Fantastic Birthday Cakes and Cupcakes

This year, celebrate with a fantastic homemade cake for your crowd or make cute cupcakes to take to a party.

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Photo By: Yunhee Kim

Photo By: Andrew Purcell

Photo By: Yunhee Kim

Birthday Party Desserts

A spread of frosted cakes, awesomely decorated cupcakes and your favorite treats will end any birthday celebration on a sweet note.

Birthday Cake with Hot-Pink Butter Icing

The secret ingredient for Ina Garten's moist cake layers? The addition of sour cream. Bake a 9-inch, a 6-inch and a 3-inch layer and frost each separately with hot-pink icing. Chill each frosted layer before stacking, then pipe or spoon the remaining frosting around the base of each cake and around the top edge of the top layer before finishing with candy decorations.

Get the Recipe: Birthday Cake with Hot Pink Butter Icing

Birthday Sheet Cake

Ina's vanilla and lemon-zest cake will be your hardest-working birthday dessert. It comes together with just 15 minutes' prep time and is covered in an easy chocolate frosting. Kids can decorate the cake with their favorite chocolate candies.

Get the Recipe: Birthday Sheet Cake

Quick Double-Chocolate Cupcakes

Jazz up a package of chocolate cake mix with mini semisweet chips. Divide icing into batches and use a different food coloring for each batch so the result is a festive display of cupcakes.

Get the Recipe: Quick Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Get your kids involved in Ree Drummond's strawberry-filled cake — her girls helped with each of the steps. Put parchment on your cake plate before icing so that you can make a mess when you're applying and just slide the parchment out when you're done.

Get the Recipe: Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Chocolate Pound Cake

Trisha Yearwood's pound cake is the perfect recipe if you don't consider yourself a baker — it's that easy. Serve the dense cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Pound Cake

Todd's Orange and Raspberry Cake

Giada's shortcut cake cuts down on prep time by starting with boxed white cake mix and incorporating orange zest and orange juice. Incorporate raspberry jam into the frosting itself and between cake layers.

Get the Recipe: Todd's Orange and Raspberry Cake

Jelly-Filled Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Tyler Florence fills a squeeze bottle with grape jelly and squeezes it into the the tops of vanilla cupcakes. Ice the tops of the cupcakes with decadent peanut butter frosting and finish with your favorite candy decorations.

Get the Recipe: Jelly-Filled Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

Carrot Cake with Marshmallow Fluff Cream Cheese Frosting

Bobby Flay's carrot cake is filled with fabulous spices like freshly grated ginger, crystallized ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bobby turns traditional cream cheese frosting on its head with the addition of Fluff.

Get the Recipe: Carrot Cake with Marshmallow Fluff Cream Cheese Frosting

Mini Chocolate-Meringue Cupcakes

Giada folds smooth chocolate into peaks of egg whites to make the batter for these cupcakes. The result is a hand-held treat that's crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

Get the Recipe: Mini Chocolate-Meringue Cupcakes

Cracked Chocolate Earth with Whipped Cream (Flourless Chocolate Cake)

You need only six ingredients for Tyler's intense chocolate cake. With only 20 minutes' prep time and dozens of 5-star reviews, this cake is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

Get the Recipe: Cracked Chocolate Earth with Whipped Cream (Flourless Chocolate Cake)

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Cajeta Frosting

Try Bobby's rich and flavorful take on German chocolate cake for your next birthday bash.

Get the Recipe: German Chocolate Cake With Coconut-Pecan Cajeta Frosting

Four-Layer Birthday Cake

Kids will love designing their own birthday cake with Food Network Magazine. Choose from solid, striped, ombre or rainbow for the inside, then cover the outside with mini marshmallows, chocolate rocks, ombre coconut or nonpareils.

Get the Recipe: Four-Layer Birthday Cake

Grandma's Red Velvet Cake

For Sunny Anderson's family, cocoa powder is the key ingredient for making a classic red velvet cake.

Get the Recipe: Grandma's Red Velvet Cake

Toasted-Coconut Cake with Coconut Filling and Buttercream

Bobby's Throwdown coconut cake is a sure winner for any occasion.

Get the Recipe: Toasted Coconut Cake With Coconut Filling and Buttercream

Hummingbird Cake

This moist, flavorful cake is packed full of bananas, fresh pineapple and lots of spices.

Get the Recipe: Hummingbird Cake

Feather-Light Chocolate Cake

This is a great dark-cocoa cake that keeps for days, making it a perfect make-ahead option for a party. To make it more festive, frost with creamy white icing.

Get the Recipe: Featherlight Chocolate Cake

Chocolate-Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Sandra Lee dolls up a chocolate cake mix to make cherry-flavored cupcakes with fluffy white-chocolate frosting.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate-Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

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