11 Types of Birthday Cakes for your next Birthday Party [2024]

Birthday Cakes Types

Birthday cakes are an essential element in every birthday party; no party is complete without a delicious slice of cake. No matter if you are celebrating the birthday of an adult or a child, people are always happy with a cake.

This is because when people organize birthday parties, it is mostly to show love and care for the other person, whereas an ordinary menu will be just like any other day. Thus, it is important to have a birthday cake to let the birthday boy or girl feel loved.

In addition to this, birthday cakes also allow people to hang around once the food has been served. People look forward to the birthday cake cutting ceremony, singing, playing, and eating the cake during the waiting time; it creates a fun and exciting party environment.

There are many different types of cakes and many different ways of dividing them into multiple categories, but professional bakers categorize cakes by ingredients and mixing methods. Depending on how the batter is prepared, you will find that the texture varies. Furthermore, cakes nowadays come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. When you pick a unique cake, it may become the talk of the party!

And without further ado, here are 11 types of cakes for your next birthday party!

1) Red Velvet Cake

A classic and favorite choice among many, the red velvet birthday cake is essentially a butter cake although it is typically made with oil instead of butter. Originally, the red velvet cake batter was made by a reaction between buttermilk and raw cocoa; creating a ruddy-hued crumb. But these days, you’ll more often find them tinted with red food coloring along with cocoa; to create its distinct red velvet taste. Once the cake is done, cream cheese frosting would be slathered on top of the cake to add a delicious, creamy tarte taste to the cake.

2) Chiffon Cake

A classic chiffon birthday cake is a hybrid of an oil cake and sponge cake. It includes baking powder and vegetable oil, except the eggs are separated and the whites are beaten to soft peaks; before being folded into the batter.

This creates a cake with a tender crumb and rich flavour like an oil cake, but with a lighter texture that’s reminiscent to a sponge cake. Chiffon cakes can be baked in tube pans or layered with fillings and frostings.

3) Butter Cake

Any recipe for cake that begins with “cream butter and sugar”, is a butter birthday cake. After creaming, eggs are added to aerate the batter a bit, followed by flour and milk to give it structure and texture, and baking soda or baking powder to ensure that it rises in the oven.

The different types of cake batter within the butter cake family include chocolate, yellow, white, and marble. For white and yellow cakes, coloring typically depends on whether they have whole eggs, extra egg yolks, or egg whites only in them.

Those with extra egg yolks will be yellow in color, while those with egg whites only will be white in color.

4) Pound Cake

A relative of the butter cake, the pound cake is named in such a way because it can be measured as a matter of proportion; a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour.

In some recipes, you’ll see the eggs separated, egg whites whipped and folded into the batter, to leaven it; while in other recipes, you’ll find leaveners like baking soda and baking powder, bringing it well into the butter-cake fold.

These cakes are usually very light flavoured and served plain or topped with a simple glaze. The pound cake is usually baked in a loaf or Bundt pan. Variations of pound cakes include; coffee cakes, fruit crumb cakes, and sour cream cakes.

5) Sponge Cake

Essentially, a sponge birthday cake is any recipes that calls for no baking soda or baking powder, but lots of whipped eggs or egg whites. There are a variety of sponge cakes with many different names wherever you go.

6) Genoise Cake

In France and Italy, a sponge cake is called genoise; where whole eggs are beaten with sugar until they become thick and ribbony. Afterwards, flour and sometimes butter is added into the batter before baking it in a round cake pan. It is then topped off with fresh frosting. Do note that genoise is also pliable enough to be baked in a jelly-roll pan and rolled up into a roulade.

Because a genoise birthday cake lacks an assertive flavour of its own, it is often used to construct rolled or layered cakes; when a lighter texture than butter cake is desired.

If you wish to add moisture and flavour to the genoise cake, use flavoured syrup to moisten the genoise cake layers before slicing them into thin horizontal layers and stacking them with rich fillings; such as buttercream. A popular genoise cake is the strawberry shortcake.

7) Angel Food Cake

Made with egg whites alone and no yolks, the angel food cake is a delicate snowy-white cake made by whipping egg whites with sugar until the mixture becomes becomes firm; before gently folding the flour in. Angel food birthday cakes marry beautifully with fresh fruits and have a sponge, chewy quality derived from its relatively high sugar content and absence of egg yolks.

Baked in un-greased two-piece tube pans, the angel food cake is cooled by inverting it; since this type of cake would collapse if cooled right side-up in the pan, or if removed from the pan while still warm.

8) Biscuit Cake

Biscuit birthday cakes are another type of sponge cake containing both egg yolks and whites; but unlike genoise, the yolks and whites are whipped separately before being folded back together. This creates a light batter that’s drier than a genoise cake but holds its shape better after mixing. Thus, biscuit cakes are often used for pipped shaped cakes such as ladyfingers. If baked in a tube pan, the resulting sponge cake will become very chewy.

9) Baked Flourless Cake

These type of cakes include baked cheesecakes and flourless chocolate cakes. For convenient removal, they’re often made in a springform pan, although some can also be made in regular round layer cake pans.

This birthday cake is baked in a water bath; which involves placing the filled pan in a larger pan that’s half-filled with water, to insulate the creamy, delicate cake from the oven’s strong bottom heat; which will give the bakes cake a porous texture instead of a silky one.

10) Unbaked Flourless Cake

As the name suggests, these type of cakes are moulded in a dessert ring or springform pan then chilled in the fridge before unmoulding. They often have a crust or bottom layer that’s baked before the mousse is added. Sometimes, other layers such as genoise or biscuit; are alternated with the mousse. Other types of unbaked flourless cake include mousse cakes and unbaked cheesecakes.

11) Carrot Cake

The carrot cake uses the same leavening practices of butter cake; however, a neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil is used instead of butter. For this reason, carrot cakes can be kept a little longer than butter cakes but can sometimes come out on the greasy side. The process is exactly the same as that of a butter cake; except instead of starting out beating butter and sugar, you start out whipping sugar and eggs before adding oil.

Birthday Cakes Types

Inspired by the different types of cakes yet? Looking for more articles about birthday parties?

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