One of my favourite cakes in our recipe book is this birthday cake with dulce de leche.

We all like to taste over and over again those flavors that remind us of our childhood.

When you come across with a dessert that you liked so much in your childhood, you start to eat it with calmness and self-control, but you see that for some strange reason you lose that apparent control and you can’t stop eating … until you get sick of it! Then you rest for a while … you even think you’ll never try it again … but after a while you get back on track. This has happened to me sooooo many times!

And it’s the same for Victor with dulce de leche. He is capable of eating a whole pot in one day; furthermore, he eats it in every possible way: crepes with dulce de leche, dulce de leche cake, dulce de leche ice cream and so on…

When eating dulce de leche, the moment he likes most is when dulce de leche curls up on his spoon.

Birthday Cake with Dulce de Leche

Can you imagine a giant alfajor? Well, that’s the image Victor always pictures this birthday cake with. When you taste the texture of it´s different layers at the same time, sponge cake and dulce de leche, it is impossible to leave a crumb on the plate!

It’s the perfect cake for birthdays!

Happy birth… mmmmmm. This cake will challenge all guests at your birthday party when it’s their turn to sing or congratulate without having their mouth full of cake. Well… maybe I exaggerate a bit… but I’m sure it won´t let you down. Furthermore, as you make this cake for more birthday parties or other events, you can customize the presentation of the cake to your liking.

How To Make Birthday Cake with Dulce de Leche

1. Preheat the oven to 356°F ( 180°C ).

Sponge Cake

2. Separate 4 egg yolks from 4 egg whites in two different bowls. Set aside the egg whites. Preferably eggs must be at room temperature.

3. Add 200 grams of sugar into the yolks, and beat with a hand held mixer until the yolks whiten and the sugar has dissolved.

4. Gradually add the sunflower oil into the yolks while whisking with handheld on medium speed, until the mixture absorbs the oil.

5. With two oranges, grate the peel of one orange and set aside it´s zest; then, squeeze the two oranges to make juice, and add it little by little into the yolk mixture with the handheld on medium speed until combined.

When wet ingredients are well mixed, it´s time to add dry ingredients.

6. In a third bowl, mix 250 grams of flour, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of baking powder. Add a third of this mixture to the strainer, sift over the yolk mixture by gently tapping the sieve. At the same time, keep beating with the hand mixer on medium speed. Repeat this process three times until no lumps are formed.

7. Add the grated orange zest into the batter, and whisk on medium speed.

8. It’s time for the egg whites! Wash well the wire beaters to avoid mix any trace of egg yolk with egg white. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff peaks, and then add into the batter with a spatula making folding movements from bottom to top.

9. Pour the batter into a 8 inch cake pan. The pan has previously been buttered and floured so that the batter does not stick. Another option is to line the cake pan with parchment paper.

10. Bake for 45 minutes. I recommend you not to open the oven door during this time. When the time is up insert a cake tester (or a knife) into the center of the sponge cake to check whether it is done. If the tester comes out clean it is ready. If it comes out stained or wet, leave it for 5-10 minutes more.

Assembly

11. When the cake is ready, unmold it and let it cool on a wire rack. When it has completely cooled, cut it into three parts and fill each layer with dulce de leche. Be generous with the dulce de leche, each layer will give the cake its juiciness.

12. Now it’s time to cover the cake. Whip together 500 ml of heavy whipping cream and 150 grams of sugar with the hand held mixer until soft peaks. Then, cover the cake with the whipped cream… Et voilà! You have made a delicious birthday cake with dulce de leche.

If you liked this birthday cake, and you want to try making other cakes for birthday parties, I recommend you to try these recipes for spanish chocolate birthday cake, lemon meringue pie or chocolate mousse cake.