I love Martha's coconut cake that has cocnut milk in the batter. Coconut is so polarizing though.

I made a pistachio love cake years ago that was the best cake I have ever made. Wish I remembered the recipe.

What is on your menu? I try to have some kind of through line between the meal and dessert.

Rob, do you know what she’d prefer? I love white cake with lemon curd filling and buttercream icing. Add some raspberries and I’m even happier.

Kendrah, years ago I would make a pistachio cake. I‘d have to check the recipe. It was made in a bundt pan and involved pistachio pudding mix and sour cream.

My daughter’s bday is 12/25 She wants an angel food cake made from scratch every year. I save the egg yolks and make a gold cake for New Year’s Eve.

See how different they all are? Of course I asked her for her favorite, but as much as we know each other, I don't know??? We can communicate by looking at each other and I still don't know! I love all these suggestions.

@chloebud - I remember wizzing the pistachios in the food processor. No pudding mix in the cake. It was so good I made it for a friend's wedding cake too.

I found the link to the cake recipe but the website no longer exists. Darn. This seems like a great pistachio cake with pistachio cream cheese buttercream. https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/moist-pistachio-cake-recipe/

" Of course I asked her for her favorite "

Good, you took a beeline to resolving the dilemma. What was her response?

This spurred yet another nice conversation with chatgpt, about the dense, rich chocolate cake that has been my request for the past few decades. While I did say it was from an Austrian family, AI correctly identified it as Austrian-Jewish. It’s a near flourless cake, and my favorite.

Devils food with dark chocolate frosting would be mine, the rest of my crew choose German Chocolate with the traditional pecan/coconut frosting. We tend to not do cake, however. Pie beats out cake every time.

Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.

Well, maybe your sister is like me and that it doesn't matter what cake you were to make, it's all good! Maybe she thinks "surprise me!" :) My sister always makes her husband an Italian Cream Cake, that is their personal favorite.

For me, it's a carrot cake.......but I have no idea what she likes.

I make DH carrot cake with cream cheese icing every year for his birthday. I like chocolate cake or vanilla cake (not just white cake) with peanut butter icing. The icing needs to be a good 3/4" thick or more lol

Arcy, we do birthday pie, too!

Carrot is our go-to.

Cholebud-- Could you please print the recipe for your white cake with lemon curd filling and buttercream icing.? It sounds so good, I think my daughter on the 27 would like that for her birthday. Being so close to Christmas, she just says she doesnt want a cake, but I think this would interest her.

My favorite is banana cake

Cheese cake

Fun topic. for a birthday cake I like a plain white cake with a radpberry or strawberry filling. Butter cream for the frosting..

But…..for just a cake, no birthday attached, I like carrot with cream cheese frosting, a cream and fruit tart, apple cake.

Ladypat, yes Chloe, I second that!

Katlan, can you share your carrot cake recipe too?

Kendrah, I love coconut but DH doesn’t. Both DD’s do though.

My favorite birthday cake, really, is white or yellow cake with buttercream icing. And pink roses. Very throwback! Just a small slice, please. But I’m the only one in the family who likes it, so it mostly goes to waste — or my waist! Given that, I am happy with a hot fudge sundae with a candle.

Years ago, a guy who was doing an activity for my son’s birthday party said that his family had started doing birthday brownies with powdered sugar, no icing. Very simple, everyone likes them, easy to store, easy to send home with people. Brilliant! At kid parties I noticed that the kids (mostly boys for us) never noticed the theme of the cake or how well it was carried out on the cake decoration, and some ate cake but no icing, or icing but no cake, or ”doesn’t like that kind”, and anyway a half-served cake never looks nice, etc. So we tried the brownies. Did that to great reception and success for several years, then one year a kid asked for birthday pie (after hearing me talk about a childhood friend’s family’s birthday pie tradition) and a new tradition was born.

All of these answers sound great, and AR girl hit it closest-she loves all I make! She basically said don't go to any trouble, but I will do something to let her know that she isn't "trouble".

We save the carrot cake for Easter, and the time is close enough that I'll wait on that one ;)

If it were my birthday, I'd choose Portello's Chocolate Cake. Another favorite of mine from when I was a kid is an Angel food cake and my Mom would make homemade whipped cream and fold in drained crushed pineapple and ice the cake with that. It has to be refrigerated and served cold.

DH loves his mom’s recipe for Walnut Glory Cake. We have made the recipe, and wow. Nine eggs. Separated. It is light and delicious. But nine eggs. He created a simpler, lower-sugar, lower-fat version (thanks to his AI buddy) which is also good. But, pie.

Easy….chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

There probably isn't a cake I don't like, but my daughter bakes me an angel food, layers with cream cheese, ricotta, and fresh strawberries.Whipped cream on top.

My own favorite is lemon curd-yellow cake with lemon curd between the layers and poured over the top but having said that both my ex and my present husband are major fans of German Chocolate- the one with the coconut pecan frosting?

patriciae

My Dad’s chocolate cake with Richmond Frosting (doubled) from the 1940 BH&G cookbook. It is repeated in later editions also.

2nd choice is Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting and pecans

3rd choice is hard, between Coconut cake and Strawberry cake.

ladypat1, I like this recipe for the cake and icing. I do use salted butter and reduce the amout of salt…1/2 tsp. for the cake and a pinch for the icing. For the lemon curd, I use either Ina Garten’s or Lori Longbotham’s recipe. OR, you can use good quality store bought lemon curd.

