12 birthday cake recipes

Homemade birthday cake better than any store bought cake.

Homemade birthday cake better than any store-bought cake.

This simple and delicious cake is perfect for surprising your friends for their birthday!

A pair of the cutest flip flop cakes you've ever seen. Great for a picnic, cook out or birthday party. Kids love them.

There are many renditions of pistachio cake, but I believe this one to be the original. Through the years, Mum would always ask what kind of cake I would want for my birthday. My answer would almost always be "pistachio cake." To this day, this is one of my all-time favorites.

Fluffy gold cake bakes up tender, golden, and rich with four egg yolks and silky cake flour. A vintage layer cake ready for any frosting and any birthday.

A cookies and cream layer cake made with white cake mix and crushed Oreos folded right into the batter. Easy enough for beginners, impressive enough for birthdays.

Edible cake-decorating roses and leaves shaped from a marshmallow-and-powdered-sugar fondant. A budget-friendly alternative to professional gum paste for birthday and wedding cakes.

Spaceship cake shapes a chocolate loaf cake into a rocket, studs it with slivered almonds for porthole windows, and pours warm hot fudge sauce over the top. Fun retro kids' birthday cake.

Emily's white cake is a tender, snow-white shortening-based layer cake from the early 1900s, leavened with stiff egg whites for fluff. The dairy-free vintage classic for birthdays and baptisms.

Rainbow sprinkle cookies from cake mix, ready in 30 minutes with vanilla frosting and festive toppings. Kid-friendly baking for birthdays, celebrations, or just because.

No-bake gumdrop peanut popcorn cake: a Bundt-shaped tower of popcorn, peanuts, and rainbow gumdrops bound by melted marshmallows and butter. A retro birthday party showpiece.