Category: Birthdays

Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Cake!

If you follow me, you probably already know that I’m not much of a baker. If given the choice, I’d almost always rather cook than bake. But there’s one occasion that you’ll always find me mixing cake batter: my kids’ birthdays.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been making some version of this birthday cake. It’s become one of those family traditions that means more to me with each passing year. It doesn’t have to look bakery-perfect, and it certainly isn’t fancy. What matters is that it’s homemade and made with love.

You may remember that for the first few years after my daughter was born, I did a birthday cake smash shoot with a homemade cake. Those messy little fingers covered in frosting and the huge smiles (plus the gorgeous photos!!) are memories I’ll treasure forever. She’s long outgrown those days, but she’ll always be my baby.

Now that she’s older, making her birthday cake has become less about the photos and more about the tradition. It’s my way of celebrating her and reminding her just how loved she is.

Summer birthdays can be a little tricky. Friends are away at camp or on vacation, school isn’t in session, and celebrations don’t always happen on the actual day. Because of that, I’ve always tried to make birthdays feel extra special at home. Even if the party is small or postponed, a homemade cake says, “Today is your day, and it’s worth celebrating.”

I hope that years from now, my kids won’t remember whether the frosting was perfectly smooth or whether the decorations matched a Pinterest board. I hope they’ll remember that every birthday there was a homemade cake waiting for them, made by a mom who isn’t a professional baker but believed that some traditions are worth keeping.

Easy Strawberry Shortcake

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 cup orange juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 16oz container whip topping, thawed
1 container strawberries
1 heaping tbsp sugar
1/3 cup strawberry jam

Method:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and baking powder. Whisk the eggs lighty in a small bowl and add to the flour mixture along with the oil, orange juice and vanilla. Stir to combine the batter. Pour into 2 greased 8-9″ round pans. Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted comes out clean (about 50 minutes – 1 hour).

For whip cream, beat with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form, refrigerate until ready to assemble.

For the strawberries, hull and slice and mix with sugar, set aside to macerate while the cake bakes.

When the cake has cooled, place one of the cakes on the serving plate or cake stand, trim with a bread knife until you have a perfectly flat surface. Spread jam over the cake and top with whipped cream. Top with strawberries. Trim the second cake and spread a layer of jam over it, place it jam-side down over the filling, top with more whipped cream and decorate with strawberries, as desired.

Related Recipes:

Ice Cream Sandwich Birthday Cake
Funfetti Rose Cake Smash!
3-Layer Rainbow Cookie Cake
Blogoversary Funfetti Cake

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Corn Dogs

Corn dogs + Bonus Cornbread Funnel Cakes!!

Click here to view the reel on Instagram.

Corn Dogs

1 pkg @abelesheymann hot dogs cut in half crosswise
1¼ cups flour
¾ cup cornmeal
⅓ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup nondairy milk (I use oat or coconut)
Canola oil, for frying

Method:

Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the eggs and milk and whisk together until the mixture is very creamy. Transfer to a tall glass.

Push a wooden skewer through the center of the hot dogs or sausages (if the skewer is too long to fit in your pot, cut it to shorten).

Fill a 4qt saucepan with 2” of oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 375 degrees.

Holding the tip of the skewer, dip the hot dogs into the batter, then rotate it to let excess batter drip off. Carefully place the hot dog into the hot oil, fry until golden and crisp, 2-3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining hot dogs. Serve immediately.

Tip! If you have leftover batter use it to make Cornbread Funnel Cakes. Fill a ziploc bag with the batter, cut a hole to create a piping bag and pour the batter into a pot of hot oil. Flip when golden brown. Top with powdered sugar. Serve Immediately.


Related Recipes:

Bunless Fajita Dogs
Corndog Hamantaschen

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Ice Cream Sandwich Birthday Cake

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated my son’s 4th birthday. He suffers from life threatening food allergies, and most of his life he’s been told what he CAN’T have. At every birthday party, family get-together and holiday, you’ll find him sitting at a separate table, with a small plate of allergy-free food that we’ve managed to salvage for him. And he never complains. He’s such a champ, always so understanding and mature about it.

Ice cream is one of his favorite things and each day on his way home from school, he asks me to take him to the ice cream store. I really wanted to get him an ice cream cake for his birthday, but it’s impossible to find an allergy-free one, so I decided to make it. This cake was super easy to put together, but you’d never know from looking at it. Needless to say, he was so ecstatic, and a few minutes into devouring his slice, he unassumingly leaned over and gave me a hug. It was everything.


