Recently I had someone ask me “but who makes birthday cakes for the person that always makes everyone else a cake?” The answer is the baker still makes the cake haha! It is my favorite time of year to make cakes because I can get as over the top as I want. The only person I can disappoint is myself.
I made two birthday cakes because my actual birthday was on a Monday and I still wanted a small slice, but we weren’t actually celebrating until the following Saturday. Technically I made three cakes. When I made the orange zest cake we had to travel to North Carolina and somehow the cake flipped during the drive before I could take any pictures. So today I made a second orange zest cake which I fully plan on enjoying after this post!
It is so hard for me to believe I am already 31! I don’t feel like I am in my thirties yet. My life is slowly coming together. I am finally happy with my day time job and Patrick and I are embracing the whole farm to table concept. I really want to incorporate as much fresh whole foods as possible into our diets the older we get. BUT after saying all that… it WAS my birthday week AND I do love food.
For both cakes I did use box mixes to keep it easy, but I added some of my own ingredients to get a real homemade taste. The first cake is a brown butter orange zest cake with vanilla orange buttercream. The second is a coffee fudge cake. It is hard to say which is my favorite. I do love chocolate, but orange cake is a birthday tradition. My mom always made them for me growing up.
One of the BEST parts of these cakes is the sprinkles! Patrick hates sprinkles so I rarely get to use them. But today… today we are using tons of sprinkles just because I can!
- Orange Zest Cake
- 1 box vanilla cake mix
- 3 eggs room temp
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil
- 1/2 cup of brown butter cooled
- 1 cup of whole milk
- 1 tsp of orange zest
- 2 tbsp of juice from an orange or 1 tsp of orange extract
- Orange Butter Cream
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup of coconut milk or cream
- 2 tsp of orange zest
- 2 tbsp of orange juice or 1 tsp of orange extract
- 2 tbsp of vanilla extract
- 3 cups of powdered sugar
- Coffee Fudge Cake
- 1 box of devils food cake
- 3 eggs room temp
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil
- 1 cup of butter milk
- 1 cup of strong coffee cooled and divided
- Coffee Fudge Buttercream
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup of heavy cream
- 1/3 cup of strong coffee cooled
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
- 3 cups of powdered sugar
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Orange Zest Cake
- In a mixer add the vanilla cake mix, the eggs, oil and milk.
- Mix on low and add in the orange zest and juice (or extract).
- Pour in the brown butter last and mix on medium 1-2 minutes until all the dry mix is incorporated.
- You can use two 8 inch pans or three 6 inch pans (I used 6 inch)
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until set and lightly browned.
- Let cool on the oven for 5 minutes then on a rack out of the pan until no longer warm.
- Wrap the layers in plastic and freeze while making the buttercream.
- Orange Buttercream
- In the mixer add the butter, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla extract.
- Whip the butter on medium.
- Turn off the mixer and pour in 2 cups of powdered sugar and a splash of coconut cream.
- Alternate and whip until you achieve your desired consistency.
- I like mine to be very light and fluffy, but if you plan on doing a lot of decorating add in enough powdered sugar for a firmer icing.
- Remove the cake layers from the freezer and frost!
- I used different Wilton drop flower tips to achieve different style flowers.
- Coffee Fudge Cake
- Mix the cake ingredients until the dry mix is incorporated.
- Bake until a tooth pick comes out clean.
- About 25 minutes.
- Let cool on the oven for 5 minutes then let cool on a rack out of the pans until no longer warm.
- Dip each layer in cool coffee very quickly.
- You do not want the layer to get heavy.
- Wrap with plastic and freeze while you make the buttercream,
- Coffee Fudge Buttercream
- Whip the butter and the cocoa powder
- Add in the coffee and cream together
- Pour in the powdered sugar and cream alternating as you mix until you get the desired consistency
- Again I like a very light and fluffy icing so I add all my cream and whip on medium high.
- Remove layers from the freezer and frost!
This has been a great birthday week with friends and I hope you enjoy these recipes! Pictures below are from our casino weekend!
