Happy Birthday Cake

I was somewhat disappointed with this recipe after seeing all of the rave reviews. I decorate cakes for a side job and I had a customer who wanted a really good homemade yellow cake for her husband's birthday. I don't get a request for a yellow cake very often so I went looking for a recipe and found this one. I made one for me to try at the same time I made the one to decorate. I did not overbake the cake, followed the directions as is and it came out dry, heavy and very crumbly. The flavor was fair but the texture was awful. I ended up brushing the customer's cake with a vanilla simple syrup and coating it with a glaze before icing it in hopes it would taste better and hold up better. I was hoping for a fluffy, tasty cake but this was not it. I will not make this again.

I made this cake for my son's 3rd birthday. As others have said, it is very dense and heavy. It was also very moist and tasted great. Everyone at the party loved it. I did have to bake it for almost twice as long as recommended in the recipe but it was worth the wait. I will definitely make it again for a friend's birthday in a few weeks time.

I ran late and needed to bake a cake just as the guests were arriving, so had to make shortcuts. I softened the butter in the microwave and mixed the eggs in without separating them and the cake still turned out great! I did have to lower the oven temperature to 300 after 15 mins though, since I saw that the cake was browning too much on top and was still undone inside (convection air oven). It also make a huge cake and would have overflowed had I not used as big a cake pan as I did. I sifted cocoa powder over it (quick and less fattening than frosting and anyway the cake was still warm and would've melted any frosting!) and it looked elegant. The guests loved it! Very buttery smooth and just as delicious the next day after refridgeration. Great recipe since it uses basic ingredients on hand that one could just throw in one go. This is a keeper!!!

This cake came out beautifully, but I only gave it 4 stars because I had to make a lot of adjustments. First of all, make sure to soften the butter before you mix it. This makes it easier to work with and helps melt the sugar. Secondly, I would decrease the amount of sugar in this recipe by about half a cup because it turned out very sweet. Thirdly, I had to add an extra half cup of milk to the recipe to smooth out the batter. And lastly, it was necessary for me to increase the cooking time by an extra 20 minutes before it was done. However, with all of those adjustments, the cake turned out very moist, fluffy and sweet. I will definitely make this again!

This is the best birthday cake in the world and I have made a lot of cakes. Use real butter if you can! It rises beautifully and is of perfect texture. I used a cream chees icing. One 8 oz. block cream cheese, 1/2 cup marg. 1tsp. vanilla and about 4 cups icing sugar. YUMMY!! Thanks for the recipe. Susan from Nova Scotia, Canada

This year I wanted to make my grand daughters birthday cake and I used this recipe. I must say it was very delicious. I added my own frosting but overall I had enough cake to feed everyone at the party and the best part of it was that they all thought I brought it from a bakery. They ate all of the cake the same night so two days later I made another one.

I don't know why some others say it is packy. If you follow the recipe to the letter, it comes out great. Be sure you are sifting your flour/baking powder mixture, and fluffing your egg whites. Thanks for the keeper!!

A good basic recipe. It tasted good.

love the cake! instead of 3 9 inch pans i used two and double deckered the cake :)

great cake. I used it to make my son's birthday train cake, inside a Wilton train pan. When I cut off the extra from the top and tried it, it tasted great! I did alter it a bit though, I used almond extract instead of vanilla, and I used buttermilk instead of milk. great recipe!!!

I made this cake for my daughter's birthday. It was dry but it didn't taste too bad. I was afraid that it might. It came out of the oven smelling like an omlet. I had high hopes because of the other reviews but I was so disappointed. I had lots of people at the party who I'm afraid thing I'm a bad cook now. At least the icing I made to go on it made it taste better. I won't make it again.

Hey guys, this is a good recipe....I have a business and a client was looking for a white/yellow cake base with strawberry filling and a buttercream frosting. THIS IS IT!!! This cake reminds me a lot of another coconut cake I make that I get lots of rave reviews for. This will be the cake I use for children's parties and adults as well!! Thank you Carol for the recipe!

