Traditional Birthday Cake Designs

There are a wide variety of traditional birthday cake designs for you to choose from based on your needs. Learn more about traditional birthday cake designs with help from a multifaceted and passionate chef in this free video clip.

Video Transcript

Hi. I'm Rachel King the Executive Pastry Chef of Enlightened Hospitality here San Diego. Today, we're at our Flagship Restaurant, Searsucker, and I'm going to show you how to decorate a traditional birthday cake. So I'm starting with a freshly iced cake and for me you have to have sprinkles on every birthday cake. So that's where we're going to start at. We want this to be freshly iced so that the sprinkles will stick into the icing. So in order to not make a mess everywhere, I'm going to put a little bit of parchment underneath my cake stand. If you want, you can do it over a bowl. Whatever is easiest for you but this is going to ensure easier clean up. So I'm going to take the cake and I'm going to press the sprinkles in to the side. It can get a little messy. If your sides aren't perfect, it helps to disguise little imperfections. I'm going to just wipe the off the edge of the board. A little bits fine but we don't want so many on there. Okay. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to cover up a few more spots. We look pretty good. So now I'm going to clean up after my sprinkles and I'm going to write on the top of the birthday cake. I'm want to do this before I do a boarder on the top because it's easier to write if you're not reaching over something and you won't mess up the boarder if you write first. So I prefer to write with a paper cone and I'm going to show you how to make that right now. I've taken a piece of parchment; you can use waxed paper as well, and I've cut it in to a triangle. So I'm just going to fold it over and roll it around. I'm going to tighten it up a little bit. So you're basically forming a cone so that you an put your icing in here and be able to write with it easily. And I fold over the edge and seal it in. So you have a nice cone. I've filled this cone up with red icing and I'm going to write happy birthday. If you have somebody special in your life, write their name on there too. And if you're scared of writing, don't be. It's the thought that counts. I'm a professional pastry chef, and mine still doesn't look perfect. So it's okay. So now that the writing is done, I'm going to put a border around the top. I'm going to do little rosettes. And if you're not happy with your writing, you can scrape it off and start over. I would recommend practicing maybe on a piece of parchment or your work space before so you feel comfortable doing it. I'm also going to put a border on the bottom of the cake because we still have some sprinkles and we want it to look a little bit cleaner. This also covers up the cake board that it's on. But we definitely need our candles at the end. Today we actually have sparklers which is really fun. So I'm going to stick those in. Candles really add festivity to the occasion. Don't be scared of too many. There can never be too many candles. My name is Rachel King and thank you for watching eHow - How to Decorate a Birthday Cake.