Unfortunately, I don’t have 100 birthday cake ideas for you. (Actually, I probably could come up with 100, but that would be a long list.)
Homemade Birthday Cake Ideas (+ Easy Recipes)
However, I’ve pulled together 33 of my all-time favorite options for tasty, beautiful birthday cakes. Some of these, like the coconut cake, are pretty standard. Others, such as the pirate ship cake, are a little more non-traditional and may require some small amount of baking and cake decorating talent. Still, there’s something on this list to fit everyone’s tastes and levels of skill in the kitchen, so keep reading to find the perfect birthday cake for yourself or your loved one this year.
1. Atomic Cake
So, why is this colorful, layered cake called an atomic cake? Because it’s the bomb, of course! It’s genuinely the cake for everyone, no matter their favorites. The bottom layer is chocolate cake, followed by yellow or banana cake, with a white (or strawberry) layer on top. In between each cake layer are vanilla, chocolate, and banana puddings, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries and bananas. In short, this cake is phenomenal.
2. Hamburger Cake
This hamburger cake may look super complicated and intricate, but you’ll make it with only five ingredients and different colored food dyes. The “buns” are yellow cake layers. The hamburger patty is a chocolate-iced chocolate cake layer, and the lettuce, cheese, and condiments are dyed and shaped fondant.
3. Ding Dong Cake
Ironically, this Ding Dong cake looks much simpler than the hamburger cake, but it requires far more ingredients and a bit more work. Even so, it’s not difficult either, just a bit time-consuming. And after you take the first bite of that sweet, fluffy chocolate cake with the chocolate ganache frosting and creamy vanilla filling, you won’t mind the extra time you spent making it.
4. Pineapple Dream Cake
If you like cakes that are as moist as they are fluffy, you’ll love the pineapple dream cake. It’s buttery, juicy, and tremendously tropical. The light, whipped cream frosting is simply the delicious icing on the cake.
5. Chocolate Drip Cake
If you’re looking for a lovely, elegant cake that looks professional but takes only about 5 minutes to decorate, you should check out the chocolate drip cake. Once you make your cakes and ice them, you’ll combine melted chocolate chips with heavy whipping cream, then squeeze the mixture along the edge of your cake so that it drips down the side. After that, you can ice the top of the cake with the remainder of the frosting or leave it un-iced.
6. Banana Cake
This is another extra moist, extra fluffy, extra simple cake that takes minimal effort and gives you maximum flavor. It’s light, sweet, and full of banana-y goodness. That’s hard to beat.
7. Powdered Donut Cake
This cake is simply a plain cake layer topped with melted butter and powdered sugar. You can use a boxed cake mix, of course. However, if you have the time and ingredients, I recommend making the homemade version outlined in the recipe. It’s so much better.
8. Malted Milk Pinata Cake
Pinatas are plenty of fun, but they can be messy and even a little dangerous depending on who’s swinging the stick. Use this recipe and make a malted milk pinata cake, instead. It’s dense, buttery, and sugary-sweet, and when you cut into it, a treasure trove of candy comes spilling out, just like from a real pinata.
9. Lemon Cake
If you like cakes that are sweet, tart, and zesty in equal measure, you’ll love this recipe for lemon cake. Like most cakes, it takes a little over an hour to make, but your prep time shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes. The ingredients list is pretty standard, as well. All you’ll need is yellow cake mix, lemon Jell-O, vegetable oil, eggs, water, lemon extract, powdered sugar, and lemon juice. As you can tell by looking at that list, this cake is a bit more tart than sweet, but even so, it’s a delicious and incredibly lovely cake.
10. Butterfinger Cake
It’s hard for me to talk about this cake without falling over and drooling. It’s one of the sweetest, most decadent, and delicious cakes I’ve ever tasted. No joke. Between the marble cake, whipped caramel topping, additional caramel sauce, chopped Butterfinger pieces, chocolate syrup, and Cool Whip, this cake is pure, heavenly bliss. It’s fluffy and crunchy, and it’s sweet, Sweet, SWEET. Because there’s nothing better to me than salt with chocolate and caramel, I also add a dash of sea salt to the top, but you can take or leave that as you please.
