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What I ate, plate by plate.

16 Delicious Birthday Cakes for Adults

Everyone loves a great birthday cake! Kids might be focused on getting as much icing as they can, but most adults crave a little more substance. Here are 16 delicious birthday cakes for adults!

a photo collage showing 4 different types of cakes

Guess what day it is?!?!?! It’s my birthday! And for the most part, when you’re an adult, a birthday is just another day. A reminder of the constant march of time, that you aren’t getting any younger. As if I need a birthday to remind me of that…I have plenty of gray hairs to remind me of that on the daily! Is there a difference between birthday cakes for kids and birthday cakes for adults? I think so. Most kids are just after as much frosting as possible…and while I definitely don’t hate a delicious frosting, I want my birthday cake to have a little something more. I have a standing request for cupcakes from Federal Bake Shop for every birthday, but I would gladly take any of these birthday cakes that anyone would like to bake for me!

Sheet Cakes

If I’m going to bake a cake, I’m going for simplicity. I can’t remember the last time I baked a layer cake. I prefer a bundt, a bar, or, my favorite, a simple sheet cake. I am the queen of taking a cake that is traditionally made as a layer cake and reimagining it as a sheet cake. Here are some of my favorites!

Classic Yellow Cake

You can’t go wrong with a classic yellow cake with chocolate icing! This one is like the boxed mix from your childhood…only not.

Check out this recipe

Italian Cream Sheet Cake

Tender white cake, cream cheese icing, coconut, and pecans? Italian cream cake has it all!

Check out this recipe
Italian cream sheet cake is a classic Southern cake made simple in a sheet pan. With cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut, it's perfect! #cakes #baking #sheetcake #italiancreamcake #southernfood | Recipe from Chattavore.com

Hummingbird Sheet Cake

This classic Southern cake is usually a stacked-high layer cake, but I simplify it by pouring the batter into a sheet pan. So delicious!

Check out this recipe
Hummingbird sheet cake transforms a slightly fussy classic Southern cake into something easy and portable yet still SO delicious - and pretty. | recipe from Chattavore.com

Banana Pudding Cake

This poke cake has vanilla pudding, bananas, and whipped cream, just like the classic Southern dessert!

Check out this recipe
Banana pudding cake is a from-scratch poke cake with all the ingredients of a classic banana pudding. It's an amazing, flavorful addition to your Easter baking! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Pumpkin Tres Leches Cake

It doesn’t have to be fall to eat pumpkin cake! This one is SOOOOO creamy and delicious!

Check out this recipe
Pumpkin tres leches cake has the traditional flavors of the season-pumpkin and spices-with all the gooey goodness of a tres leches cake! | chattavore.com

Biscoff Cookie Butter Cake

I love cookie butter, and around here Biscoff brand is the easiest one to find. I love to make this cake with cookie butter, crushed Biscoff cookies, and just a hint of coffee flavor!

Check out this recipe
This Biscoff cake with cookie butter frosting is an easy, moist, and fabulously tasty dessert! | recipe from chattavore.com

Caramel Sheet Cake

If you are a frosting lover, this is the cake for you. Look at that layer of caramel frosting!!!

Check out this recipe
caramel cake | chattavore

Bundt Cakes, Tube Pan Cakes, and Other Single Pan Cakes

I love an angel food cake, a good bundt cake, or any other cake that I can make in a single pan. The pans may not be portable like a sheet pan is, but these cakes are still dead simple and incredibly tasty!

Chocolate Stout Cake

My husband owns a beer store, so there’s no shortage of new beers to bake and cook with. A great stout pairs perfectly with deep, rich chocolate in this simple but decadent cake!

Check out this recipe
chocolate stout cake| chattavore

Pumpkin Angel Food Cake

Pumpkin, again! It’s hard to find a recipe for pumpkin angel food cake from scratch…most of them involve boxed mixes. This one is easy, light, and airy. Pumpkin perfection!

Check out this recipe
pumpkin angel food cake from scratch // chattavore

Spiced Apple Cake

This easy cake is packed full of apples with lots of warm spices. It’s an amazing cake!

Check out this recipe
apple cake // chattavore

French Yogurt Cake

Yogurt cake is often one of the first things that French children learn to bake, and it’s easy to see why. Just a few simple ingredients measured in equal parts, and it yields a yummy, citrusy cake!

Check out this recipe

Bars

They may not be traditional, but who would turn up their nose at a delicious bar cookie? I certainly wouldn’t!

Wedding Cake Bars

These cake mix bars are thickly flavored with almond and frosted with a layer of almond-flavored icing, and I could easily eat them every. single. day.

Check out this recipe

Red Wine Brownies with Cheesecake Swirl

I mean, read the name of the recipe.

Check out this recipe
red wine cheesecake brownies | chattavore

Mint Cookie Cheesecake Bars

These bars are made with a simple cheesecake batter and mint Oreos, and I wish someone would bring me some right now!

