Those looking for beautiful, unique, delicious birthday cakes in Washington, D.C. are often unsure of where to look, defaulting into a very “DC” mindset of assuming that all the cool bakeries are in other cities. This, however, is not true! Washington, D.C. has several amazing bakeries and cake shops for designing perfect birthday cakes for kids and adults, alike. You just have to know where to look.
Below, we spotlight some of the best cake bakeries in Washington, D.C.– from Georgetown, Adams Morgan, and Foggy Bottom to Mt. Pleasant, Shaw, Dupont Circle, and beyond.
Any of the bakeries on this list can set you up with a cool, delicious birthday cake with only a few days notice. (We’ve included links to the websites where you can order cakes from each bakery, below.)
Many of the below bakeries also have ready-made cakes available for last-minute purchase. (Not that you forgot that person’s birthday, or anything…)
From popular neighborhood bakeries to luxury cake design shops, here’s where to get the best birthday cakes in Washington, D.C.. Check them out– because it’s important to always celebrate your life.
Happy Birthday to you and yours!
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The Cakeroom (For Homestyle Flavors)
The Cakeroom in Adams Morgan can do everything from custom prints to ombré cakes– but the flavors are really what make this humble cake shop shine. It’s hard to find a traditional hummingbird layer cake in D.C., but this place bakes them with aplomb.
We also recommend the Banana Cake and the “Cherry Garcia” cake. The classic Chocolate Fudge Cake, meanwhile, is rich and decadent– a must for chocolate lovers!
While the unicorn cake is popular with small children, adults keep coming back for the exuberant cake balls, which can be coated in Oreo, Snickers, or Kit Kat crumbs at your discretion. (These are perfect for holiday gatherings– who says cake balls are just for kids?)
All layer cakes come baked in the 9 inch, two-layer standard size, which can be ordered online with at least 48 hours notice required. Other cake sizes– like 1/2 sheet cakes and 6″ by 2 layer cakes– must be advanced ordered, as well.
Conveniently, the bakery makes a handful of 9 inch, 2-layer cakes in various popular flavors every day. If you need to walk in last-minute, this bakery is most likely to have a perfect cake for you. However, any specialty flavors– like the coveted Lemon Cake or the Cherry Garcia cake– need to be ordered in advance.
Overall, this is one of the best bakeries in D.C. for children’s birthday cakes. The limited flavors and humble techniques also keep the price more affordable than at other city bakeries.
And FWI: The Cakeroom shop itself is a lovely cafe, full of dainty details that reminisce of a mid-Century tea parlor. It’s a great place to sit down with a cup of coffee and a cupcake. (Even if you aren’t purchasing a cake.)
L & N Cake
Lillian Natalie Cake is the joint venture of a mother-daughter duo, Lillian Freeman and her mother, Nathalie, who specialize in making beautiful seasonal, floral cakes inspired by the Pacific Northwest. (Nathalie went to culinary school in Portland in her 20’s, and came back to the world of food after decades of being a teacher.)
For those looking for a luxurious floral cake for a party, L & N makes some of the most beautiful– and trendy– floral cakes you are apt to find in the DC area. This isn’t the standard place to get “Happy Birthday” written in scrawl across your sheet cake– but rather, a delightful mix of colorful flowers, leaves, and herbage inspired by nature’s enduring bounty. (The owner’s sister, Sally, came into the family-run business later and now serves as the bakery’s chief wedding cake designer, which is really the bread and butter of their “accidental” cake venture. Thus, even their smaller cakelettes, which are ideal for birthdays, have a high-end, cinematic quality.)
Ultimately, we adore their vanilla rose cardamom cake with pistachio buttercream filling and vanilla rose buttercream– the so-called “Sweetest Rose” cake– a real creative stand-out on the short, seasonally-rotating menu.
They also make other ethereal, joyously-named flavors like “Provence Afternoon Cake”– a light, lavender cake made with bright and puckery lemon curd and fluffy vanilla bean buttercream that ineffably but effectively reminisces of the French countryside. (See also: their vibrant orange blossom carrot cake (delightful!) or a recent white chocolate cake with strawberry jam and thyme buttercream. It’s all lovely.)