This birthday cake is absolute perfection... first time to make it, followed the directions exactly. I was able to make a 2-tier cake with this recipe (one 10" round & one 8" round). Cooked 45 mins. convection oven (the 8" was done at 35 mins). I covered the cake with sliced fresh strawberries (mixed strawberries in organic yogurt), bananas, kiwi and spread melted chocolate only on outside of bottom layer. The cake itself was not too sweet, so the toppings I had added complimented it perfectly that everyone at the BDay party wanted 2nds. (please see my photo)

This cake was delicious- a nice, slightly dense, moist cake. It was actually my first layer cake (so I followed all steps carefully), and it baked very well. I made it with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (also submitted by Carol)- yum. I will definitely be making it again!

Tried this recipe because our town bakery stopped making cakes on weekends, my daughter turned one on a Sunday and I was not going to make a box cake for her 1st birthday. I must say I was scared to death, my family can be harsh and everyone has as opinion. Started the cake on the morning of the party, set it out to cool. My sister recommended injecting it with rasberry preserves, we made a basic butter cream icing, layered it with icing and thin layer of rasberry preserves. 3 layers in all. sprinkled white chocolate over the top. We put pink decorative icing on the top and a beautiful pink candle. I was so nervous when we sang Happy Birthday and we cut the cake. Everyone started to compliment me, and I was dubbed the official birthday cake maker from now on. My husband said that the cake made our little one's special day even better. Thanks for posting the recipe that made my husband proud of me and my efforts. I feel bad that I had never attempted making a cake for our 16yr old all these years. If you need a great tasting cake try this recipe. Highly recommend it.

I used this recipe each week while attending a cake decorating class and it turned out great each time. The secret is folding in those hard egg white before baking- I noticed a big change when I missed that step.

I really needed this recipe to work since I'd promised to make my friend a birthday cake and I hadn't made one from scracth in years - and it didn't disappoint! I used self-raising flour instead of plain flour (I think that's what's mean by all-purpose?) and caster sugar because I am so bad at mixing out lumps... The result was a dream. It was the lightest cake I've ever tasted and had a beautiful taste to it. Everyone loved the cake and asked for the recipe, so I pointed them towards this one. Thanks a lot! It was divine.

This recipe did not work for me. It smelled like an omelette and tasted like flour. It had the consistancy of a pound cake and was very dry. I followed the directions precisely. I will not use this one again

This cake is really good. I use the "Wedding Cake Frosting" recipe for this cake. Sometimes I use almond extract instead of the vanilla.

I made this for my brother's birthday yesterday and topped it with Chocolate Frosting I, also on this site. It was great! My whole family loved it, one person saying "This is definately better than boxed cake!" I'm not a fantastic baker, I can admit it, but this was easy enough for me. It was worth the extra work of whipping the egg whites because it made the cake nice and moist. And yes, it does smell like an omelet coming out of the oven as others have mentioned, but it does NOT taste like one!

I wouldn't suggest it for a kids birthday cake as it is a little to eggy and not really sweet enough for a children's birtday cake. Overall, this was a pretty yummy dessert!

Literally tasted like a store-bought birthday cake, but fluffier and lighter. Really good recipe for a basic easy to make birthday cake.

Delicious! I use this all the time now for family birthdays, alternating with the Black Magic Cake, also on this site. Be sure to follow directions as far as adding the beaten egg whites separately. I sometimes substitute 1 cup of canned coconut milk for the milk, and use the frosting from Coconut Cake II from this site, also using coconut milk in place of regular milk. Thanks, Carol, for this recipe!

After reading the reviews I decided to give this cake a try for my daughters 18th birthday. I did cut down on the sugar by 1/2 a cup and increased the milk by 1/3 cup approx. I too had to increase the cooking time by 20-25 minutes. The end result was a light yet firm, fluffy textured evenly colored sponge. I will def. keep this recipe.

not bad; very sweet though, depends on your personal taste

This was delicious. I made it using vegan substitutions and it still turned out fantastic. It is dense, and it did take about twice the baking time as recommended (about 50 min to an hour) but it was moist and exactly what I wanted. I used butterscotch flavoring in the cake for a little extra something and almond flavoring in my frosting.