11. Cheesecake
This cheesecake has the perfect crumbly crust and thick, velvety smooth cheesecake filling. It’s that distinct combination of tart and sweet that only cheesecakes can pull off correctly. Whether you serve it plain or with berries, chocolate sauce, and other things on top, it’s sure to be a hit.
12. Happy Lion Birthday Cake
If you’re looking for an adorable birthday cake idea for one of your favorite kids, try the happy lion birthday cake. It’s so cute that you won’t want to eat it, but it’s too tasty to resist. Despite how it looks, it’s just as easy to make as the hamburger cake. In fact, most people can have it prepped, baked, and decorated in a little under an hour. And don’t worry about the dry spaghetti whiskers. You can always remove them once you start slicing pieces.
13. Black Forest Cake
If the thought of black forest cake doesn’t make you groan in pleasure, then you’ve never had black forest cake. The cake layers use pretty standard ingredients – eggs, sugar, flour, butter, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder. It takes almost no time to whip up two of them and have them ready to go. For the cherry filling, you’ll need pitted cherries, cherry liqueur, and water. The frosting is heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, more cherry liqueur, and rich dark chocolate. The cake is stunning – more like a work of art than a cake, and the slight bitterness of the dark chocolate shavings flawlessly complement the icing’s sweetness and the cherry filling’s tanginess. In all my years on this planet, I’ve never found anyone who didn’t love it.
14. Crepe Cake
What could be better than a thin, delicious crepe? How about 15 thin, delicious crepes with 15 layers of sweet cream between them? Throw a handful of your favorite berries on top, and it’s like you’re having breakfast and dessert all at the same time. (YES, please!)
15. Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
With Duncan Hines’ Signature Pineapple Supreme cake mix, making pineapple upside-down cake has never been simpler. It’s so easy that you can make it in less than an hour. It’s a pretty cake, and although it may not look like a traditional “birthday cake,” after one bite of this supremely moist, tantalizing tropical treat, no one’s going to care what it looked like, anyway.
16. Bucket of M&Ms Kit Kat Cake
I love this gorgeous cake, especially for a kid’s birthday party. It looks like something you’d pay a massive amount of money for at an upscale bakery, but it’s actually surprisingly simple to make, and you’ll only need four ingredients. Simply make two round cakes with whatever cake mix you like; then stack and frost them generously with chocolate frosting. Finally, add your broken Kit Kat bars around the cake’s exterior, tie a ribbon around them (both for appearances and to help hold them in place), and top the cake with colorful M&Ms. Take a little time to check out the other pictures, as well. You can do a lot with this simple cake to make it suitable for any occasion.
17. Number Cake
The number cake takes a bit more skill to make, but once you get it right, you’ll never want to stop making it. It’s pure and total decadence, and I mean that in the best way. The great part about it is that you can use whatever toppings and decorations you like once you have the basic cake ready to go. Also, you may mess up the first couple of times, and that’s excellent because it means you’ll get to eat more cake and feel no guilt about it. You can’t waste it, after all!
18. Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Why choose between cake and cookies when you could have both? The chocolate chip cookie cake combines the best of both worlds. It’s sweet, chocolatey, dense, and unbelievably rich. And, of course, it tastes excellent with a tall glass of milk.
19. Key Lime Cake
This simple, elegant cake is perfect for any classy lady (or gent) who wants something simple, sweet, and just a little bit sour for her birthday celebration. It’s full of citrus yumminess and is cool and refreshing, making it perfect for those people with summertime birthdays.
20. Coconut Cake
Light, fluffy, and covered in luscious cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut, the coconut cake in this recipe is one of my all-time favorites. There are no added flavors, such as pineapple, raisins, or strawberries. It’s just pure, unadulterated coconut bliss.
21. Rainbow Cake
Rainbow cakes are fun, charming, and perfect for rainbow-, unicorn-, fairy tale-, or tie-dyed-themed birthday parties. They’re also excellent for pride month celebrations. They’re easy to make and insanely colorful. They’re soft and fluffy on the inside and crunchy and textured on the outside, thanks to all the sprinkles. As written, the recipe makes a relatively small cake, though, so you may want to double or triple the recipe for a larger celebration.
