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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.