Candles not necessarily included.
January 23, 2021 5:39 PM   Subscribe

What is artificial birthday cake flavor? Ashlie D. Stevens @ Salon.com takes a dive into the history and science of the food flavor that has seen a 29% growth since 2017.
At my local supermarket, there are currently 42 birthday cake-flavored items lining the aisles outside of the bakery section: Oreos with "birthday cake flavor creme;" Annie's Organic Birthday Cake Bunny Grahams that are "sprinkled with fun;" breakfast foods like cereal and waffles; and a smattering of health foods, such as rice cakes, protein bars, granola and collagen supplements.

Once I started looking, it felt like birthday cake was all around me. At the liquor store, there are seven cake-flavored vodkas and one birthday cake-flavored beer. I don't smoke, but I even stopped on a nearby street where three vape shops had seemingly sprouted up overnight. Two of them sold birthday cake-flavored "ejuice," while the other sold a more generically labeled "Party Time!" variety that promised notes of rich yellow cake and sugary vanilla.
posted by soundguy99 (61 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
It’s awful, like vanilla mixed with strychnine.

It’s one of the worst Oreo variations, and that’s a deep bench of terrible flavors.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:17 PM on January 23, 2021 [24 favorites]


What an interesting science. I could fall down a real flavor chemistry internet hole, I think.

But leotrotsky - no two birthday cake flavors are the same! I’ve had some downright delightful birthday cake ice cream.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 6:23 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


Surely much of the reason that birthday cake-flavoured things taste bad is that birthday cake itself tastes bad?
posted by kickingtheground at 6:27 PM on January 23, 2021 [8 favorites]


But....when was it decreed that "vanilla" was the Official Birthday Cake Flavor? My whole life all my birthday cakes have been some variation on chocolate.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:31 PM on January 23, 2021 [10 favorites]


I... I thought "birthday cake" versions just added rainbow sprinkles or vanilla frosting. You mean there's a whole "flavour" there?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:31 PM on January 23, 2021 [5 favorites]


Guest at bar (with great excitement): 'Can you make us a round of Birthday Cake shooters?'

Me (always and with relief): 'Oh, I'm so sorry, no! I don't have Frangelico.'

Guest at bar: Frangelico?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:32 PM on January 23, 2021 [13 favorites]


Or, and this could be an interesting approach, we could let people enjoy things they like.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:32 PM on January 23, 2021 [24 favorites]


King Arthur Baking has a "Princess cake" flavor, I’m pretty sure, but I can’t find it online. Almond and butter and citron? Maybe originally Japanese ?
posted by clew at 6:40 PM on January 23, 2021


Or, and this could be an interesting approach, we could let people enjoy things they like.

I like the birthday cake Oreos.

I do not feel that this thread is impinging on my enjoyment.
posted by atoxyl at 6:40 PM on January 23, 2021 [10 favorites]


Actually the Birthday Cake shooter is a really weird flavor thing as the effect is achieved first by slurping some hazelnut flavored liqueur (the Frangelico) thinned down w/ vodka, then immediately biting down on a lemon wedge dipped in sugar.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:43 PM on January 23, 2021 [7 favorites]


Princess cake is a totally different thing. It's Swedish, and really lovely. Not a related phenomenon though!

I'm not fond of birthday cake flavor myself but I bear it no ill will
posted by potrzebie at 6:43 PM on January 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


I once had a birthday-cake protein bar, clearly branded for manly men. Godawful. But I was guilty of buying it and of buying other birthday-cake flavored things, because I love birthday cake. My birthday is at a time of year when people are partied out and don't usually have a lot of space for more sweets, so I am always open to the flavor.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:04 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


I'm curious what the underlying basic flavors are in "birthday cake" flavor. There's vanilla in there, and maybe artificial butter flavor? But I figure there has to be more to it than that. (Although maybe not? The "birthday cake" shot with Frangelico + lemon shows you can get oddly complex flavors out of simple components.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:06 PM on January 23, 2021


I'm curious what the underlying basic flavors are in "birthday cake" flavor.

The article talks about this a bit.

My main question is, are candles EVER included? I've never bought a cake that came with candles. Does one buy, say, a menorah with included candles?

I bet candles are always separate.
posted by hippybear at 7:09 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


To me the most salient flavors in "birthday cake flavor" are artificial vanilla and artificial-butter-flavored Crisco. It's like they're trying to replicate the essence of cruddy grocery-store cake on purpose.
posted by Daily Alice at 7:14 PM on January 23, 2021 [8 favorites]


But there's no real industry standard for "birthday cake," according to Gibson. That means the term can denote different things for different consumers.