22. Pirate Ship Cake
When it comes to themed cakes, the pirate ship cake is one of my favorites, no question about it. It does take a bit of time and a little bit of skill to make, though. However, as long as you have the right cake decorating tools, it’s not nearly as complicated as you might initially think. If you’re making this cake, you’re primarily making it for how it looks, but it also tastes fantastic. Between the cake, chocolate icing, white icing, Hershey’s bars, and Pirouette cookies, there’s a lot about this cake to love.
23. Root Beer Float Cake
You can make this five-ingredient root beer float cake in about an hour. The cake itself is soft but dense and surprisingly filling. The root beer glaze adds some sweetness, and it hardens after some time, which adds a nice contrast in texture between it and the pillowy cake.
24. Louisiana Crunch Cake
Louisiana crunch cake looks a little like a snow-capped mountain, making it the ideal centerpiece for any table. It also tastes phenomenal. In each bite, you’ll notice several flavors – lemon, vanilla, butter, coconut, and that traditional “cake” flavor. And you can’t forget the nutty crunch on top!
25. Pineapple Angel Food Cake
The pineapple angel food cake tastes remarkably similar to the pineapple dream cake. If you’re pressed for time and need to whip something up last minute, you can make this one much faster. Simply mix the pineapples and juice in with your angel food cake mix and bake the cake. Then, cover it in whipped cream (and a few extra pineapple chunks if you like) and serve it.
26. Oreo Cheesecake
Oreo cheesecake is another great option for whipping up a last-minute birthday cake in a hurry. There’s no cooking involved, and you can have it ready in about 15 minutes. All you’ll need are some Oreos, butter, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and Cool Whip. It’s a light, fluffy, totally refreshing cake that’s perfect for the hotter months of the year.
27. Chocolate Cake
If I have chocolate cake, I want chocolate cake – not white cake with chocolate frosting, not marble cake, and not yellow cake with chocolate between the layers. I want chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate layers in between. That’s precisely what you’ll get with this Hershey’s chocolate cake. It’s 100% chocolate overload, and it’s every chocolate lover’s dream come true.
28. Buttercream Flower Cake
This tasty cake is yummy, but more than that, it’s stunningly beautiful. And yes, I know how it looks, but trust me, it’s not nearly as complicated as you think. The instructions in this recipe can teach you precisely how to make these gorgeous, colorful flowers and swirls. Once you learn, you’ll add flowers to all your desserts. Take a bit of time to learn this skill. If you’re a big cake baker, it’ll serve you well in your future endeavors. You may want to experiment with a bit of edible glitter, as well.
29. Giant Cupcake Cake
If you’re making dessert for someone who wants a cake but loves cupcakes, this giant cupcake cake will be a huge hit. It’s pretty, colorful, and there’s a delightful confetti-like surprise inside each one. (You can also tweak the colors on this enchanting cake to make a perfect gender reveal cake.)
30. Strawberry Shortcake
Don’t you wish you could make enough easy, hassle-free strawberry shortcakes so that everyone could have their own? With this recipe for Bisquick strawberry shortcakes, you can! That’s because the “cake” is actually a Bisquick biscuit. You’ll simply add strawberries and cream to each one. It’s a great (super sanitary) way to serve strawberry shortcake without having to make one large cake.
31. Birthday Cake Pops
Speaking of not making “one large cake,” there are plenty other options for birthday parties that aren’t strictly cake-related. For example, these sprinkle-covered cake pops are a fun way to prepare single-serving desserts for your next birthday bash. They taste like traditional birthday cakes, but they’re smaller and much more helpful if you’re trying to watch your weight and portion sizes.
32. Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
These ice cream cone cupcakes are another fun, exciting, and unique single-serving birthday cake idea. Each ice cream cone has a confetti-filled cupcake inside of it. Then you’ll simply ice it and cover it in sprinkles. They’re cute, festive, and easy to make. Plus, you can personalize them for those mixed families who can’t agree on chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, or something else.
33. Birthday Cupcakes
These pretty, yellow cake cupcakes may be relatively plain, but when something works, there’s no reason to mess with it. These are fluffy, moist, sweet, and can be decorated any way you like. Plus, everyone can have their own, and you can make sure you have plenty to go around. It’s hard to beat simple yumminess. Click on a star to rate it!
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