My birthday along with my brother and sister in-laws birthdays are coming up in October! We are celebrating it all together and I want to do a cake for it! The problem is, it has to be knock your socks off good, as it is hard to impress that side of the family 
especially my MIL!!!! The decoration part isn't as important as the taste to them! So any awesome recipes, that maybe aren't traditional plain cake flavors, I would really appreciate!?! 
Italian Cream, carrot, apple spice...
I had someone who "doesn't like cake" go gaga over my Italian Cream cake. Don't have recipe with me (I'm at work), but there's probably one on here or you could Google it. I use a recipe where I fold in whipped egg whites. It is de-lish!
Or you could go mocha by using coffee as some of your liquid, or add a liquor, lots of different flavors you could get with that. You could brush your layers with a simple syrup. I've never done that so I can't tell you how. Just some ideas...
I use a scratch chocolate cake mix that is wonderful. It uses coffee as part of the liquid. Verry mosit. If you want it, let me know.
Have you heard the new thing going around CC? It is to add powdered coffee creamer to flavor mixes. COuld probably use for scratch too. I havn't tried it yet, but heard the vanilla caramel is great!
HTH
Stephanie
Happy BDay, first of all. Secondly, what about doing three separate cakes displayed at different heights, and just go with "undecorated" cakes...red velvet, Italian cream, Chocolate covered with ganache, Carrot and cream cheese, that sort of thing? Or, make a bunch of little cakes from a yellow sheet cake, drape them with fondant, like little tables. You could still do different flavors in the fillings/washes. HTH
How about the Cream Cheese Chocolate Mint Pound Cake recipe in Chocolate For the Cake Mix Doctor? We love it with the mint, but we also substitute 72% dark chocolate for the mint chocolates and it's divine.
We also like a marble of orange and dark chocolate fudge cake. When I want that to look really special, I bake a layer of orange and a layer of dk choc, and torte them thin and alternate them with chocolate icing between the layers. It also looks like Fall with the orange and brown so that might be nice for October birthdays.
Deanna
Thanks for the responses! Thanks lilfoots for the HB wish!
I don't care if it is from scratch or a doctered cake mix! It does have to travel well though...for about 3 hrs!
MissyTex, I am interested in your Italian Cream Cake...I have seen some recipes for it, but I want a tried and true one!
I am doing the coffee creamer cake for my Aunts birthday this Sat. So I will see how good that one is this weekend!
The orange and fudge cake sounds good to me, but I know my DH doesn't care for fruit/citrus and chocolate together.
I know my MIL doesn't like the taste of coffee (crazy, I know!)
The ganache idea is a good one...would it be ok to travel in an air conditioned car? What kind of cake is best with a ganache?
Thanks for the ideas! Feel free to keep them coming !
How about a Princess Cake? Here's a link to a recipe, including a picture: http://home.ivillage.com/cooking/recipes/display/0,,s2vq,00.html?iv_arrivalSA=1&iv_cobrandRef=0&iv_arrival_freq=2
I have had them before, they are delicious, although I have not made one. I will be trying this particular recipe this weekend, and can let you know if it's worth the effort.
well, Megal80, I finished with the princess cake. The only problem with it is I don't like the cake texture. It's kind of like a kitchen sponge 
maybe it's supposed to be spongy, but it's not for me. So, I can't recommend it. I will keep the pastry cream, marzipan, and the whipped cream recipes, as they were all tasty, and try them with another cake, but I won't make that particular genoise cake again.
Best wishes with your search for an impressive birthday cake!
I have done a couple of ganache cakes, first one was chocolate cake, with raspberry filling, chocolate buttercream then covered with ganache...for me it was a bit too much chocolate (I know, I know no such thing as TOO MUCH chocolate)...
the second time I did a chocolate cake, cookies n cream filling, regular buttercream and then topped with ganache and it was a real hit with my girlfriends.
Personally I prefer the raspberry filling as compared to the cookies n cream....but if your fam doesnt care for fruit & choc together then you are somewhat limited. I am also wanting to try a strawberry filling since choc and strawberry goes really well together...
Anyway best of luck and make sure you post your picture to this thread when you decide!
I had a request for a full sheet cake from a customer that wanted it caramel flavored.
I used the LIQUID vanilla caramel coffee flavoring with a white cake mix and instead of adding 1 1/3 cup of water I used only 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of coffee creamer.
Man this cake was awesome. The only reason I know this is because the first one I baked I dropped half of it on the floor and had to make another. My kids were THRILLED!!!!!LOL
The customer ordered two full cakes but one was strawberry and the other was this caramel one I had made. I frosted it with buttercream icing flavored with 1/4 tsp of caramel extract and tinted it a caramel color and accented it with chocolate buttercream then to top it off I covered the top with a caramel drizzle.
These cakes were served to 136 people at our local church.
I can't tell you how many compliments I received on the caramel cake. No one could quite put thier finger on how I got it to taste sooo much like caramel. They thought at one point it might have been some kind of pound cake....then they thought maybe it was melted caramel mixed in the batter ...and on and on. I just smiled and said its my little secret.
The customer called me 4 days later and told me how impressed she was with the cake and what a unique and tasty cake it was.
I am curious to see if I would have gotten the same result with the powdered form of coffee creamer. I just wasnt sure how much to put in with the powder. The liquid was sooo creamy and smelled heavenly.
Let me know how well the cake turns out with the powdered flavoring
Nicole
I actually just made that same cake for my aunts birthday party, with the liquid vanilla caramel creamer! I topped it with buttercream that I mixed with that dulche de leche (boiled, sweetened condensed milk) that I had read about on cc. It was a big hit! I haven't decided if that is what I will do at my party with my in-laws...but it is in the running for sure! Thanks, Nicole
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