I was just thinking about being a kid and the cakes my Mom would make for us for our birthdays. They weren't fancy, a Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines cake iced with homemade frosting and kept in the pan it was baked in, sometimes it would read 'happy birthday so and so' but usually it was just plain, illuminated with candles. Wow, I can still taste those cakes. I love the old pictures of us raggedy kids sitting around the table gazing at the birthday cake, hilarious. I grew up in a big family where there wasn't a lot of emphasis on the individual so much as the group, so birthdays were always special because it was your day to shine. THe cake let you stand out that day because it was your birthday, and there wouldn't be a cake if it wasn't for you! I'm not that old at 33, but even then the times were much simpler.

I remember my mom making my cakes for me and I was always so excited to see it come out of the kitchen with candles blazing! Your post really got me thinking back. We still do it now even though all us siblings are scattered abroad! It's good to celebrate when we are all together! Thanks for helping me remember the memories!

I had the Wilton Bert &Ernie cake for many years in a row! My mom kept the pan & now I have it!

Oh yeah - and wondermold princess cakes for a few years too!!

"The Butterfly" Round cake cut in half then turned (so 2 1/2 circles facing out) with licorice antenna!

My mom made our cakes with the Wilton pans. By the time we were all grown up she had GI Joe, He Man, a pony, 3d Cabbage Patch, Holly Hobby, race cars, dolls, etc.

She gave us each at least one pan that had been purchased specifically for us, I got the pony, once we had homes of our own.

I had just referred to my mom in an earlier post... she still makes my cake each year. She is now 77 and on her fourth round of cancer in the past 16 years. Even when we were children -I'm 45 now- she and my dad would make incredible cakes shaped like Hansel and Gretel's house, a carousel, or trains. This was long before the designer cakes of today. My opening web page is dedicated to my mom because she instilled in me the desire to make myfamily's cakes unique and individualzed.

I only specifically remember a few birthdays. When I was growing up, my mom would always make a 2-layer, 8" round cake with Betty Ckrocer devil's food mix and chocolate icing. Then we'd usually pick out our own premade royal decorations you can get at the grocery store. Personally, I don't understand why moms don't still do this. I think it's much better to have a simple, but yummy, cake than a yucky supermarket cake with sloppy airbrushing and plastic all over it!

AFter that, the one that sticks out is my 19th birthday. I was living on my own, in college, but still in my hometown. My mom didn't make me a cake because she assumed my boyfriend, now husband, would do something. Well, he did absolutely nothing! My roommate had exams, so I ended up spending my b'day all by myself, with no cake. I was really upset. I have never let him forget it either! AFter that, he made sure I always got a cake, even if it was a god-awful hideous, childish-looking clown cake from Kroger that he thought was so nice because HE likes clowns!

My favorite is one that he and my daughter made for when she was about 6. They made the cake together (chocolate of course) and I gave them the recipe for ganache glaze, which they did. That was the year he learned you don't turn the mixer on until the beaters are down in the bowl! Other than the mess, it turned out pretty good. My daughter molded a mother tiger with 2 or 3 cubs out of fondant (I really like tigers). She colored and molded the fondant herself, then drew on stripes with a food color pen. I wish I had a digital picture to share.

My mom baked all her 2 layer cake mixes in an angel food pan. She'd always make chocolate, torte it and fill with strawberry jam and ice with a can of chocolate frosting. She'd decorate it with smarties (candy covered chocolate buttons).

I gotta say, I hate strawberry jam - can't stand it in my cake and the birthday cake with a hole in the middle drove me nuts. I think that's why I decorate!

I love my mom to bits and the cake and frosting minus the jam was great. I appreciate what she did for us - I'm not trying to be mean with what I said above!

Hey Win, your Mom sounds pretty tough and I hope she beats this round too. It must be pretty special to still have her bake your birthday cake.

Birthday cakes were usually like the OP's ... home baked, iced in the pan with the candy grocery store letters spelling happy birthday, and candles. A really SPECIAL cake (believe it or not!) was one that was picked up out of the grocery refrigerated case. This was back in the day when groceries didn't have in-store bakeries .... so these cakes were DEFINITELY just shipped in and put in the refrigerated case, next to the butter and the whipped cream. wow, this was a super-cool cake and we all fought over who got the big icing rose (which was usually given to the birthday kid!)

"Back in my day" ... ..... there were no wilton pans, no hobby lobby's or michaels, none of this stuff. So a home baked cake (noticed I said home-BAKED, which is not necessarily the same as "made from scratch" ..... A betty crocker cake made by mom was a home-baked cake! ) was either round or rectangle, unless your mom loved experimenting with making Family Circle cakes (take 2 round cakes and cut in half to make bunny ears ..... ).

debi we must be around the same age...LOL! My fave cake was from a bakery in south houston it was a carousel cake...loved it! I had the plastic ballerinas a couple of times. But the funniest cake was for my 16th birthday. It was a 2 layer quarter sheet cake chocolate made from box cakes and canned frosting colored pink with the candy letters spelling happy birthday and my name...Well we were running late (as usual, mom was a notorius procrastinator)& the party was at our dance studio about 15 minutes away from our house. Mom didn't have time to let the cake cool enough. Mom had a habit of speeding then slamming on her brakes, and this was also before the days of mandatory seatbelt laws ...she forgot I was holding the cake in my lap, sitting on a foil covered cookie sheet (no box as you couldn't buy them back then). Well she slammed on her brakes hard! The car lurched forward and the top layer flew into the windshield then on the throwback the cake flung back and spatted me square across my boobs! We laughed so hard! It still makes me laugh to this day...but hey we didn't hit the car in front of us!