The first time I made this, it came out very dense. I had listened to a reviewer who said you don't have to bother separating the eggs. This time around I followed the directions, and it came out beautifully. Light and moist with a great texture. I added a second tsp. of vanilla, and it had a wonderful flavor. This is my new favorite yellow cake recipe. Thank you!

Turned out good...very heavy but good, sweet and pretty. Similar taste to pound cake. Worked for making a princess cake for my 4 yr old.

I like this recipe for a birthday cake and it tastes great! If you make it properly, it is light, soft with texture resembling a chiffon cake. I also tried it on as cupcakes, changed the flavor to cheese and added 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese and I had cheese cupcakes. I also tried it with cinnamon powder and I had cinnnamon cupcakes. All of these I served during my daughter's birthday party and everyone loved it! Thanks Carol.

This cake was great. Imade it for my brothers birthday with my chocolate crean cheese frosting and every body loved it.

I made this cake in a 9x13. I made it exactly the way it read except a added just a small amount (didn't measure) of milk at the end because the batter was REALLY thick. The only thing that I noticed was that after 30 minutes at 350 the knife came out covered in raw batter. The cake was quite dark at the point so I turned the oven down to 300 and cooked another 10 minutes. Came out of the pan pretty well. I haven't had a piece yet but the crumbs were tasty and my 2 year old son pinched a chunk out of itand wanted more more more! This cake does seem very dense but I don't know why that would be a bad thing.

very moist. I make a 3 layer cake with vanilla frosting. I made it a week in advance and froze it and it was wonderful. will use again!

I used this recipe to make cupcakes for my daughter's class and they turned out delicious. I had many parents and teachers tell me how good they were. Thanks for a delicious, made from scratch, cake recipe.

This is a really good cake mix. I use it for my cake business. I am so glad that I found it. Thank you for sharing it.

I made this cake for my son´s birthday and he and his friends loved it. Excellent recipe. The cake is light and fluffy, goes great with the Lady Baltimore Frosting, also from this site.

I made this at the last minute tonight as a surprise for my husband's birthday and it turned out great!!! I actually cut the recipe in half to make one medium sized cake and I still had to bake it for a good 35 minutes, but in the end it was perfect, light but moist... I topped it with a simple buttercream icing and end result=hubby ate 3 pieces :)

I made this cake for my husband, I just wanted something to put on the table for Valentine's. I read the reviews but made the recepie as is. It was DELICIOUS. My hubby LOVED IT. I don't think it came out dense because I made it exactly like the recepie. I did however did only half of ingredients since it was only for two but seriously it was pretty big, it could have been for 10 people having big pieces! So, plan for that, it can overflow like other reviewers said. It rose beautifully, very fluffy. Try it with italian meringue, yuuummmm!

Extremely easy to make, and it tastes excellant! I had to cook it a bit longer then required.

Followed exactly and it turned out just like I thought it would.

Tastes a little buttery but it's light and exactly what I was looking for to make a birthday cake. I used some spreadable fruit (raspberry) between the layers and poured the "Pro-Ganache" over it (recipe from this site - that is SOOO good!) and decorated with fresh raspberries. Simple and awesome!!

I used this recipe to make cupcakes for my daughter's class and they turned out delicious. I had many parents and teachers tell me how good they were. Thanks for a delicious, made from scratch, cake recipe.

This is not a good cake. It is very dry.

I made this for my mum's birthday, and had many compliments about it! It was beautiful spread with fresh whipped cream and topped with sliced strawberries and pansies. Next time I'd make two layers, and sandwich them together with raspberry jam or cooled custard.

I LOVED this cake! My fellow 5th Graders loved it too and theyn asked me to bake it again and again! I also baked it for my family and they loved it too. I will always use this recipe to bake any sort of cake.

WOW - this cake is so good!

