Birthday Cakes for Men: Ideas for Him, Dad and Your Husband

What makes a good birthday cake for a man?

The quickest answer is The Gentleman: grey and black with moustache and gold accents, from $74.95 for a 6 inch. If he prefers chocolate, Dark Chocolate in deep brown and gold starts at $65.95. Both are ready-made designs, delivered across Toronto and the GTA or collected free in Markham. A good birthday cake for a man starts with his taste, then the mood of the party. The Place, a fresh-cream cake kitchen in Markham, makes ready-made designs for Toronto and the GTA, and the ones that suit a grown-up birthday fall into two groups: restrained designs in dark, grey or gold tones, and character cakes with a sense of humour. Neither group is the correct answer. A father who likes a quiet table and a husband who wants something silly can both be served from the same menu.

Three questions narrow it down quickly:

• Look. Do you want something sleek, or something that makes the room smile?
• Flavour. Is he a dark chocolate person, a coffee person, a tea person or a fruit person?
• Sweetness. Does he prefer a lighter slice, or a cake with no added sugar?

The sections below take each in turn, with pre-order prices from our menu at the time of writing.

Our pick The GentlemanGrey and black with moustache and gold accents; 13 cream flavours to choose from.6″ · 8″ · 10″ · serves 6–22From $74.95 Choose size & flavour

Which birthday cake designs suit a man?

Four designs lean most clearly towards a grown-up birthday: The Gentleman, Dapper Buddy, Dark Chocolate and Midnight Chocolate Layers.

The Gentleman is dressed in grey and black with moustache and gold accents, and its page describes it as designed for men's birthdays and celebrations. It is the most direct answer to "a cake for him", and it is finished with real dairy fresh cream. It offers a choice of 13 cream flavours.

Dapper Buddy is the playful one: a plush-style character cake with round glasses, a neat moustache and soft cream folds on a warm-brown body. It works well for a dad or a husband who will enjoy the joke.

Dark Chocolate is written up for grown-up birthdays, in deep brown and gold, with Belgian chocolate cream and soft chocolate chiffon. Midnight Chocolate Layers is tall, with stripes, midnight tones and touches of gold; its page lists brownie, dark mousse, bread pudding, caramel cream and ganache.

The table puts these next to a few other designs that suit the same table. Black Forest has sculptural accents in dark tones and is topped with airy fresh cream and lush berries. Red Velvet Nouveau has clean lines in deep red and a cream cheese frosting. Maple Pecan Cafe and Golden Toffee Latte bring a cafe look in beige, brown and golden tones, which suits anyone who would rather have a coffee-shop cake than a showpiece. Prices are "from" the pre-order price for each size, and your cart shows the final amount.

Which flavour should I pick for him?

Pick from what he already orders at a cafe or restaurant: dark chocolate, coffee, tea or fruit. The Gentleman and Dapper Buddy both let you choose a cream flavour, and our product pages describe each one in a few words:

• Chocolate: rich, dark cocoa.
• Tiramisu: coffee and cocoa.
• Coconut Latte: coconut and coffee.
• Salted Caramel: buttery with sea salt.
• Black Sesame: toasty and nutty.
• Matcha: earthy green tea.
• Milk Tea: bold tea, silky.
• Strawberry: fresh berry, bright.

The full list at the time of writing is Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Tiramisu, Coconut Latte, Soya Milk, Mango Oolong, Rose Lychee, Black Sesame, Matcha, Milk Tea, Chocolate, Strawberry and Strawberry Brulee, and the range on each cake varies, so check the product page.

Some cakes are built around one flavour and have no picker. Dark Chocolate is a Belgian chocolate cake, Midnight Chocolate Layers is built on brownie, dark mousse and ganache, and Golden Toffee Latte is coffee and caramel with a coffee jelly centre. If he likes coffee, Maple Pecan Cafe adds Canadian maple syrup and pecans to a subtle coffee flavour.

Can he have a 0 Sugar Added or Keto birthday cake?

Yes, if you choose a design that comes in those versions. The Gentleman, Dapper Buddy and Dark Chocolate do not, but several chocolate, coffee and tiramisu cakes do.

0 Sugar Added cakes use the same real dairy fresh cream over Japanese chiffon, made with no cane sugar added; the sweetening is described in each cake's ingredients. Keto cakes are flourless. These are the options that suit the same table as the designs above:

Choco Vital, Creamy Coco Espresso and Tiramisu Bloom each have an Express version for same-day. One limit matters: Make it eggless cannot be combined with 0 Sugar Added or Keto, because the eggless recipe is made with sugar and flour. 0 Sugar Added is only about sugar. These cakes still contain milk and eggs, the 0 Sugar Added version still contains wheat flour, and everything is made in one shared kitchen. Read the allergy information first if anyone at the party has an allergy.

What size birthday cake do I need?

Choose by guest count, and go up a size if you are unsure. The counts below come from our product pages and are a guide only.

A coffee slice is a slim finger of cake, less than half a normal dessert slice. If you want everyone to have a proper slice, choose by the "serves" number. For a small dinner for two to four, a 6 inch is plenty. For small portions, our menu also has 12 oz cake boxes and mini cakes in the 0 Sugar Added and Keto lines, but those are separate products from the designs above.

How do I order it and get it there on time?

Book ahead if you can: pre-orders run from the day after tomorrow up to 180 days out, and the full menu is available, including the 0 Sugar Added and Keto versions. Pre-order pricing is lower than Express pricing. We take a limited number of cakes each day, so popular dates fill up.

Same-day is narrower. Only cakes with Express in the name can be made same-day, orders must be in by 2:30 PM for delivery that evening, and Sunday only takes pre-orders. Of the designs above, only Maple Pecan Cafe, Golden Toffee Latte, Tiramisu Bloom, Choco Vital and Creamy Coco Espresso have Express versions.

Pickup at our Markham kitchen is free. Delivery across the core GTA is $4.95 for orders of $30 to $85, free from $85, with evening windows from 5:30 to 10:30 PM; that is a guide, and your cart shows the final fee. Full areas and times are on the cake delivery page.

If you are choosing for a dad, a husband or a friend, the birthday cakes page lists the full range by occasion, so you can narrow down by look, flavour and size from there.