"As flavorists, it's our job to find the essence of the experience of eating a birthday cake— something that is universally familiar, yet simultaneously individualized for us all — and capture it as a single, multi-faceted flavor. But there is no exact version of a birthday cake flavor," Gibson said. "It's a consumer-driven fantasy, so it comes down to how that specific brand wants to conceptualize the experience. The possibilities are endless."


I'm someone who's never really been an Oreo person, but a while back my brother insisted that birthday cake-flavoured Oreos, left in the freezer, were worth it.

I got some and lo and behold...they were pretty good. Consumer-driven fantasy fulfilled, I guess!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:15 PM on January 23, 2021


Ok I admit I scrolled through the article pretty quickly but doesn’t the recent rise in “Birthday cake” - deliberately artificial vanilla - flavours track pretty heavily with the rise in real vanilla costs due to the worldwide reduction in vanilla growth (it’s a crazy bad industry, pretty sure there are posts on this) that’s just turning around now?

See also: the rise in “sweet cream” ice cream flavour at local producers.*

* I prefer sweet cream to vanilla eeek
posted by warriorqueen at 7:31 PM on January 23, 2021 [8 favorites]


Princess cake flavoring is essential for making Twinkies!
posted by rikschell at 7:50 PM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


for those of you worried about artificial chemical flavors, here is A comprehensive overview of chemical-free consumer products
posted by lalochezia at 7:58 PM on January 23, 2021 [15 favorites]


Princess Peach flavoring is essential for making Mario!
posted by hippybear at 8:01 PM on January 23, 2021 [5 favorites]


I used to raise an eyebrow at fairy bread... before the same basic concept conquered my own country.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:07 PM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


Princess Peach flavoring is essential for making Mario!

I feel like this is something I need to have a long talk with my son about. Oh, who am I kidding, he's 16 and he'll talk to me about it for hours.
posted by mollweide at 8:16 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


I'm kind of curious how birthday cake flavor tastes. I'm thinking a lightly vanilla-y, fatty, powdered-sugary kind of taste and feel.

I once had a birthday-cake protein bar, clearly branded for manly men.

I've never had a protein bar in any flavor that wasn't godawful. I think they occupy a weird niche where they have to be palatable, but can't be too tasty or else they start being considered candy bars. You have to feel like you're suffering a little to justify eating them.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:32 PM on January 23, 2021 [11 favorites]


I honestly love birthday cake flavor of all sorts. Part of the charm is that it’s... not exactly like a real anything, but an idea of a cake. For a while a few years ago Target was selling birthday cake flavored gum and I loved it. I need more of that!
posted by jeweled accumulation at 8:48 PM on January 23, 2021 [9 favorites]


Princess cake is a totally different thing. It's Swedish, and really lovely. Not a related phenomenon though!

It’s that awesome pink hemisphere cake at IKEA!
posted by leotrotsky at 8:57 PM on January 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


Why is 'birthday cake' a vanilla cake? My parents always gave me chocolate, and while I don't really like chocolate cake, I also don't understand why vanilla is the default. Is this a young American palate thing?
posted by batter_my_heart at 9:36 PM on January 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


I think it's a "we bought it at the grocery store bakery because we didn't have time to make our own" thing.
posted by hippybear at 9:40 PM on January 23, 2021 [6 favorites]


The thing with vanillin (the synthesized vanilla flavor) is that it is exactly the same chemical that flavors real vanilla. However, vanillin is only one of the roughly 250 flavor volatiles found in pure vanilla extract*

For the most part, our tasters could not tell the difference between real and fake vanilla flavor. Bill Carroll, adjunct professor of chemistry at Indiana University, said he’s not surprised. Vanillin that is synthesized in a lab is identical at the molecular level to vanillin derived from an orchid and thus will taste the same.*

* Cooks Illustrated Dec 5, 2018 "In Search of the Best Vanilla" (I don't think this is paywalled at the moment)
posted by ShooBoo at 9:42 PM on January 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


I always had Baskin-Robbins ice cream cakes for my birthday, and they never tasted like that other thing. I admit I like that other thing, but I do prefer an ice cream cake with chocolate cake and chocolate silk or chocolate mint ice cream. The cake part from Baskin-Robbins isn't particularly good or memorable, but who cares when you have that ice cream?
posted by hippybear at 9:43 PM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


I bet candles are always separate.
Well of course. That's what keeps the economy going.
Without that little cardboard box of birthday cake candles, you'd have nothing to keep next to your extra soy sauce packets and rubber bands.
Without candles and sauce, you'd have no need for a 'junk drawer'.
Without a junk drawer, you'd have no need for a kitchen.
Without a kitchen, you don't need a house around it.
And don't even get me started on the entertainment industry's existence, predicated on the constant demand for new IP's to put on themed paper plates and napkins.

We're all in the pocket of Big (teeny little) Candle!
posted by bartleby at 9:44 PM on January 23, 2021 [17 favorites]


Ha, princess cake emulsion may not currently be in the King Arthur catalog but it has been.

