cooked low and slow to accentuate the carrot’s natural sugars. This means that carrot cake used to be only for the rich! Nowadays, anyone can get a piece of carrot cake from a bakery and most modern carrot cake recipes have a white cream cheese frosting.
Ahh the wonderful classic that never goes wrong! Forget about calories just this once for your birthday. Enjoy the sinful delight that everyone will love! Just the chocolate cake itself is a plethora of choices: from fudge, to lava, the variety is endless. People who like it less sweet can also customise their cake and use dark chocolate instead.
Now that you have settled your choice of birthday cakes, should you start worrying about the activities for your guests? The Fun Empire carries plenty of fun activities for your birthday celebrations. We even have virtual activities that allow limitless number of pax so that you can meet ALL your friends despite the pandemic. If you're interested, do look at the tabs linked down below!