Ice Cream Sandwich Birthday Cake

7 vanilla ice cream sandwiches, cut in half lengthwise
7 chocolate ice cream sandwiches, cut in half lengthwise
2 quarts cookies and cream ice cream, softened
4 sugar cones, crushed
1 cup rainbow sprinkles
special equipment: 9″ springform pan

Method:

Working quickly (so your ice cream doesn’t melt), line the wall of the springform pan with the ice cream sandwiches, alternating between chocolate and vanilla. Freeze until solid.

Spread 1 quart of the ice cream in the center of the cake, top with crushed sugar cones and then the second quart of ice cream. Spread the sprinkles on the top of the ice cream and freeze the cake until solid.

VARIATION: You may use 1 quart chocolate and 1 quart vanilla instead of cookies and cream, or any ice cream of your choice. You can also use crushed oreos instead of sugar cones.

NOTE: Feel free to decorate the cake with fun lolly pops (not the sad little ones I used!) or other candy!

Related Recipes:

funfetti birthday cake
funfetti rose cake smash
ice cream sundae cookies
3-layer rainbow cookie cake

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Funfetti Rose Cake Smash!

I can’t believe it’s been a year since my baby girl was born, it went by so fast, how do we stop the clock?! It’s baby #5 for us, so it hasn’t been the easiest transition, but I was surprised and excited to still have those “first baby” feelings, even though I’ve been through this stage so many times. Maybe it’s because she came after two boys, but I couldn’t wait to put all the headbands and frilly things on her, and I still relish dressing her up each and every morning.

I’ve been dreaming about her cake smash for months, pinning for inspiration and changing my mind a million times about the style and theme of the shoot. I knew I wanted to do it all on my own, especially the cake – even though I dread making layered cakes ‘cuz I suck at it! Most of the cake smash shoots I found had a clear color scheme and were done indoors, but I wanted something unique and whimsical, so I went outdoors.

It’s funny how the cake really brought the whimsy I was looking for – because it kinda happened by mistake. I mean, I basically screwed up the whole first layer of marzipan, and I needed to cover it up with something, so I decided to make a skirt. I had originally wanted to do a smooth layer of marzipan and spread the roses around the cake, but I’m so in love with this accidental design because it’s everything I never knew I even wanted!

I knew I wanted funfetti inside, ‘cuz baby cake just needs sprinkles, so I went with my easy no-fail, no-mixture recipe, ‘cuz that how I do cake. Or should I say, how I don’t do cake? Layered cakes literally give me nightmares – and for good reason. I won’t even try to explain the mess of me trimming the layers down, but let me just say – THANK GOD FOR MARZIPAN. And thank you Molly Yeh for teaching me that you can use the most delicious paste instead of bland fondant to decorate cake. It’s basically like working with playdough, and it can do miracles to destroyed crumbly layers. Especially when those crumbly layers are doomed to be smashed by little hands.

Let me just say that I know these photos make it look easy, but here’s the thing – photographers can’t photograph their own kids. It’s just too stressful. Thank G-d I brought my 11 year old with me to the shoot  – her help was indispensible, especially when she jumped up and down, making funny faces so my daughter would stop crying and actually smile. There were a lot more tears than smiles at that shoot (and I’m not talking about the baby…just kidding…I didn’t actually CRY!).


I don’t know who invented cake smashes, or how long they’ve been around, but I don’t remember it being a thing with my older kids. I love that I have these beautiful momentos of my daughter’s first birthday, and that I had an excuse to play around with marzipan. I’d never go back to boring fondant again, and I look forward to getting over my fear of layered cakes and making some more intentional designs!


If you’ve got a baby birthday coming up, I hope my cake smash inspired you to think outside the box and create your own!


Cake Smash Deets:

Wreath: Amazon
Outfit: Etsy
Shoes: Century21
Carpet: Homegoods
Stool: Homegoods
Balloons: Family Dollar
Lanterns: Michael’s
Cake Banner: Homemade (craft paper, bakery twine and skewers)
Location: Liberty Municipal Park

Funfetti Rose Cake Smash Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup colored sprinkles
1 recipe vanilla buttercream
2 8oz. packages of marzipan
gel food coloring in red and green

Method:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, oil, milk and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until smooth. Fold in the sprinkles and pour the batter into 3 greased and floured 6.5″ round cake pans*. Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely and unmold onto a parchment lined work surface. Spread each layer with frosting (trim cakes to flatten, if necessary) and stack them on top of each other. Spread the frosting around the sides of the cake, scraping to remove excess.

Knead the marzipan until smooth on a clean, dry work surface dusted with powdered sugar to prevent it from sticking. Divide the marzipan in two, with most of it reserved for red food coloring, and a small portion for green. Work the food coloring into the marzipan until incorporated. Roll the pink marzipan into a large round, about a quarter of an inch thick. Carefully lay the marzipan over the cake and smooth the sides with your hands. Cut excess off the bottom of the cake. Roll out a strip of red marzipan and pinch it around the cake to create a skirt.