No one will say what’s in it, but probably nuts (which?), citrus, butter? So not tooo far off the green-domed princess cake.

Australia does theirs as a frog, though.
posted by clew at 9:51 PM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


I always thought birthday cake flavor also had diaceytl or whatever that butter flavor is.
posted by Carillon at 10:08 PM on January 23, 2021


I think it’s like, “yellow cake.” I remember wishing I could find more vanilla flavored treats so I’m happy about this trend.
posted by Selena777 at 10:15 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


The "birthday cake" shot with Frangelico + lemon shows you can get oddly complex flavors out of simple components.

I wouldn't exactly call "birthday cake" a particularly complex flavour - on the contrary. This is more like taking a fairly complex set of flavours, and their combination reducing down to something much more basic in combination.


I think it’s like, “yellow cake.”

Don't eat the uranium!
posted by Dysk at 10:33 PM on January 23, 2021 [9 favorites]


When I was making ice cream during the initial lockdown, I found a recipe for cake batter ice cream that used a 2:2:1 ratio of butter:vanilla:almond extracts/flavorings. Seemed pretty on point when I ate it. I've seen other recipes that used actual cake mix and others that had some lemon in there, though.
posted by tavella at 10:37 PM on January 23, 2021 [4 favorites]


BANG Energy drinks are where I've learned to go for tasting the cutting edge of odd sugarfree flavor replication. Birthday cake flavor even includes that slightly flour-y taste.

But what really gets my goat is cotton candy flavor. A. What is cotton candy flavor separate from "sugar", and B. how do you get that flavor into a sugarfree drink?

Truly a mystery for the ages.
posted by CrystalDave at 10:46 PM on January 23, 2021 [4 favorites]


My dentist offers birthday cake flavored fluoride. I follow it with raspberry flavored polish. I leave the dentist feeling like I've eaten dessert.
posted by obol at 12:46 AM on January 24, 2021 [4 favorites]


Or, and this could be an interesting approach, we could let people enjoy things they like.

It's not so much things people enjoy as it is an out of control capitalism jumping on some random thing and deciding that EVERYBODY LIKES THIS so it needs to be in ALL THE THINGS.

Cf. bacon.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:14 AM on January 24, 2021 [5 favorites]


Princess cake is delicious (and adorable)
posted by thivaia at 1:34 AM on January 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


My MM dispensary sells items called "Birthday Cake". The smell is a sin against nature.
posted by james33 at 4:39 AM on January 24, 2021


It's not so much things people enjoy as it is an out of control capitalism jumping on some random thing and deciding that EVERYBODY LIKES THIS so it needs to be in ALL THE THINGS.

This - and also the fact that they're ASSUMING this flavor is a universal constant. It isn't - and that can backfire. The flavor they're assuming I associate with "birthday cake" is actually a flavor I associate with other people's birthdays, usually other grade-school classmate's birthdays where the party was actually kind of boring. So it's not that I dislike that flavor, it's that the association I have with that flavor is that of "I'm in itchy tights that fit weird at the crotch and we've played Pin The Tail On The Donkey already and the only other thing to do after this is another game of Duck Duck Goose and I'm bored", so I reach for chocolate stuff instead.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:07 AM on January 24, 2021 [9 favorites]


There seems to be an attempt to make birthday cake flavoured stuff popular here in the UK, although afaik the most popular birthday cake here is the M&S Colin the caterpillar cake, which is chocolate.

I did try a birthday cake flavoured Kit-Kat a while ago, out of curiosity and I was punished for that curiosity. It was horrible, and tasted like nothing on earth, Not a Kit-Kat or a cake - revolting.
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:35 AM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


As usual EmpressCallipygos you have nailed it. Damn I can feel those tights right now.

With food spin-offs becoming more an more of a thing, I shudder to think of the fads ahead. “Pumpkin spice” seemed to have really launched this flavor ubiquity thing and I don’t want to know what’s next.

WRT birthday cake, I had a Mom who liked to try new things, and would make an unusual iteration every year, none of them “birthday cake flavor.” That was the flavor of the boring sheet cakes at other kids’ parties. Mom’s efforts didn’t always go down well... In 1964 she thrilled me with a spectacular chocolate baked Alaska (complete with flaming cherries and smoking metal sparklers) that was pretty much lost on my seven-year-old friends.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:40 AM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


My dentist offers birthday cake flavored fluoride. I follow it with raspberry flavored polish. I leave the dentist feeling like I've eaten dessert.

That’s how they get you. Then it’s on to the complimentary nitrous oxide and before you know it you’ve got a whole set of veneers.