All cakes are adorned with dried flowers and herbs, and these generally echo the flavor profile inside. (So there are roses on “The Sweetest Rose” cake, and fragrant lavender wands affixed to the outside of the “Provence Afternoon” cake, etc.)
We also like that these cakes can be made vegan, and you can choose whether you’d like them naked, semi-naked, or frosted in a standard way to suite your taste. You can also choose whether you want fresh flowers, pressed flowers, or a vintage look. Colors will vary based on the seasons of the year, but there’s a portal on their ordering pages where customers can indicate a color theme and provide pictures for design inspiration and themes.
Specialty cakes must be ordered at least two weeks before pickup, which takes place either at their tiny Union Market bakery counter or at a variety of area farmers markets. See their website for the most up-to-date details.
Ultimately, this family-run business makes some of the more high-end cakes in the DMV area (at a higher price point), but the flavors and chicly-verdant floral design are excellent, echoing artistic styles seen across the most stylish cake designers on the Internet right now.
Like L&N’s other baked goods (cookie butter cinnamon rolls, anyone?), L & N cakes are made to delight even the most discerning of epicurean palettes, which makes them ideal for any celebration. They are newcomers to the DC cake world, but the aesthetics and flavors here are so fabulous that they are fast becoming a new touchpoint in the city’s pastry scene.
Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats (For Vegan Birthday Cakes)
Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats is a spunky bakery and cafe that, in addition to delicious birthday cakes– also serves excellent savory food (and with a new grocery store snack arm, to boot). The bakery side of the enterprise makes a variety of vegan and kosher birthday cakes, including “fancy cakes,” cupcakes, and sweetheart cakes for birthdays, in sizes ranging from 6-inch cakes (which serve 6-8 people) to full sheet cakes (which serve 50 to 108 people).
Overall, they make some of the best vegan birthday cakes in D.C.– and some of the most affordable cakes. (It costs around $30 for a 6-inch cake as of this writing.)
We adore their rich “Grasshopper” cake– chocolate cake with mint frosting covered in ganache. Also noteworthy is the Chocolate Mocha cake with espresso frosting and coffee beans, a hit among coffee lovers. Above shown is the decadent S’more’s cake: a chocolate cake that features house-made marshmallow fluff, toasted marshmallows, and graham crackers. It’s divine. Kids and adults love it!
Plus, at Sticky Fingers, there’s no additional charge for adding a 3-5 word message on top of any cake.
For those with allergies, the bakery can also make wheat-free cakes by request. These are just as tasty as the traditional flour cakes and non-vegan birthday cakes. However, as with all specialty cakes, just be sure to order in advance for in-store pickup.
Baked & Wired (Simple Cakes With Robust Flavor)
Artsy Georgetown outpost Baked & Wired is known for its excellent housemade granola and cheeky, ginormous “cakecups”, which are sort of like cupcakes except bigger and wrapped in individual parchment. (Our two favorite flavors: the “Pretty Bitchin'” peanut butter and chocolate, as well as the “Karen’s Birthday” chocolate cake. The Texas Sheetcake and Chocolate Doom are also great for chocolate lovers.)
Despite the fact that the lines creeping out the door are usually for the cakecups, Baked & Wired’s normal-size birthday cakes are absolutely delicious, as well. These come in simple but robust flavors like “Dirty Chai”, “Vanilla Latte”, Lemon, Carrot, and Strawberry. (<— This latter has a beautiful, muted tone.)
In addition to making what are easily the best birthday cakes in Georgetown, this bakery also makes one of the best darn German chocolate cakes in D.C.. (And this flavor can be surprisingly hard to find in these parts.)
For a unique aesthetic experience, try the funky “Uniporn and Rainho”, a vanilla cake with heart-shaped confetti baked into the batter and colorful cream cheese frosting. (They’re always changing the colors so that they can, as they say, “keep things fun!”.)
Elle (Locavore Cakes Made With Restaurant-Quality Panache)
Beloved Mount Pleasant farm-to-table restaurant, Elle, offers a lovely, concise selection of celebration cakes available for pre-order on their website. Their seasonal selection of cakes includes crowd-pleasers like “The Ultimate Birthday Cake”, above shown (which features alternating layers of chocolate and yellow cake layered with vanilla buttercream, whipped chocolate ganache, poured dark chocolate glaze and rainbow sprinkles) as well as favorites from their menu, like a cake-sized version of their cult-favorite honey goat cheese cheesecake, with a toasted almond oat pecan crumb and seasonal fruit.
