A birthday cake is the highlight of a birthday celebration. You look forward to the sweet, decadent birthday cake after dinner. It’s one of the most memorable moments of a birthday celebration.
What are the most popular birthday cake flavors
- birthday cake – rainbow sprinkles folded into a vanilla cake base
- black forest cake
- red velvet cake
- chocolate cake
13 Birthday Cake Flavor Ideas
Here’s our full list of birthday cake flavors for your next birthday party. Each cake details the type of cake base, icing, and filling used to create these lavish birthday cakes.
Birthday Cake
Classic birthday cake is a vanilla cake base made with rainbow sprinkles folded.
Birthday cake can also be made with a hint of almond flavor to give it a smooth and memorable finish.
The icing for birthday cake is classic vanilla buttercream icing piped on the top of the cake and around the edges of the birthday cake.
Ombre cake
An ombre cake can be a combination of icing colors or cake colored layers going from dark to light.
An ombre cake is eye catching and unique.
The colors are made by adding more or less food coloring to change the colors of the cake or icing.
Vanilla buttercream cake
Vanilla buttercream cake is made by baking a vanilla cake with buttermilk.
In between the layers are vanilla buttercream icing.
Alternatively, you could ice the cake with vanilla buttercream, and in between the layers you could make vanilla custard.
Dulce de leche cake
Dulce de leche cake is made by adding caramel sauce to a vanilla cake base.
The cake slices are soaked with a combination of condensed milk and whipping cream, making the cake extra sweet.
The layers of the cake are filled with caramel flavored whipped cream.
Toasted hazelnuts are added on top of the whip cream layers to give the cake an added crunch.
The cake is covered in dulce de leche whipped cream.
Hazelnut chocolate cake
Hazelnut chocolate cake is made with cocoa powder and it uses hazelnut flour at its base.
In between the layers of cake is hazelnut spread and cocoa powder infused icing.
The hazelnut buttercream icing is coated around the cake, with the option of adding hazelnut meringues to the top as well.
Strawberry shortcake
Strawberry shortcake is made by baking biscuits or vanilla cake.
In between the layers of cake or biscuits are vanilla bean and sugar coated strawberries and whipped cream.
The whipped cream helps hold the strawberries in place, and acts as an filler instead of icing or custard.
Carrot cake with cream cheese icing
Carrot cake is made by adding shavings of carrots, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon to a vanilla cake base.
Carrot cake is also made with applesauce and brown sugar, giving it a caramelized carrot flavor.
Carrot cake is covered in cream cheese icing from top to bottom.
Champagne cake with strawberry buttercream
Champagne cake is made by adding champagne, strawberry extract, and chopped strawberries to a vanilla cake base.
The cake layers have a thin layer of champagne infused syrup.
The cake has small holes poked in it to have the champagne syrup seep into the cake, making it a little sweeter with more champagne flavor.
The cake is filled with layers of cream cheese icing, made with whipped cream, strawberry extract and strawberry purée.
The cake is covered top to bottom in champagne buttercream frosting, with added strawberry extract and strawberry purée.
The cake has a light pink color to the frosting from the strawberries.
When the cake is cut, it has the chopped strawberries popping with color throughout the layered pink cake.
Red velvet cake
Red velvet cake is made by adding cocoa powder and red food coloring to a vanilla cake base.
The cake is covered in cream cheese icing for a fluffy and rich cake flavoring.
Lemon raspberry cake
Lemon raspberry cake is made by infusing lemon juice and lemon zest into a cake recipe, and then adding a few frozen raspberries.
The cake has the raspberries throughout, giving it a beautiful look of yellow and red.
The colors are vibrant when you cut the cake.
Lemon raspberry cake is coated in lemon infused cream cheese icing.
Lemon raspberry cake is satisfying and light.
Cookies and cream cake
Cookies and cream cake is made by adding cocoa powder and coffee to cake.
The cake is made with buttermilk, making it extra creamy.
The cookies and cream cake is iced with a cookie Italian buttercream frosting.
Black forest cake
Black forest cake is made by baking a cake with cocoa powder and coffee infused into it.
The cake layers are then soaked in a cherry syrup.
In between the cherry soaked chocolate layers of cake, are whipped cream and cherries.
The cake is covered in whipped cream on its exterior, and chocolate shavings are added to the sides of the cake.
Cookie dough cake
Cookie dough cake is made by baking a cake using vanilla and Greek yogurt at its base.
The cookie dough is made using a recipe that does not have eggs in it.
The cookie dough is made with mini chocolate chips, as to not be too overwhelming in the cake.
The cookies are shaped, chilled, and gently placed into the cake, and then the cake is baked.
The rest of the cookie dough is shaped again so it’s flat and chilled.
This will act as the top of the cake and will be crumbled to look like mini bits of cookie dough.
In between the layers of cookie dough cake, is cookie dough frosting.
Cookie dough frosting is made by adding a little bit of flour, brown sugar and mini chocolate chips.
The brown sugar gives the look of cookie dough by turning it a golden brown color.
Covering the cake on the top is chocolate ganache with the bits of cookie dough crumbled on top.
Chocolate cake
Chocolate cake is made with cocoa powder and espresso powder.
The cake is iced using chocolate buttercream which is made with cocoa powder and espresso powder infused into it.
Chocolate cake is a very rich and heavy dessert.