Amazing cake!! Made three round 8" cakes, and added red food coloring to the middle layer to make it pink, as well as swirled in a bit of dry cocoa, then completely copied another reviewer by using raspberry preserves (mixed with crushed, frozen raspberries) between each of the layers, icing it with the pro ganache from this site, and then using raspberries on top and to decorate the base. It turned out VERY good! The cake wasn't too heavy/sweet, but was balanced nicely with the fruit, and the whole thing was delicious. And, although people say this all the time on this site (haha), my sister actually said, "This could be store-bought," then corrected herself and said it was better than a store-bought cake! It was for my mom's birthday and she loved it =).

Made for my son's bday. Made with xylitol and made at altitude and it came out great! Tastes like a real bakery cake! Moist and delicious.

I made it for my friend's birthday. It came out very watery still. I wonder what i did wrong...

great recipe!!! easy to make!!!

it's a good cake but reminds me of the flavor of pancakes.

This came out delicious! Everyone commented that it tasted like a delicious wedding cake! Definitely worth the effort!

Edible, but BARELY. Brick-like comes to mind. Very heavy and dense. It'd be more like a bread than a cake, if breads were even this heavy. Cooking time per recipe instructions is waaaaay off. At 35 minutes, the batter was still soupy. I had to double the time. Lesson learned the hard way with this recipe... always test a recipe before serving at a function. :(

Delicious and dense. Solid cake that makes for the yummiest cake I've EVER had. Used ALMOND flavor instead of vanilla.

The cake was good. I have not made a cake in years and I had fun making this one. I did what other people did and used almond and buttermilk. I also used an Elmo pan so I had to double the cooking time also. The cake is a thicker cake and is sweet as others say. I also loved eating the edges I cut off. They were very good warm. It was very easy to decorate. It seems the cake had a good "crust" all over elmos face. I iced it with pretubed icing. It looked awesome. I refrigerated it for the next day....we pretty much ate it straight from the fridge so I think the cake was too cold n the icing was harder than I'd like. For the next birthday party I would do a lighter batter..this one was good tho just not good for birthdays. I think doing something with strawberries would be perfect for this recipe. Will do again and would suggest to others but make a practice one so I understand the taste. Also adding a filling would be so good!

OH Wow!! This cake is great! Very TASTY,SWEET and had a good density. Close to a pound cake kind of dense. I frosted it just with Cool Whip and made a simple strawberry sauce but it didn't need it at all, altho tasted great together! Definitely a keeper for birthday cakes or anytime you want a special and very simple cake :)

Very stable and tasty. Mine took a bit longer to cook than the time stated. It was worth the extra effort to whip the egg whites. The cake rose very nicely and made a lovely birthday cake.

This cake is tasty and great if you're going to cut it out to form a design to match your birthday party theme. My brother ate just about the whole thing in one sitting!

This is a great cake recipe! We made cupcakes, as that is what my daughter wanted for her birthday. We added colored sprinkles for confetti cupcakes. The texture is lovely - similar to a cake mix but without disintegrating, as I find is the case with cakes made from mix. As for the egg smell and taste that other reviewers mentioned, I didn't find that at all. I did, however, use a generous amount of quality vanilla. My suggestion to those who found it under-cooked in the middle, is to reduce temperature down to approximately 323 C for a few extra minutes (after the initial cooking time.) This allows the middle to fully cook without browning the bottom and edges. (I frequently do this with banana loaves, as well.) This is my new go-to recipe for birthday cakes!

I am very Disapointed in this cake. It came out tasting like flour. I would not recomend this recipe.

Just like some of the other reviewers I found this cake to be very dense and the recipe a bit difficult to work with. I followed the recipe to the letter but found the batter quite thick before folding in the whites so I added a lot (1/2 C +) more milk as others suggested. I'm giving it 3 stars because the taste was good enough for me to give the recipe another try.

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I HAVE BAKED THIS CAKE. FIRST TIME IT MUST HAVE WEIGHED 50 LBS. AND IT WAS NOT A SUCCESS.THIS WAS ALSO MY FIRST CAKE FROM SCRATCH I EVER BAKED AND I KINDA PACKED THE FLOUR INTO THE MEASURING CUP :) THIS TIME IT WAS MUCH, MUCH BETTER. IT WAS JUST RIGHT EXCEPT I CANT EVER GET IT TO BAKE RIGHT..I BAKED IT FOR 50 MINS. AT 350. THE MIDDLE STARTED TO CRACK AND THE EDGES WERE VERY BROWN. SO THE CAKE IS KIND OF DRY NOW...BUT IT TASTES SOOOO GOOD. I WILL EAT IT BUT THE REST OF THE FAMILY WILL PRETEND TO BE CHOKING ON IT CAUSE ITS DRY.

