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What Was Your Childhood Birthday Cake?

gulfporter

By gulfporter
in Food Traditions & Culture

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CeeCee

CeeCee

Posted
Posted (edited)

Devil's Food cake, with chocolate frosting.  Decorations were cool, but I was after the flavor. The frosting Mom made from scratch, but the cake mix always came from Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker.

This pretty much sums it up for me, although they were a special treat in general and not per se for my birthday (selfishly, we kept these for ourselves mostly). Both Betty and Duncan were not so readily available and if so, they would cost quite a bit. My mom never made frosting herself though. We also had brownies, blueberry and banana-nut muffins from those packs, before it got more common over here.

At my birthday parties, my mom would set the table with madeira and/or chocolate cake along with decorations. We all loved this DIY party, as we could decorate a slice to our own liking and keep ourselves busy for a while (which my mom liked a lot too).

Edited by CeeCee (log)
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Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted (edited)

My mom always made all of us siblings an animal cut-up cake of our choosing from the Baker's Angel Flake coconut book before she died. She would have made anything else if we wanted it, but we all chose the cut-up cakes every time.

 

You can find the photos and directions on-line. They are cut from parts of round layers or square or 13 x 9's. The instructions are simple and clear, and you decorate them with frosting, coconut and candies. Children love them.

Ours was the one with the lion on the cover from the late 50' or early sixties.

 

The year I was 5 or six, I had "Spot the Fox Terrier", and my baby brother grabbed a fistful of it before it could be cut and served, resulting in a traumatic experience that I remember clearly 5 decades later.  :shock:

 

Edit: Link didn't take, and post made no sense without it.

Edited by Thanks for the Crepes (log)
  • Like 2

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

SylviaLovegren

SylviaLovegren

Posted
Posted

My mom always made all of us siblings an animal cut-up cake of our choosing from the Baker's Angel Flake coconut book before she died. She would have made anything else if we wanted it, but we all chose the cut-up cakes every time.

 

You can find the photos and directions on-line. They are cut from parts of round layers or square or 13 x 9's. The instructions are simple and clear, and you decorate them with frosting, coconut and candies. Children love them.

Ours was the one with the lion on the cover from the late 50' or early sixties.

 

The year I was 5 or six, I had "Spot the Fox Terrier", and my baby brother grabbed a fistful of it before it could be cut and served, resulting in a traumatic experience that I remember clearly 5 decades later.  :shock:

 

Edit: Link didn't take, and post made no sense without it.

 

 

I haven't seen the Bakers Coconut animal cakes, but the Betty Crocker kid's cookbook from the early 60s had them and I used to lust after them.  Never had one but, oh, the fantasies!  I really really wanted the lion cake.  Sigh.

  • Like 1
Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted

SylviaLovegren,

 

I always desperately wanted one of those Barbie skirt cakes for my birthday when I was a kid. They were like magical fairy princesses to this little girl.  Some other kids that I was invited to their parties were getting them, but I wasn't allowed one of the cakes or the dolls. I suspect my mom who was valedictorian of her high school and nursing school classes, may have thought the doll represented the wrong aspirations for young girls.  That was the one thing I ever asked for on my birthday that was off limits.

 

I finally got a Barbie (not the coveted cake) as a gift from a friend of the family when I was hospitalized, but I was twelve, and by then, and it was too late. Sigh.

  • Like 2

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

Norm Matthews

Norm Matthews

Posted
Posted (edited)

I don't remember what mom made but it was undoubtedly a box mix.  Cassie ( my soon to be DIL) makes cakes for people for special occasions. Here is the one she made for my birthday a few months ago. Maybe it counts since I think I am entering my second childhood. :) Knife, spoon, carrots, mushrooms & peas are all edible.

 

10527300_10101727607402881_2328154331052

Edited by Norm Matthews (log)
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http://normmatthews.blogspot.com/

IowaDee

IowaDee

Posted
Posted

That is a stunning cake!  How lucky to have a DIL that can bake like that.  Have you considered celebrating unbirthdays as well?

LaurieB

LaurieB

Posted
Posted

Growing up here in Cleveland, Ohio, the ONLY cake for birthdays was a Hough Bakery White Cake.

 

I never really liked this cake, but that's what you got.

 

When I got older, I began to request my Mom's Triple Layer Strawberry Jello as my Birthday Cake, and that's what I got.  I'm still trying to find her damm recipe for it. :)

 

  • 2 weeks later...
Maedl

Maedl

Posted
Posted (edited)

What sweet memories this brings to mind! My birthday cake was a chocolate-orange cake iced with a dark chocolate icing redolent of orange zest. Mom would decorate the cake with the last flowers from the garden before adding the candles.

We always made an angel food cake for my grandmother, a pound cake for my grandfather, and a fruit pie for my father. On Mom's birthday, we bought a whipped cream cake from Koula's Bakery in Glendale, Missouri. I don't know why I didn't bake a cake for the occasion--perhaps it was a holiday for Mom when she didn't have to supervise me!

Edited by Maedl (log)
Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted

Great topic. I had "Smarties Kuchen": a thick sponge cake base, topped with a layer of butter cream, then a layer of Bahlsen butter cookies and finally dark chocolate frosting in which smarties (= M&Ms) are scattered (actually, since it's a German cake, there are arrange in a neat geometrical pattern ;-)

Best thing was to have so much left overs that the next day you could eat then straight out of the fridge with. The butter cream almost solid ... Yum!

In two weeks it's my sons first birthday and guess what I asked my mother to bring ;-)

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ruthcooks

ruthcooks

Posted
Posted

Two adults + four children = 6 homemade angel food birthday cakes with powdered sugar icing.

Ruth Dondanville aka "ruthcooks"

“Are you making a statement, or are you making dinner?” Mario Batali

Lindacakes

Lindacakes

Posted
Posted

I just bought the Cut Up Cake pamphlet, because I collect those, and I am seriously jealous of all you people who got to pick their cut up cake.

 

What a brilliantly simple idea.

I like to bake nice things. And then I eat them. Then I can bake some more.

  • 2 weeks later...
Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted

Great topic. I had "Smarties Kuchen": a thick sponge cake base, topped with a layer of butter cream, then a layer of Bahlsen butter cookies and finally dark chocolate frosting in which smarties (= M&Ms) are scattered (actually, since it's a German cake, there are arrange in a neat geometrical pattern ;-)

Best thing was to have so much left overs that the next day you could eat then straight out of the fridge with. The butter cream almost solid ... Yum!

In two weeks it's my sons first birthday and guess what I asked my mother to bring ;-)

It's my sons first birthday today and - as requested - his grandma brought a "Smarties Kuchen". Made him and me very happy ...

image.jpg

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