There are also a few intriguing bespoke options like passionfruit mousse cakes and chocolate hazelnut cake.
To place an order, fill out the cake request form here— and be sure to do so at least 5 days before you need the cake, since the kitchen makes each one specific to order. (It is a restaurant, not a bakery, after all.)
Sweet Crimes Gluten-Free Bakery (for Superb Gluten-Free Birthday Cakes)
If you’re looking for a great gluten-free birthday cake maker in Washington, D.C. that can also do epic 3-D designs, look no further than Sweet Crimes Gluten Free Bakery.
Owned and operated by Catherine (Keri) Lijinsky, a creative baker who is gluten intolerant, this bakery produces a gorgeous array of bespoke cake designs available for pick-up or delivery in the DMV area. (And best of all, they can make even elaborate designs out of buttercream, rather than relying on tasteless fondant.)
Because the bakery is completely gluten-free, those who are allergic don’t have to worry about risky cross-contamination. Meanwhile, those who aren’t gluten-free have a hard time believing these delicious cakes don’t contain any wheat!
The secret lies in Lijinsky’s proprietary gluten-free flour blend, which she uses as a one-to-one substitute for all-purpose flour.
We love Sweet Crimes’ banana cake with salted maple buttercream. This is the flavor combo inside the custom layer cake she made for us, above. ^ (It’s a “banana pancake” cake, but one slice into the middle reveals classic cake layers between beautifully even sheets of buttercream. Delicious!) The bakery also makes gluten-free, dairy-free ice cream cakes, though those cannot be shipped.
For those in the market for additional gluten-free sweets, Lijinsky has also won “Best Gluten-Free Sweet in DC” multiple years in a row for her signature GF cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg donuts. We also love the GF Nutella donut, but, hey– that’s just us. Heat them up for a real treat! 🙂
To order your custom gluten-free birthday cake, go here.
Thomas Sweet Ice Cream (For Homemade Ice Cream Cakes)
The popular Georgetown ice cream shop Thomas Sweet Ice Cream makes awesome ice cream cakes that are easily the best ice cream birthday cakes in Washington, D.C. (in part because they are homemade). For people who don’t like traditional cake, T. Sweet makes ice cream cakes in more than 70 flavors!
You can basically ask them to make a cake out of any flavor of ice cream on their huge menu. They’ll decorate it with traditional piping, homemade chocolate drip, Oreos, gummy bears, frosting rosettes, or whatever your heart desires.
The results are ultimately delicious and super unique, resulting in some of the best birthday cakes in D.C.. (You can even get an ice cream cake in flavors like Swiss Chocolate Malt, “Butterbrickle,” Lemon Custard, or Dulce de Leche. Yum!)
To place an order for a birthday cake, call the parlor’s D.C. location, choose your flavor and size, and schedule a time for pick up at the Georgetown storefront. You can also ask them to write any message on top of the cake for no additional charge.
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Insider Tip
When you pick up your cake, try one of their specialty hot chocolate drinks on your way out. This no-frills ice cream shop is known for its homemade chocolate as well as homemade ice cream. For what it’s worth, we love their “Hot Nutella” hot chocolate. 🙂
Ultimately, fans of this local ice cream parlor love the charming, “homemade” looking trim on these cakes. It’s a thoughtful take on a traditional birthday cake. The details are especially winsome because finding hand-packed ice cream cakes is so rare these days.
Historically, consumers have tended to purchase ice cream cakes from supermarket chains or big conglomerates like Carvel. In D.C., however, that doesn’t have to be the case.
Ultimately, T. Sweet’s ice cream cakes feel personal and homemade– which is really what everyone wants in a birthday cake, right?
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Related: We Love This Adorable “Bread Speakeasy” in Washington, D.C..
These 7 Cool Coffee Shops in Georgetown are worth the visit, every time.
The 3 Most Beautiful Places to See Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C..
Need a cool cake in another city? Consult our beautiful American Birthday Cake archive, here.
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