It’s funny to realize, but there is no piece of dessert, pastry or pie that elicits as many memories for me as the birthday cake.
Those delights transport me to my earliest and happiest memories, surrounded by family and friends at birthday parties spent at the park or at McDonald’s. It didn’t matter where the celebration was. I knew a delicious and moist Betty Crocker yellow cake baked by my mother would be there.
About 15 years ago, my nephew asked his father and uncles for a swashbuckling birthday cake as “Pirates of the Caribbean” mania was in full effect. The now-shuttered Pasadena Gelson’s bakery delivered a two-foot-tall ship cake, from base to hull to mast, that would have made Capt. Jack Sparrow say “blimey!”
I still get a bit teary-eyed remembering my nephew telling us, “This is the greatest cake ever.”
With much fondness for birthday cakes, I’m excited to share some entries from the Food Team’s list of 15 of L.A.’s best birthday cakes.
Here are a few cakes from that list, though the selection is worth a read.
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Copenhagen Pastry (Culver City)
My colleague Stephanie Breijo wrote that baker Karen Hansen’s elegant cakes really fuel celebrations.
They come in options such as apricot chocolate, banana cream, raspberry lemon mousse and the Othello — a classic Danish birthday cake — but perhaps her most special is the princess cake.
Somewhat of a rarity in Los Angeles, this Swedish torte delicately layers chilled vanilla custard with springy sponge cake, sweet-tart house raspberry jam and a crown of fluffy whipped cream, then covers it all in a pistachio-hued marzipan dome.
Creamy and singing of almonds and berries, it’s always a crowd-pleaser. Good thing it’s available as an 8-inch round cake ($55) or a 16-by-11-inch sheet cake ($135) to feed a larger party.
Need a quick fix? The princess cake — and a few others — are also sold by the slice throughout the day. You’ll sometimes find select whole cakes ready for walk-in purchase, but Copenhagen Pastry requests at least four hours’ notice for same-day cake orders.
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Ena Bakery (Downtown L.A.)
Pastry chef Sasha Piligian — known for pioneering L.A. cakes that represent the vanguard of landscape-meets-Lambeth decorating — just rebranded her micro-bakery as Ena, wrote my colleague Betty Hallock.
“Everyone knows me by my Instagram handle (@sashimi1),” said Piligian, who fell into cake making at Gjusta and Sqirl.
A recurring summer cake is her olive oil cake ($115) with peach jam, lemon verbena custard and sour honey buttercream. A citrus chiffon has layers of strawberry jam, passion fruit curd and whipped cream.
In her signature style, the cakes might be topped with minimal curves of piped frosting, sweet pea blossoms, gradient-colored yellow-and-orange raspberries and pink-hued finger lime caviar.
“I think the cakes are sort of perfectly imperfect, rustic but also delicate, fun and whimsical but also very intentional,” Piligian said. Order cakes online at least one week in advance; pickup and delivery options available.
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Milk Bar (Fairfax)
Baker Christina Tosi’s flagship L.A. location of her popular NYC-founded bakery blends bold, satisfying flavors with the best parts of your favorite nostalgic desserts, including a chewy, sweet-savory corn cookie inspired by Tosi’s family farm, her grandma’s famous cornbake and the gooey Milk Bar pie with an oat cookie crust, wrote my colleague Danielle Dorsey.
The best-selling birthday cake ($65 for 6 inches) is a gussied-up version of the vanilla confetti cake mix sold at most grocery stores, with three tiers of rainbow-dotted vanilla cake sandwiched between layers of cream cheese frosting, topped with sprinkles and a ring of crumbly birthday cake truffles.
It’s also available gluten-free ($78 for 6 inches), along with flavors like quadruple chocolate and carrot-marshmallow with crispy cereal. Cakes are available for same-day pickup and can be delivered if ordered at least 48 hours in advance.
Check out the entire list here.
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