A huge trend in cakes this year has been the gorgeous letter and number cakes that you’ve likely been ogling on Instagram! You know the giant numbers with multiple layers of cookies and icing topped with all kind of indulgent sweets from macarons to meringues, candies to flowers, ice cream cones to cookies? Yeah, I’m talking about those beauties! Join me as I take a behind the scenes look to see how these lovely creations are made and gather inspiration for your next time in the kitchen!
The Number Cake Trend
This trendy designer cake started popping up in bakeries everywhere in 2018 and is still going strong today! Maybe like me you’ve wondered, is it a cake, a cookie, a tart? Well it turns out it depends on who’s making it! And the cakes don’t just take the shape of numbers… letters and symbols are also really popular.
Ultimately, number cakes are layers of deliciousness, topped with flowers, candies, cookies and other goodies to match the celebratory occasion at hand. Let’s take a look at a few of the beautiful examples we found, including recipes and video tutorials so you can recreate a masterpiece of your own at home!
First up, let’s start with a tart version on a number cake. Aleksandra at Everyday Delicious shares her scrumptious looking recipe for a Lemon Cream Tart with Raspberries that she shaped into a Number One Cake for her daughter’s birthday. The simple raspberries, meringues and fresh flowers look absolutely lovely on top!
One of my favorite things about this trend is how bakers personalize the toppings of the number cakes to match the party’s theme or the birthday person’s interests and loves. Take this Number Two Cake for example… it’s primary colors are perfect for a young child and who wouldn’t love the playful ice cream cones on top! In fact, this would be a perfect cake for the Two Year Old Birthday Pool Party we recently featured!
If you’re a visual person and want to see the behind the scenes tutorial of how these fancy cakes comes together, check out this video from @anniscakery_. Her Number 30 Cake is all cake, topped with jam (yum!) and icing. I love fresh flowers on a cake and these roses look lovely next to the fresh fruit and macarons!
Valentina over at The Baking Fairy shared her recipe for a Gluten Free Chocolate Candy Number Cake for a 13th birthday party! Her cake was also fully cake (not stacked cookies or a tart) and she has some great tips for creating the perfect number shapes. I love the chocolate cookie and candy theme, don’t you?!
You can even add the birthday girl or boy’s name to the top of your cake like @sweet.events.by.sandra did on this Number 9 Cake! Look at all of the details here… ballet shoes and a dancer, jelly beans, marshmallows, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate candies, candy pearls… oh.my.goodness!!
And of course you don’t have to do a number… letter cakes are also hugely popular! Spell out the birthday person’s name, do the bride-to-be’s monogram, or how about the first initial of the baby you’re welcoming! Here’s a peek at a Letter R Cake tutorial… it doesn’t actually look that hard, does it?
Now that you’re full of inspiration and ideas, what letter and number are you going to bake next?! Leave a comment and let me know and be sure to Pin this post for your next party!
