Happy Birthday Jesus Cake

Birthday cake is an important part of celebrating your special day, especially for children. Seldom will you go to a birthday celebration and not be handed a piece of cake. It’s the centerpiece around which the party rotates. What kind of cake does the birthday boy or girl want? How will it be decorated? What kind of candles should we use?

The birthday cake is the culmination of the party. Everyone gathers around the guest of honor and sings the beloved “Happy Birthday” song, then cheers and claps while the birthday girl or boy blows out the candles.

At Christmas, a birthday cake for Jesus helps our concrete minded preschoolers grasp the concept that the holiday we celebrate, and Jesus’ birthday, are the same thing.

Our family first got the idea to make a Happy Birthday Jesus Cake when our children were very small. They helped with the simple recipe, and it held great meaning for them. We’ve made the cake for several years now, so last year, I decided to skip it, thinking they had outgrown the need for the cake. I was so wrong! All three of them were very disappointed. Apparently, our birthday celebration for Jesus, aka, Christmas, isn’t complete without the cake. So, needless to say, the cake will once again be adorning our table this year at Christmas.

When I first decided to make this cake, I had to answer the same questions I would answer for any birthday: What kind of cake would Jesus want? How will it be decorated? What kind of candles should we get?

I found an easy recipe in a church handout that answered these questions and also allowed for lots of help from little hands. Since then, we’ve gradually made our own little changes until the recipe became our own.

As you make this cake, take the opportunities to discuss the larger meaning of Christmas, the fall, and the redemption of humankind. Later, as you eat it, you will once again be reminded of the Biblical truths symbolized in this cake.

You will need:

1 box of white cake mix
1 box of chocolate cake mix
Eggs, oil, and water (as indicated on the cake mixes)
White frosting (2-3 tubs)
Red and green food coloring
Other traditional birthday cake decorations (optional)

Directions:

Prepare the chocolate cake, according to package instructions. Bake in 2 round cake pans.

Note: You will only need one of the pans of chocolate cake. I usually freeze the other half and serve it for dessert sometime in January.

Mix up the white cake, according to package directions, then divide it in half, placing each half in a separate bowl. Mix in the food coloring to color one bowl green, and the other bowl red (or at least very dark pink).

Put the green cake in one round cake pan and the red cake in the other, then bake the cakes as directed on the package.

When all of the cakes are cooled, trim off the domed tops so they’re flat, then layer them in the following order, spreading white frosting on top of each layer.

The bottom layer is chocolate. This represents the sinful, dark state of the world apart from Christ.

The middle layer is red, representing the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross, to wash our sins away.

The top layer is green, which represents the new life we experience after Jesus takes away our sins.

Frost the outside of the entire cake with white frosting. This represents the holiness of Christ, as well as our own purity once we know Him.

Once you’ve followed these basic steps, feel free to finish decorating your cake however you wish, making it as Christmas-y or birthday-ish as you like. It doesn’t matter what the final decorations look like—as soon as you cut into the cake, each color is once again apparent, reminding us of the reason Jesus came, and why we celebrate Christmas.

This year, our family made our own version of this cake using recipes containing no refined sugar or flour. If you'd like to make a healthier version of this cake, check out the article, Making a Healtheir Cake.