"BirthdayCake" news and stories

16 candles. Photo: Michael Brunk, NWlens.com

It's a well-known fact that writer-director John Hughes, who died Thursday at age 59, was a master of capturing teenage ennui (not to mention a master of setting too-high romantic expectations for a generation of women raised in the '80s.)

What's less remarked upon is his fascination with food and the way American culinary rituals define adolescence. There's the lunch scene in the detention hall of "The Breakfast Club," in which Molly Ringwald snottily articulates the concept of "sushi" to an incredulous Judd Nelson and "bad girl" Ally Sheedy demonstrates fantastic Coke can catching skills before creating a sandwich out of Pixy Stix, butter, bread and cereal -- which she proceeds to devour like a raptor.

Then, of course, there's Samantha's forgotten birthday in "16 Candles," which ends with that mesmerizing kiss over the cake.

We're stuck on a loop of John Hughes memories, but this photo of a different 16 candles -- a snapshot taken by a father of his rosy-cheeked son "caught in the glow of his 16th birthday cake" -- caught our eye.

It's a tribute to the maestro that any cake teeming with candles will always make us think of him. So to paraphrase one of his own characters, "May we admire you again today?"

I have a confession to make. This year, I did not bake Scott's birthday cake from scratch. It's the fourth birthday confection I've baked for him in the years we've known each other, and it's the first time I didn't start with raw ingredients and a recipe. Instead, I used two boxes of Naturally Nora's cake mix and saved myself a whole lot of prep time. No one at his party had any idea that I hadn't slaved over the cake, measuring flour, beating egg whites and creaming butter. I got a million compliments and as I received each one, I just smiled and said thanks (as I write this, I'm beginning to feel like a 1950's housewife), mentally forwarding them to Nora herself.

The thing is, I don't feel bad about passing off that cake as my own. I did bake it up in the big aluminum pan I inherited from my great-aunt and I sweated over the frosting. It's just not always possible to bake a cake from scratch, and it's awfully nice to know that there's a dependable, natural cake mix out there among all those chemical-laden ones that is just as easy and tastes really good.

So next time you have to make cupcakes for a school party and you find yourself running short on time, grab one of Nora's mixes (they come in five flavors) and let yourself off the hook.

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My goddaughter turns 1 today and the topic of conversation around her parents' house in recent weeks has been the perfect cake for baby to celebrate her first birthday.

It got me to wondering how parents choose the right cake for that oh-so-special Kodak moment. If you have a kid named Madeline or Lady Baltimore, you can get away with serving an eponymous cake. The rest of us have to weigh taste with what will look best smeared on that beaming butter bean's face. Do you go small or big?

My friends chose to stick with tried and true recipes -- a white cake with raspberry filling, cupcakes and a cheesecake for the adults.

But I'm still curious, what would you choose?

Upon first clapping my eyes upon the picture you see above, I found myself talking to the cake. There's something about it that telegraphs a sense of personality and individuality. It's the kind of cake that doesn't come around too frequently these days. However, it embodies everything a birthday cake should be (interesting, indulgent and chocolate-y).

Thanks Bakerella, for adding this gorgeous little cake to the Slashfood Flickr pool.

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As many of us here at Slashfood know geeks love to play with their food. And what geek doesn't love computers? Here's a birthday cake that combines the love of computers with that playful approach to food. It's a sugar-laden cartoony rendition of a motherboard. That Intel chip is an After Eight chocolate mint, and you can see that the gal who created this cake for her boyfriend also made liberal use of vanilla and chocolate wafer cookies. The circular gold things are Rolos. I haven't had one of them in years. Seeing the gold-foil wrapped treats has me wanting to run out and buy a pack.

I stumbled upon this sweet rendition of a motherboard on Geekcake, an entire site that's devoted to geeky cakes. What are some of the other cakes geeks are making you ask? Naturally, Star Wars is a common theme. There's a cool-looking Jabba-The-Hut wedding cake. And since nerds worship role-playing games, there's a cake fashioned after a 20-sided die. In high-school I played my fair share of D&D. But my favorite cake on the site is a Rubik's Cube cake. I'm guessing that's its not a fully functional Rubik's Cube. I'll bet it tastes good though.

[via Geekcake]

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