“And I rose
In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days…”
―
Birthdays. How in the world do you celebrate important days during a pandemic?
With a cake!
However it happens–store-bought or homemade, left on the front porch or served at a respectable social distance–the birthday cake is non-negotiable.
Trust me on this. Birthday cakes have been central to celebrations for a very long time
The Greeks, Egyptians and Romans all celebrated important events with a celebratory cake.
The Greek story is particularly interesting. Their cakes were moon-shaped to celebrate the birth date of Artemis, the goddess of the moon. Each cake was decorated with candles to glow like the moon. How cool is that? I’ll never think about candles on a birthday cake the same way again.
Our modern birthday cake tradition, though, appears to be more closely tied to 18th Century Germany where children’s birthdays were celebrated with cakes, candles and secret wishes. The celebration was called Kinderfest. A child’s cake bore one candle for each year of the child’s life and one extra candle, a candle of life, to celebrate the hope that the child would enjoy another year of life until the next birthday. The candles on the cake were lit at sunrise and it was the task of the family to keep them lit throughout the day until the evening celebration. (I’m thinking there must have been a whole lot of wax on that cake by the end of the day, but never mind.)
Here is a birthday cake I made for my good friend and neighbor Norma. Happy, happy day, Norma.
Here’s the recipe.
Save RecipeIngredients
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 t. salt
- 2 t. baking powder
- 4 large eggs (room temperature)
- 2 C. granulated sugar
- 1 T. vanilla extract
- 1/8 t. almond extract
- 1 C. milk
- 4 T. butter (cut into cubes)
- 1/3 C. vegetable oil (I used Canola)
- 8 T. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- Pinch of salt
- 1 T. meringue powder (optional--increases strength of the frosting)
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 3 C. confectioners' sugar
- 2 to 4 T. milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Your oven rack should be positioned in the center of the oven. Prepare two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans by greasing them and lining the bottoms of the pans with parchment. Grease the top of the parchment, too.
- Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and almond extract in the bowl of your stand mixer using the whisk attachment. Beat at medium high speed for about 2 minutes. You want the egg mixture to thicken and be light in color.
- Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Mix just to combine at a low speed. Be sure to use a spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and then mix again briefly to be sure all the flour is incorporated into the batter.
- In a microwave or in a pan on the stove, heat the milk until it simmers. Remove the milk from the microwave (or from the heat on the stove) and stir in the butter and oil. Keep stirring the mixture until the butter has melted.
- Slowly mix the milk mixture into the egg/flour batter until everything is well combined. Be sure to scrape the bowl to be sure everything is combined.
- Pour batter into your two prepared pans and bake at 325 degrees F. for about 38-42 minutes if you are using 8-inch pans or 26-30 minutes if you are using 9-inch pans. Test the cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the centers of the cakes. ( The toothpick should come out clean with no batter sticking to the toothpick. You can also check your cakes by using a digital thermometer inserted into the center of the cakes. The thermometer should read 205 degrees F is the cake is done.)
- Remove the cakes from the oven, run a knife around the edges to loosen the cakes from the pans and let the cakes cool on a rack for about 15 minutes. Once the cakes are cool, turn them out of the pans and transfer them to a rack to cool to room temperature before frosting.
- Beat butter in the bowl of your stand mixer until it is fluffy.
- Add the salt, meringue powder (optional) and vanilla. Beat to combine.
- Add the confectioners' sugar and 2 T. of milk. Beat until the mixture is smooth, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl while you are mixing to be sure you have incorporated all the sugar.
- Add additional milk (or confectioners' sugar) to adjust the consistency of the frosting for easy icing and piping.
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This cake recipe is adapted from one that appears on the King Arthur Flour site KAF Birthday Cake.