This is now our official birthday cake recipe! So yummy delish! It is so buttery and is not too sweet just perfect. It is so light and fluffy I am not sure why others said it was heavy. Someone said it was dry and crumbly, all I can think of is that they whipped the eggwhites too much. This recipe makes great cupcakes too! When I made it the cake rose up but as it was cooling fell inward a little bit, but that did not effect the taste. Heavenly!

THIS CAKE IS SOOO YUMMMY I LOVVVEEE IT TRUST ME YOU WANT TO MAKE THIS CAKE

I had to rate this at the top for each category, because for a "from scratch" cake, this is quick and easy -- Betty Crocker can't match it. If you follow the instructions and don't overwhip the egg whites (should be just able to stand up on the end of the beaters, but shouldn't resemble the early stages of styrofoam (!). I made this in three 9-in. layers and used my own "throw-together" buttercream icing. I made it two weeks before my daughter's 2nd birthday to test it and it passed -- she ate a big piece (she doesn't eat sweets, generally) and the party guests gave generous compliments. This is THE ONLY yellow cake recipe for me.

This is my first homemade birthday cake. I cut the recipe in half to make a smaller cake, and used 1/2c sugar and 1/2c splenda then followed the rest of the recipe exactly. Put 'Quick Fudge Icing' on top, IT TURNED OUT WONDERFUL!

This is the BEST cake. I've been making it for years!!!

I could swear I followed the recipe exactly, so who knows what went wrong.

I`ve made this recipe dozens of times with excellent results. Whether it`s cupcakes for little ones or birthday cake for seniors, all have raved about it. As for those reviewers who didn`t like, let them eat other cake:)

This cake was alright! It dries out very quickly though even though I was keeping it sealed in a cake pan. It was also very crumbly and I followed the directions exactly. How can I keep it moist the next time I make it?

This recipe was awesomeeeeeeeee!!! I used it for my son´s birthday cake in a Wilton Elmo pan and turned out perfect. I did cook it longer though. No one believed me that it was a homemade cake. I made cup cakes and the batter was great for that too. Definitely a keeper.

This cake is very crumbly almost like cornbread. I like dense cakes but this one was too crumbly and dry. My guest thought it was strange for a cake to be falling apart the way it did

Absolutely amazing! I made this for my mother's birthday party and everyone raved about it!

This is a great recipe. I made two batches for my son's 2nd birthday. One was in a 9x13 pan and the other in a Wilton 3-D Cruiser cake pan, both came out great, though the one in the Wilton pan took about 30 minutes longer in the oven. The only change I made was to add about a half teaspoon of almond extract to each cake. Delicious! Will make again.

I do not consider myself an expert baker, but my daughter warmed my heart when she asked me to bake her 5th Birthday cake myself. I was looking for an easy cake recipe. This cake was easy to make & had a great taste-I received lots of compliments on it! I used the recipe for the wedding cake icing from this website & just added water until I got a spreading consistency that I liked.

This is one of the best cakes EVER. It was perfect for decorating (Wilton-style) and the taste was out of this world. I used this cake for a Baby Shower at work and everyone loved it.

very easy to follow recipe. i liked the cake, but i found the texture to be somewhat strange. all in all it was pretty good.

True it was heavy and pretty dry, but it was also tasty and served very well the purpose I needed it for. I wouldn't use this recipe for just any occasion, but in need of a cake sturdy enough to support heavy fillings and decorations: jelly layers, buttercream icing, marzipan cover and decorations, etc... it was great.

