With a 40th birthday, baby shower and wedding anniversary in the upcoming weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about cakes. However, I must admit that I am usually thinking about cakes - a quick search of ‘cake’ on my phone brings up about 3000 photos. I had something else planned to send but cakes are top of mind so that will come later and instead, here I present a photo essay of memorable cakes to re-inspire me and maybe you.
Birthday Cakes
A few of note from recent years:
For my birthday in 2020, when we were still limited to small gatherings (which worked well for me because I am not one for a big birthday party), I wanted the focus to be the cake. Candied fruit magician Camilla Wynne made the above cake for me - a hazelnut brown butter cake with “Purple Rain” jam (fig, coronation grape, italian plum) and vanilla ermine frosting. At the time I was obsessed with sugared fruit centrepieces and I asked Camilla if she could do something with this for the cake decoration, sending her the below picture for inspiration. She said she knew just what to do and perfectly interpreted it into the dreamiest birthday jewel box.
For my birthday in 2022 I made my own cake using this recipe (basically a homemade yellow box cake - I added sprinkles as well) and this recipe for the frosting. I switched from sugared fruits to sugared roses for decor and had a small gathering for tea and cake at my home.
One year for my birthday, Joel and I booked a hotel room overlooking Niagara Falls (I never knew that they lit up the falls when it became dark with coloured light) and we brought this lemon meringue cake to eat in bed (I highly recommend this as a birthday activity). The cake needed to be kept refrigerated so we packed it carefully in a cooler for the car ride (Joel joked that with his previous experience as an art handler we could safely transport the precious cargo).
Below is a birthday cake I made for a friend who loves chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is incredible and one that I have permanently bookmarked: the chocolate-chip hazelnut cake with chocolate icing from Nigel Slater’s A Cook’s Book. It’s basically a gourmet chocolate chip cookie in cake form and it keeps getting better each day (if there is any leftover, that is).
Not cakes, but below are birthday poached pears with chamomile made for me by my friend Nadia in 2017 - an alternate birthday cake proposal.
A soufflé also makes a great birthday cake - here is one I made for my husband this year. More about my soufflé journey here.
Wedding Cakes
May I suggest having more than one wedding cake:
A small wedding reception was another excuse to have an array of cakes - made by Coco’s and Robinson Bread (but don’t ask Patti to make you a profiterole tower, she did that just for us ;)).
You can read more about my wedding (and its cakes!) here.
Travel Cakes
Cakes that have left an impression on me during my travels:
The case of fondant cakes at Aurore Capucine in Paris has left a lasting impression on me (I even included it as possible wedding cake inspiration). Read more about it here (plus other favourite Paris desserts).
An Upstate New York cake pairing: a Louise Bourgeois layer cake at Dia: Beacon and the coconut cake from Stissing House.
Part of my Ice Cream Tour of Mexico City, this is the Souvenir Chiandoni (a slice of ice cream cake with a sponge cake base and two layers of ice cream, mamey and vanilla, with ground hazelnut on top) from Chiandoni. I love mamey fruit ice cream.
Another impressionable array of cakes, this one from a visit to the original Rose Bakery in Paris in 2011.
If you visit Montreal you must get a chocolate cake from Cocoa Locale (I don’t see that they have a website, but here is the address: 4807 Park Ave). I’ve actually never been to the ‘gateau boutique’ but my friend Nick Tran, who knows what’s good, introduced me to it on a visit to Montreal in 2017 and any time I’ve gone back he’s brought a cake to dinner. This one was chocolate banana and I still think about it.
Cake Bric-à-brac
Thank you for reading <3
Every single one is a work of art!! I love Camilla Wynne — and love that she used ermine frosting on your cake, so old school. Every recipe I've made from Jam Bake is absolute perfection, can't wait for her new one
Gorgeous. Your posts are so delightful, this one particularly so 🍎🍐🍇 Is there anything better than celebrating with cake? X