For the roses, cut small strips of marzipan and roll them up to create a flower. Press the roses around the seam of the “skirt”. Create small leaves, pinching the center with a toothpick to create a line. Place the leaves around the roses. If needed, brush with a bit of water to help it stick.

* you will have a bit of leftover batter, you can use it to make cupcakes.

3 layer rainbow cookie cake

blogoversary funfetti cake
it’s a girl!

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3-Layer Rainbow Cookie Cake

I came to the realization today that I’ve been posting quite a number of cakes for someone who calls themselves a non-baker. Am I right? As much as I don’t like to bake, it seems YOU all like when I do. Remember when my funfetti bundt cake went viral? And judging by the amount of  parsnip honey cake pictures that flooded my inbox, I’d say it was a huge hit!

With Parshas Noach this week, I thought it was just the right time to finally post THIS cake. I made it last November for my husband’s birthday, and I never quite found the right time to post it. I was thinking about what kind of rainbow recipe I could do in honor of the Torah portion in which a rainbow appeared as a symbol of G-d’s promise never to destroy the world again with a flood. I started looking through some old photos and I remembered this amazing 3-layer marzipan birthday cake, and it was just the thing!

3-layer rainbow cookies are my husband’s all time favorite, so I set out to make a birthday cake version for his surprise party. I’m not one for layered cakes, and each time I make them, I’m reminded just why I hate making them so much. But the end result is always worth it! Especially in this case.

If you’ve ever tried 3-layer rainbow cookies, you know what they taste like – marzipan. They’re cakey and chocolatey with a bit of jam in between the layers. But one thing they are not is FRESH. Once you make this stuff from scratch you can really taste the difference. Preservative-free cake is the way to go, and making it in a stacked layer cake is just SO. MUCH. FUN.

‘
My husband is the founder and CEO the boutique marketing firm AjaxUnion.  I call him Yossi, but in the workforce, he’s just “Joe”. In fact, is his GrowTime YouTube series, he teaches entrepreneurs “How to go from average Joe, to CEO”! Can you tell I’m just a wee bit proud of my hubby?

So back to the cake, I thought it would be fun to put a little Joe banner up in the same rainbow colors as the cake, and I just love how cutesy and Etsy-esque it is! What do y’all think?

My husband was gaga over the cake, but so were my kids. They’re big fans of 3-layer rainbow cookies, so it was a no-brainer. They keep asking me to make it again, so I’m thinking of going the old fashioned route and doing it sheet-style. It should be easier. Or maybe harder. Uh oh. I hate caking. I mean baking.

There’s only one reason for my venturing into cake territory and it’s all Molly Yeh’s fault. She just inspires me so much with her whimsical creations and I want to be her. Her rainbow mini cakes were the inspiration for this rainbow cookie birthday cake, and her funfetti cake was what got me to make this viral recipe. She also loves tahini everything, I even sent her halva from the shuk for her wedding present! So Yeh (pun intended), thanks Molly for making me fat.

Next up on my baking list? I’m thinking a pecan pie for Thanksgiving featuring one of my favorite spice blends. Stay tuned. It’s gonna be epic!

Happy Rainbowing!

3-Layer Rainbow Cookie Cake
adapted from Always Order Dessert

3 sticks no-trans-fat margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 extra large eggs
12 oz. almond paste, grated with a box grater
1 tbsp pure almond extract
1 cup coconut milk (I use Original Coconut Dream)
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp red food coloring
1 tsp green food coloring
1/2 cup apricot preserves or seedless raspberry jam (or 1/4 cup each)

For the ganache:
1 cup full fat canned coconut milk
12 oz. chocolate chips

Method:

Grease and flour three 9″ pans and set aside.

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and continue to beat until incorporated. Add the grated almond paste, almond extract, and coconut milk, and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder and slowly add it to the batter, mixing until combined.

Separate the mixture evenly into three bowls. Add the red food coloring to one, the green food coloring to another and leave the third bowl without coloring.

Pour each batter into the round pans and bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 25 minutes). Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

In a small pot, bring the coconut milk just to a simmer and pour it over the chocolate in a large bowl. Let it sit for a minute or two and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

To assemble the cake, level the cake layers with a knife so they are completely flat. Place the green layer at the bottom and spread with jam. Top with the yellow cake and spread with more jam. Finish with the red layer and top with chocolate ganache, spreading it all over the cake evenly.

Let the chocolate harden at room temperature or refrigerate until set. Use a fork to create lines along the top.

Other Rainbow Recipes:

rainbow slaw with poppyseed dressing
rainbow cobb salad
rainbow pommes anna
rainbow cupcakes

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