The be-all and end-all of any good party is preparation, and the good thing is that a birthday like this doesn’t usually happen all of a sudden. So prepare as much as possible. You can make/write the invitation cards together with the kids a few weeks in advance. I always bake the cake the day before, because on the birthday itself I want to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen and of course spend the day with the birthday boy or girl. I also prepare the birthday table in the evening. The recipes I share with you are also great for preparing the day before.
The birthday theme should be at the beginning of any planning. This makes it easier for you to come up with ideas for the invitation cards, the birthday cake and the children’s birthday party, as well as the choice of colors for the decorations. Themes such as “mermaid“, “horses” and “unicorn” were on our wish list last year.
The selection of great foil balloons makes it very easy to realize even extravagant themes such as “flower power“. Incidentally, foil balloons can be reused without any problems. You can easily let the air/helium out through the opening with a straw and refill it for the next birthday. You can find great birthday decorations at Rico Design, Letspartybox.de and Backdichglücklich, for example.
As far as the cake is concerned, the number cake and cupcakes have proven their worth. Both can be decorated with sprinkles, candles and food coloring to match the theme.
Number cake - recipe:
For the number cake I use the Dr. Oetker springform pan Baking Trend, rectangular in size 38 x 25 x 7 cm. I made the spacers (blocks) from an older number baking tin(https://amzn.to/41txwBi). However, this was basically too small for me, so I only use the blocks from this set.
For the dough you need:
6 eggs
1 pinch of salt
250 g sugar
150 g flour
50 g ground almonds
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Step 1: Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks and beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.
Allow the sugar to trickle in slowly. The egg whites should be really shiny. Add the egg yolk and briefly mix the two together.
Step 2: Mix the flour, almonds and cocoa powder and then sieve into the egg and sugar mixture and fold into the batter.
Step 3: Pour the dough into your baking tin (use baking paper instead of grease for the tin).
Bake the dough at 180 degrees top/bottom heat for 25 minutes on the middle shelf.
Leave it to cool in the tin and then carefully remove the blocks and baking paper from the cake. You can then cut the cake in half.
If you want to fill and decorate the number cake, you will need the cream:
400 g cream (whipped until stiff)
4 sachets cream stiffener
4 sachets vanilla sugar
800 g quark
400 g cream cheese
100 g powdered sugar
If you don’t fill it and just decorate it, half the ingredients for the cream are enough. Optionally, you can add some jam or Nutella to the cream.
I divide the cream into 3 parts and color them. I use different piping nozzles for the 3 different colors (Colour Mill).
The rest is up to your creativity! Have fun baking them!