I think this is the exact reason I decided to try my hand at cake decorating 2 years ago!
I remember that we got to pick the our fave home cooked meal for dinner. We got to sit in the dining room at the head of the table spot too!. Which was only used for holidays/special occassion meals.
So that made our b'day special too! My mom would make our fave cake. I would have butterflies like x-mas morning in anticipation of the cake. Usually pink!
My fave was a (money cake) angel food confetti cake with money wrapped in waxed paper and I being the birthday girl would get the piece with the quarter. btw- I'm turning 40 yrs. old soon ....dating myself-LOL
Great memories!!!

Does anyone else remember the money cakes???????

Speaking of no seat belt days, I think my mom brought us home in a laundry basket from the hospital, circa 1970's. LOL!

I think the cake I remember the most was the one my mom made using a Betty Crocker video as a guide. It was chocolate and had balloons made out of flattened gum drops. I loved that cake. The other one she made came with a unicorn kit. Since we weren't allowed to believe in unicorns, she cut the horns off and made them ponies. So silly now that I look back at it, but they were the best cakes!

My favorite birthday cake (and the only one I remember from childhood) was a strawberry shortcake my mom made me after going to see the movie, Apple Dumpling Gang. She waited until after we got home to make the cake and the electricity went out because of an awful thunderstorm. I think the cake actually got done after midnight or close to it. And my mamaw was the only one that would make me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing YUMMY!

I remember one my mom fixed for me when I was 12. It was a 2 layer cake with a horse carousel on top. The top of the carousel was made from paper/cardboard. My mom, not thinking, put candles near the outside of the horses, and to say the least, my cake caught on fire. I will never forget that one!

Many of our cakes were rounds iced white with the center of the decorative plate on top - never leveled etc. My most memorable were the Mickey mouse bank on top of one and the cupcakes that spelled out Happy Birthday Judi. Most of the time on the extra cupcakes she stuck in some plastic balloons and such. She had a ton of those plastic cake decos. Man do those cupcakes still stand out in my mind. I thought they were so neat!

Judi

The cake I remember most was a huge Minnie Mouse shaped cake for my 9th or 10th birthday (I think). It was gorgeous, but the frosting tasted terrible from all the red and black food coloring they used!

Edited for typing error

I remember picking a sheet cake up at Tom Thumb to take somewhere that had pink buttercream roses on it. To me, it was beautiful. My mom and I were just talking about it yesterday when I was looking at the Cosco cakes.

I specifically remember this big cookie monster cake. No one really got to eat it, I put my head in it about 30 seconds after this picture was taken. I was 2 and I clearly remember this!

My mom always made a huge deal out of my birthday. I would have a "24 hour party" where I would have 8-15 girls come over about 5, spend the night and than have more friends and family come the next day. One of the activities we would do at the sleep over was the cake. My mom would bake 3 layers-chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry and filled with cherry pie filling. She would kick me out of the kitchen and let all the girls decorate it. It usually looked HORRIBLE but everyone had a good time and it tasted great! Ahhh memories

Birthday cakes were always baked (and served) in a 9x13 pan. Usually, chocolate with penuche frosting, because that was my father's favorite. (It didn't matter whose birthday it was!)

Interesting question...I can't remember a single cake before the one I bought myself at 21.

Actually, I do remember when I turned 3, my mom ordered from a cake lady, paid more $, and it was a big deal. She got me a Sesame Street cake. I was so excited. I went into the fridge and dug my little hands into it right before the party. I remember it tasting great, and my mom coming into the kitchen, seeing me covered in frosting in my new dress, and losing it. So funny, because my daughter just turned 3 this year and I made her a 3-D Wall-E. If she had dug her hands into it before the party, she would have been in some trouble!

My childhood was in the 50's and my aunt loved cake decorating. (She gave me all her early Wilton Books). I remember distinctly a boat cake that she made (2 9x13's stacked and looked like a boat after they were cut). It had marshmallow icing on it, with lifesavers for portholes, and other candies that were yummy!

Hey Seven, is that a stainless steel highchair! Wow, I don't think you could find one like that today. Great story, very funny!

My Grandma used to make most of our cakes, she had about every Wilton pan under the sun but her favorite to use was the Bear pan (she loved bears) . She always used Betty Crocker Devils Food cake and canned vanilla and strawberry icing.

I dug through my pics and found this one, its the year we had a CareBear party, I'm thinking it was about 84'.

This is my favorite, probably because I have a picture of it.