There’s no gift quite like the one you bake yourself.
Jump to RecipeI have a couple of important birthday traditions.
The first, is celebrating one day for every year I’ve collected…which means that this year I have 43 glorious days of celebration ahead of me. The practice started on my 30th birthday, when I had big plans to be studying yoga in India but instead found myself behind a desk at work, with little space to honor the day as I had wished. It reminded me of being a little girl and having to go to the dentist on my birthday. The worst. I realized I would never be able to plan a day that could be filled with the diversity of joyful activities that made me so happy to be alive….so I decided to spend 30 days celebrating instead. This way, I got to go for a long run! Spend time with my husband! See my mom! Go for a girls night! Buy myself a nice little gift! AND, bake myself a birthday cake.
No matter what else the Birth Days hold, I always bake myself a birthday cake. And this year, it’s this lovely Cardamom Cream Cake w/Vanilla-Orange Blossom Frosting. I set aside the afternoon to bake the cakes, letting the scents of cardamom and vanilla fill the house. Then, I mix the frosting, and decorate it. I skewer a single piece with a candle, lit the flame, made a wish and dove in. THEN, I my people helped me dig in.
The cake is uber-tender and complex with the depth of myserious cardamom, made all the more “creamy” with a sweet milk syrup, then slathered in a labneh-based frosting that’s light and airy, and just decadent enough, spiked with orange and vanilla. It’s a riff off of another cake I baked this year for a dear friend, that had a fussier frosting, a more luxurious filling, and quite a bit more sweetness. But, for this cake, I wanted something that I could eat for breakfast all week if I wanted – and not have a belly ache, a headache, or a sugar crash. So I made a few tweaks and I love the result. This is a cake sensible enough to enjoy for breakfast, and maybe again for dessert if you’re in the celebrating mood, and it’s a crowd-pleaser if you’re looking to not eat an entire cake yourself (ahem.)
While the flavors here are complex, the recipe is simple. The assembly too. And that makes the ingredients and steps all the more critical. I give some specific recommendations on flour, and other ingredients in the Recipe Notes below, and I hope it goes without saying that using the best butter and eggs you can find will ensure that you’re cake is as good as it gets.
The frosting is a labneh base. Labneh is a thick cultured cheese made from straining yogurt overnight. Often found in Lebanese cuisine, it has a nice tangy taste and thicker texture that makes a great alternative to the standard cream cheese you usually find with other non-buttercream frostings. You can make labneh yourself by straining yogurt (I give you some instructions below,) but I actually recommend using a coconut labneh (my favorite purveyor is linked in the recipe.) If you can’t find this specific variety, you can strain coconut yogurt and make your own, or substitute dairy milk, but either way you will not be disappointed by the simplicity of the technique here – simply stir, and spread (no fussy frosting-making, cake splitting or other dear but time-consuming stepts to stand between you and this cake!)
As for decorating, you’ve got options. If you have a cake stand and are quite good with a serrated knife, you may wish to split each of your cakes in two, to create a 4-layer cake. If you’re short on time, patience or just want to take the easy way, you can do as I did and simply stack the cakes for a 2-layer beauty. You also have some frosting choices to make. I decorated this cake in “tomboy style,” leaving the sides exposed. This is for sure the fastest route between you and a decorated cake. But, if you love the process of carefully coating a cake in frosting (I do, I really do) then you’ll want to double the amount of labneh frosting to have sufficient coverage.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that making yourself a birthday cake feels like the most bold and beautiful act of self care, in my opinion. Using your hands to craft a sweet treat that nourishes your body, and all of the actions that will unfold in your year.
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