Link - White Cake

Link - Ina’s Lemon Curd

This is Lori’s recipe from her book ”Lucious Lemon Desserts” (great book, BTW!).

Lemon Curd

Uses approximately 3 lemons. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks

1. Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar, lemon juice, zest and salt. Whisk in the yolks until smooth.
3. Cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it thickens and leaves a path on the back of a wooden spoon when a finger is drawn across it; do not allow the mixture to boil.
4. Immediately pour the Lemon Curd through a strainer into a bowl. Let cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to

I want a white bakery cake with white icing and roses, and I get the big rose. I can have my favorite cakes anytime of the year but I want nostalgia for my birthday.

For my 50th, we had a baker who lives in my building make an Esterhazy torte. It was 10 layers - custard buttercream with cognac sandwiched between layers of hazelnut and almond dacquioise.

It was pure heaven. Seemed like something Paul Hollywood would have given as a techincal challenge.

Not sure it's considered cake, but Tiramisu! Yum

Kendrah, that pistachio cake looks and sounds yummy!

It's fun to make unexpected things like tiramisu, bread pudding, or poached pears instead of a cake. People always appreciate something out of the ordinary.

Growing up, I liked a chocolate cake with powdered sugar on it. My brother liked angel food cake. Like other people, I like most cakes but these are still my favorites. I think all that icing is just way too sweet.

DH always wants a cherry cobbler for his birthday. If I'm making my own birthday cake, I make a Zuppa Inglese, layers of sponge cake brushed with a sherry/milk mixture, then between each sponge layer a layer of stiff rich custard topped with sliced strawberries, then the whole thing frosted with sweetened whipped cream.

Mine is a Texas Sheet Cake-my mom always made me one until she passed away in 2012-since then, my sister took over. Looks like the one below-but my sister decorates the top with half-pecans. And, of course it's served with vanilla ice cream.

https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/the-best-texas-sheet-cake/

Forgot about a family favorite…White Chocolate Raspberry from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Thinking of ordering some of their mini bundts for Christmas Eve.

Our favorite is 'Reine de Saba' using Julia Child's recipe - chocolate almond cake, but I can see a layered cake being more festive !

Joy of Cooking Gold layer cake was also one I've made often for birthdays, (I used chocolate frosting and filling which pleased us all for kids' birthdays) but the recipe calls for lemon-orange custard filling, lemon filling, or raspberry jam

Recently, I visited my sister in Vancouver to help celebrate her 80th birthday. I knew that Chinese bakeries often have cakes not overly sweet, my sister's preference, so I ordered a layered sponge cake with fruit and whipped cream in the layers. It was light, refreshing and not too sweet and was one of the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted. It was the perfect end to our dinner of fried chicken and a wonderful change from the sometimes syrupy sweet typical cake.

How can I forget one of my favorites - olive oil cake with a hint of orange.

Birthday cakes always remind me of my mother and my sweet aunts (my Dad’s sisters), who could all make some yummy cakes. I actually prefer a good pie most of the time but i do love several cakes. Someone mentioned the white chocolate rwspberry from Nothing Bundt Cales. It’s a favorite of ours too. And the Chantilly Cake from Whole Foods is probably at the top of my list. Stacey_mb, it is similar to what you bought from the chinese bakery. I might order a few slices (not a whole cake) for our oldest DGD who will be home for Christmas from California. It’s one of her favorites too. I like German Chocolate cake as my Mom make it, a fresh coconut cake with orange filling my aunt made (melt in your mouth goodness) (have not had one of those in decades), and chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting.

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I appreciate that writing “Happy Birthday” is easier on white icing, but nothing beats chocolate.

A bit late to this - one of my personal faves is chocolate cake with whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top. I also used to love Black Forest Torte - which is chocolate, whipped cream and sweet cherries - but haven't had that one in many years now.

I always prefer whipped cream to any other frosting. Hubby's fave is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and a family fave (and another of mine) is cranberry poke cake(yellow) topped with whipped cream - which I've made for the holidays, and as my own birthday cake.

A coworker told my boss that my favourite cake was carrot cake, and she brought a red velvet cake to my retirement party. Everyone else enjoyed it :)

^^^@Toronto Vet, WTaF? Because…? Carrot wasn’t available or SHE doesn’t like it? Red velvet is at the rock bottom of my list too. How rude. I think i would have brought vanilla or chocolate imstead of that choice.

As a child I had two, chocolate with white fluffy icing (not even sure you can buy it anymore) and yellow cake with chocolate icing. My mom would make me both. I think now would be one made with manderin oranges, coconut, pineapple and I think pecans? Don't remember the name of it but it was so good.

" How rude."

Now you know why I decided to retire now, and not in a few years like I intended ;)

I loved all the suggestions, but I ended up making Chloe's white cake with lemon curd and buttercream frosting. It was good to come up with something I hadn't made before. It was a hit! I did add sugared cranberries (https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/sugared-cranberries/) as decorations on top.

Sis was excited to get to take the remainder with her to her next event for her birthday, and share with them. Thank you all very very much, and I'm sure I'll be referencing this thread again.

I used to think it was a disadvantage to have my birthday fall during Passover, back in the days when I thought my only option was sponge cake. Then I discovered the Hungarian bakery makes a nut cake with raspberry jam between the layers. Unfortunately, it's only available during the holiday. Last year I ordered two of them because I decided to share ;-)

Great to know it was enjoyed!😊