Nitrous Oxide at the dentist for “anxiety” feels like the modern day equivalent of women getting manual stimulation for their hysteria. An socially acceptable gloss over fun stuff.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:18 AM on January 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


The first whiff of birthday cake Oreos being made at the Peek Freans factory is nice, but you know you're going to be stuck in the mandatory fun miasma all day if you work in that neighbourhood. It makes you yearn for a whiff of the Mill Street brewery, the delicious (now departed) JJ Bean roastery, even the sharp tang of the Select Foods mustard plant or the acrid ponk of the Bermondsey Waste Transfer Station (August edition). Anything to cut the sparkles.
posted by scruss at 6:28 AM on January 24, 2021 [7 favorites]


MetaFilter: like vanilla mixed with strychnine.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:42 AM on January 24, 2021


I don't think there's a flavour I'd associate with "birthday cake" if I came across it without being told beforehand that that's what it was. It would probably just taste like generic cake. Or vanilla and butter and maybe a hint of fake berry. So probably not cake I really wanted.

Part of the "magic" of the flavour is likely being told what it is trying to be before you taste it. Otherwise you have no association. You're primed to think "this will taste like cake" before you taste it, and voila, it has notes of vanilla and butter, it pattern matches more or less.

And because you're told it's a "birthday" cake, you're supposed to be reminded of cakes from your youth, when you got cakes and presents and a fuss was made (modulo family finances and traditions of course).

Taste is not just smell, it's anticipation.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:49 AM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


I find it strange that nowhere in this article does it say what the artificial flavor was designed to replicate: a yellow cake with both vanilla and lemon peel as flavorings.
posted by cali at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2021 [5 favorites]


All this talk of flavor chemistry etc. and my brain has latched on to that Lewis Black line, "Nyquil comes in two colors, red and green, and it’s the only thing on the planet that tastes like red and green."
posted by xedrik at 10:18 AM on January 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


My dentist offers birthday cake flavored fluoride.

Ok this is making me think maybe birthday cake flavor is actually just rebranded bubblegum flavor, all the rage in the 80s/90s? Because my dentist definitely had bubblegum fluoride when I was a kid. And bubblegum ice cream was everywhere.
posted by misskaz at 10:38 AM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


CrystalDave: What is cotton candy flavor separate from "sugar"

Veronica Hislop breaks it down for you.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:44 AM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


Interesting observation about the “birthday cake” shot - I was a bartender from 2005-2010 and I know this shot as a “chocolate cake”.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 11:12 AM on January 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


What is bubblegum flavor?

The short answer: primarily artificial strawberry plus artificial banana; other flavors might be present as well.
posted by gimonca at 12:01 PM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


When I see a "birthday cake" flavor, I assume vanilla + fakey butter flavor + too much sugar, with the impression of rainbow sprinkles somehow. It's revolting, which I know because I will unfailingly eat an entire "birthday cake"-flavored treat of some kind at least twice a year. (Some things are not revolting until you've finished eating them, ok?)
posted by grandiloquiet at 2:40 PM on January 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ooh! I have a theory about cotton candy flavor!

Has anyone tried those circus grapes that taste just like cotton candy? What if, cotton candy tastes like the GRAPES and we've actually been experiencing a variation on grape flavor this whole time.
posted by frecklefaerie at 5:59 AM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


I always thought cotton candy (real cotton candy, not "cotton candy" flavor) always had a light caramel flavor. I find it noticeably distinct from straight-up unspun sugar. Am I the only one?

I'm ehhh on "birthday cake", but I fully admit I love "cake batter"/"cookie dough"/"brownie batter" flavors. When done right, they're pleasantly grainy and a bit salty, just like the real stuff. Though, wow, that description sure doesn't sound delicious.
posted by mosst at 7:16 AM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


I clicked on Fuchsoid's comment about Colin the Caterpillar (a chocolate log cake) being the most popular birthday cake in the UK and now I am terrified. Look at Colin's face!
posted by spamandkimchi at 7:34 AM on January 25, 2021


I just want something that tastes like the inside of an old book smells (which is also due to vanillin IIRC).

As opposed to how the inside of an old book tastes, plus sugar. Which is how birthday cake Oreos taste.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:29 AM on January 25, 2021 [2 favorites]


Interesting observation about the “birthday cake” shot - I was a bartender from 2005-2010 and I know this shot as a “chocolate cake”.

I did most of my drinking before then and it was called 'chocolate cake' then too, and really does taste like chocolate cake. This recipe says the chocolate cake shot has hazelnut, but nope, that's new.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:19 AM on January 25, 2021


Isn't "hazelnut liqueur" just the generic name for Frangelico?
posted by mosst at 11:53 AM on January 25, 2021


Isn't "hazelnut liqueur" just the generic name for Frangelico?
Yes, you are correct - I categorized 'hazelnut liqueur' as instead of vodka, but vodka is ingredient #2.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:14 AM on January 26, 2021


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