Classic Birthday Cake

What do you get when your friend is visiting on her birthday, you’re going to see Justin Bieber in concert and you’re in the middle of baking out of Dessert Person? A Justin Bieber Classic Birthday Cake!

Even though I’m relatively new to baking cakes from scratch, the Classic Birthday Cake felt very familiar to me. All the ingredients included items I typically have in my fridge and pantry already. The nicest part—it was an easy cake to make, which helped since I wanted to decorate it my own way. While Claire often says decorating isn’t her strong suit, it is a big reason why I fell in love with baking decades ago.

Like other cakes I’ve made so far, I buttered the cake pans, cut out parchment paper for the bottoms and then mixed my dry ingredients. Then in a stand mixer, I combined the butter, sugar and oil, adding in the eggs after that. The egg yolks helped create that beloved yellow cake batter. After adding in the vanilla, I went back and forth adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk into the mix.

Once the batter was complete, I divided it amongst the three pans. I did try to weigh the pans to see if I could get 17 ounces in each like Claire suggested, but I didn’t seem to have enough batter for that. The cakes baked for about 33 minutes; I definitely noticed the pan that was closer to the hottest part of my oven cooked faster, and I think the type of pans also made a difference (I have two light silver pans and one dark metal one).

While the cakes cooled down, I made the Classic Cream Cheese Frosting. Claire suggested the chocolate variation, but I stuck with a vanilla version since I wanted to add colors to it later. It was essentially the same recipe I use for American buttercream, except with some cream cheese replacing the unsalted butter components. Unlike pie dough, you should let your butter and cream cheese sit out for a little bit to soften; it doesn't need to be extremely soft, but enough for it to mix smoothly without getting melty.

When I taste tested the Classic Cream Cheese Frosting (an absolutely necessity if you ask me), it wasn’t as sweet as I was hoping. I know many people love this frosting for that exact reason, but I did add a little more sugar, salt and vanilla to get it to the level of flavor I was anticipating. The nice thing about frosting recipes like this one is you can easily add ingredients to level out the flavors without serious consequences. After making a single batch, though, I realized I would likely need more than one batch of frosting, but not an entire double batch for what I wanted to create. I made a second batch so I could ensure I’d get those beautiful, thick frosting layers in between the cakes like the pictures in Dessert Person.

From this point, I followed Claire’s directions in layering the cakes, but went my own route for the decorating. I added a heaping pile of frosting to the top of each layer, then completed a crumb coat. This could certainly be enough if you are looking to make a trendy so-called “naked” cake; with some flowers it would be beautiful. Once all this was done, I took the decorating into my own hands; this is where I am pretty damn good!

My goal was to make the cake look like the cover of Justin Bieber’s Justice album, which has a mix of yellows, greens and blues with some black and white. I split most of the leftover frosting in three bowls. Using a yellow and blue frosting dye, I mixed yellow, light green, and light blue colors. I placed those colors in three separate piping bags with angled flower petal tips; this helped me get the frosting on the sides of the cake easily before creating an Ombre look.

I piped the green on the bottom, yellow in the middle and the blue on the sides and top of the cake. With a bench scraper and large offset spatula, I carefully glided the frosting by moving the cake stand counter-clockwise and holding the tool against the side of the cake. This was the first time I ever used this technique, but after a couple rounds it turned into the Ombre look I was hoping for!

I then mixed a little bit of frosting into black; I caution anyone who uses black dye on a cake to keep in mind how it will turn people’s mouths black as well (same goes for blue, purple and green)! For this reason, I only used it to create an abstract roadway that gave the illusion of sliding off the cake. I piped some of the yellow to make road markers. To make my life easier, I printed off a picture from the album cover of Justin Bieber, cut it out and taped toothpicks on the back and stuck it on the top of the road. I also printed my friend Kailey’s name in bold light blue and cut it out, sticking it in front of Justin.

After adding some luster dust and matching sprinkles, it was complete! Overall I was very happy with how it turned out; I didn’t want it to look perfect in design since the colors are all over the place on the album cover. By using a cream cheese frosting, I was able to create that impression successfully; this frosting is not as firm as American buttercream, which is the typical frosting used to create intricate cake designs. If you are starting to learn how to decorate cakes, use American buttercream to practice!

The best part of making the Classic Birthday Cake was getting to surprise my friend Kailey. She loved the cake and was a boss in blowing out all the candles at once! We all enjoyed the fluffiness of the cake recipe; it’s a pretty tame flavor, but one that you’ll never go wrong with. Paired with the Classic Cream Cheese frosting, it was a great recipe for a group of adults since it was not overly sweet (always appreciated when you’re pairing cake with adult beverages). I will definitely utilize this recipe again, and I appreciate how it can be easily used with an array of frosting options. Oh, and if you’re wondering…the Justin Bieber concert was great.

Claire made this recipe on her YouTube channel! I didn’t know how essential it was to let your cakes go until the last half of the baking time before moving them around; luckily I haven’t messed this up yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPmGOVib05o