I made this cake for my sons birthday and it was amazing. Since I used fresh vanilla instaed of the extract it actually tastes like Vanilla ICE-CREAM! Kids LOVED IT! Thank you for posting it. Also it didn't do the separate egg thing and it still turned out wonderful

Hands down, this recipe beats a store bought cake mix by a mile! I have never prepared a "from scratch" cake before, but after having "Happy Birthday Cake," I'll probably never buy a store bought cake mix again. Though this recipe was more dense than a store bought mix, I prefer it that way. And the flavor and texture was simply amazing. I used "Wedding Cake Frosting" as another reviewer suggested, and the match was absolutely perfect. My wife loved it!

This cake has been a total disappointment. This is my first time making it and it totally crumbled. I don't even have a cake. I made it for my daughter's B-Day. The taste is really good, but no way can it be made into a cake. I will need to skip on this cake since I have no idea how to even fix it.

The cake tastes like plain muffin.No taste at all. Not recommended for birthday party the guests will be disapointed.I will not bake it again.

This was kind of a weird recipe. It wasn't really what I was looking for. It wasn't too sweet, and it was very dense. It is probably a great cake for a strawberry shortcake dessert, but I am not sure about a birthday cake. Of course, I couldn't use this as the birthday cake that I was baking for my best friend, because I dropped half of it on the floor when I turned it out of its pan. I guess it was a good thing that happened, because I was able to go for another yellow cake recipe that was more of what I was looking for.

This cake was not good. It had a flour taste and even my kids would not eat it.I followed the directions to a T and I was very dissappointed. I am so glad I tried it before serving it as my sons birthday cake

Not bad. Uesed a 9x13 pan. Didn't have regular butter, used unsalted butter. I am not good at whipping egg whites so I added the eggs whole. I would make this recipe again.

This has become my go-to cake recipe. I get rave reviews every time I make it. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!

Dense but very flavorful and worked well.

Made with no changes. Turned out very heavy and dry and pretty boring flavor. I probably should have sifted all the flour so that's probably on me. Would not risk making again though. : (

It was just ok, more like angle food cake. I used bakers sugar and cake flour in hopes of a light and fluffy cake. I did not want a dense cake like others spoke of- No luck.

This is very similar to a pound cake recipe. Firm, slices great without crumbling. I made double the recipe and used the other rounds for strawberry short cake.

It was alright for my first attempt at a scratch cake but it was dry and didn't have much flavor. It wasn't yellow at all just looked white. I think I might try another recipe.

Baked this twice and it was denser than I thought. I didn't separate the eggs the second time but got similar results. I would add more vanilla extract (maybe a tablespoon) for more flavor. However it pairs nicely with light whipped cream and some berries :)

Cake turned out perfect, dense and delicious! Followed the recipe exactly, however I did have to bake a 9x13 pan for almost 50 minutes before it was done, I think the smaller pans would cook faster.

I was looking for a cake for my son's birthday party. I chose to follow the instructions to the letter rather than make any adjustments I read about in the reviews. It came out perfect! The texture was at first like a cross between an angel food cake and a pound cake. After sitting a day it settled to the exact texture of birthday cake. It's moist and study, rich in flavor not too sweet. I made a cream cheese frosting to go with it and it paired perfectly. I did have to bake it almost twice as long, I think it's supposed to go in a half sheet pan, I just had a 9x13. Unfortunately I am not up to the task of making enough cake for 30+people, so we will buy a pre-made (I'm not yet a skilled decorator either!) but this will be my birthday cake recipe from now on! I will be passing this on to my children's children!

very good! The inside was the best.

I did not care for this recipe.

This was a good tasting cake, but much too sweet and heavy for my tastes. I was really looking for a light and fluffy cake recipe.

So good! Not often that a layer cake gets eaten and has ppl nearly fighting for more. Non dessert eaters also eating 2 pieces says a LOT. I will make this again!!! I used the whipped cream frosting on this site.

I made this cake exactly as the recipe read. It was moist and wonderful. I will use this recipe again.

I made this for my daughters birthday and used a white frosting with some white chocolate chips and strawberries mixed in. It was more the texture of pound cake, I thought that sounded yummy, but it was the texture of pound cake with out the flavor of cake. I think this would make great strawberry shortcake!