Simple Summer Birthday Recipes
Thank you to American Greetings for sponsoring this post!
We have a handful of summer birthdays in my family. There’s Aaron’s birthday in mid-June, mine a week later (and our dog, Honey’s, two days after that), my soon-to-be sister-in-law Lauren’s birthday is next, and then Aaron’s mom, Kathy, has a birthday in mid-July. With Lauren’s wedding coming up in a few weeks and everyone taking vacations at different times, I decided to save us all the scheduling headaches and throw one big, joint summer birthday celebration.
My only concern was that I didn’t want it to feel like a lackluster office party, where someone picks up a grocery store cake and everyone who has a birthday that month gets a quick shout-out. To ensure that each person felt special and cared for, I paired his or her favorite dessert with a thoughtful birthday card. And instead of running around between three different stores trying to gather supplies, I made one quick stop at the new(ish) Target near me and took full advantage of their card section, party decorations, and baking supplies aisle.
I found a letterpress card for Aaron (he has a thing for letterpress) and made him a batch of sweet potato brownies with extra chocolate chips and walnuts on top, just the way he likes them. Lauren and Kathy both received pretty cupcake cards, with vegan funfetti cupcakes for Lauren because she loves bright colors and confetti, and mini strawberry shortcake trifles for Kathy.
To save a little time on the trifles and avoid baking three separate desserts, I portioned half of the cupcake batter into a mini loaf pan before I stirred in the rainbow sprinkles and used cubed vanilla cake instead of shortcake. It was light, sweet, and we lucked out on the organic strawberries—they were perfectly ripe and juicy.
If you’re looking for other summer birthday recipe suggestions, here are a few more I’d recommend:
For the peanut butter lover: 2-Layer Chocolate Peanut Butter Freezer Fudge
For the ice cream fanatic: Snickers Ice Cream Cake
For the s’mores obsessed: No-Bake Mini S’mores Cheesecakes
For the health-conscious birthday boy or girl: Dark Chocolate Chickpea Pie with Pretzel Crust
Pairing favorite desserts with cute, handwritten cards ended up being a really big hit. Each recipe was easy and I was able to do all of the baking a day in advance, and then I simply frosted, assembled, and decorated everything a little before guests arrived. And while I didn’t make myself any particular dessert, I was more than happy to sample some of Aaron’s brownies, a few bites of cupcake (extra frosting!), and half of a trifle. Even Honey made out pretty well too, because she got to enjoy her own puggle-sized bowl of coconut whipped cream and strawberries. ♥
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Greetings.
Check out their Pinterest page for more greeting card inspiration!