Check out this recipe
Mint cookie cheesecake bars are mint Oreo cheesecake heaven in a bar cookie! | chattavore.com

Apple-Walnut Blondies

Finished with a salted caramel whiskey sauce, these bars are decadent, delicious, and basically autumn in bar cookie form!

Check out this recipe
apple-walnut blondies | chattavore

Salted Caramel Brownies

A perfect finish…chewy, fudgy brownies topped with smooth salted caramel…perfection!

Check out this recipe
Salted caramel brownies are gooey, sweet, a little salty...and worth every.single.calorie. | chattavore.com

What are your favorite birthday cakes for adults?

French Yogurt Cake

French yogurt cake is a great way to use up the yogurt that is hanging out in your fridge. It’s so simple, made with ingredients you probably already have, and bright and fresh with citrus flavors! Yogurt, eggs, oil, sugar, flour, citrus, and powdered sugar – that’s all you need to make this super-simple cake! I always seem to have a half-eaten tub of yogurt and some on-the-brink citrus (lemons, limes, clementines…you name it, I have it) in the fridge and this is the perfect way to use them up!

an overhead photograph of a slice of French yogurt cake with a lemon twist on top and a fork [Read more…]

How to Prep a Cake Pan

If you’ve ever wondered how to prep a cake pan so that your cake comes out perfectly every time, look no further than my two favorite pan prep techniques! You just need a few simple ingredients, some parchment paper, and some scissors. The technique that will work best depends on the type of cake pan that you are using. Seriously-these techniques are foolproof and my cakes practically FALL out of the pan! If you follow my tips, your cakes will never stick to the pan again either.
a photograph of a round cake pan lined with parchment paper with a pair of scissors in the back ground and a photo of a bundt pan brushed with homemade cake release with a pastry brush and the jar of cake release in the photo

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[Read more…]

Italian Cream Sheet Cake + Video

Italian cream sheet cake is a classic Southern cake made simple in a sheet pan. With cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut, it’s perfect! Scroll down for video.

Italian cream sheet cake is a classic Southern cake made simple in a sheet pan. With cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut, it's perfect! #cakes #baking #sheetcake #italiancreamcake #southernfood | Recipe from Chattavore.com

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Italian Cream Cake

Some time ago, Philip announced that he had decided that he wanted an Italian cream cake for his birthday. As ubiquitous as Italian cream cake seems to be, you might be surprised to know that I don’t have a single recipe for Italian cream cake in any of my many cookbooks. However, I was searching through my grandmother’s recipe books over the holidays and discovered this:
Italian cream sheet cake is a classic Southern cake made simple in a sheet pan. With cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut, it's perfect! #cakes #baking #sheetcake #italiancreamcake #southernfood | Recipe from Chattavore.com

Sheet Cakes 4-Evah

A few adjustments (I’ve never seen canned coconut in my life, and you guys know I don’t buy shortening) and I turned out a lovely and delicious sheet cake. Oh, did I mention that this rectangular cake pan from USA Pans has revolutionized my cake baking life? I may never bake another layer cake again. I love the ease of doing everything in one pan and then just throwing some foil over the top of the pan for transport instead of having to turn it out of the pan (crumbs everywhere), ice it on a cardboard round, and then load it into a cake carrier while praying that it doesn’t somehow topple into the sides of the carrier. Easy cake recipes = life!
Italian cream sheet cake is a classic Southern cake made simple in a sheet pan. With cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut, it's perfect! #cakes #baking #sheetcake #italiancreamcake #southernfood | Recipe from Chattavore.com

It’s a Southern Cake!

The funny thing about this cake is that I am almost certain that there’s nothing Italian about it. As I searched for the origins of Italian cream cake online, I found this information on Food Timeline that describes a cake that sounds nothing like this Italian cream cake that Southerners have come to know and love…which leads me to the conclusion that the origins of this cake are not Italian but from right here in the Southeast region of the United States.

I am fairly certain that I gained a couple of pounds just scraping the bowl of icing. And I still have this cake in my kitchen. It’s threatening to be my downfall.

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Recipe Image

Ingredients

    For the Cake
  • 5 eggs, separated
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
    • For the Icing
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 13×9 cake pan and set aside.
  2. Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or a hand mixer, beat the eggs whites on high speed until stiff peaks are reached. Set aside (if you are using a stand mixer, you will need to transfer the whites to a different bowl and clean out the mixer bowl).
  3. Whisk the flour and the baking soda together in a medium bowl.
  4. Cream together the 2 sticks of butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, about a third of each at a time. Add the vanilla then scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the pecans and the coconut.
  5. Carefully fold the reserved eggs whites into the cake batter. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
  6. To make the icing, cream the butter and cream cheese using an electric mixture on medium speed. Add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until well combined. Add the vanilla and the coconut and beat until incorporated.
  7. Spread the icing over the cooled cake and sprinkle evenly with the chopped pecans.
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https://chattavore.com/italian-cream-sheet-cake/

Italian cream sheet cake is a classic Southern cake made simple in a sheet pan. With cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut, it's perfect! #cakes #baking #sheetcake #italiancreamcake #southernfood | Recipe from Chattavore.com