Page 2 of Andrea's "Birthday Cake" 4th of July Scented Candle & Melt Review

by Andrea Haskins
(added 7/4/10)

A comparison review of birthday cake scented candles and melts from over 20 different candle companies. Page 2

Page 1 of Andrea's review


Table of Contents for Review

Country Home Scents 

I was introduced to this darling company some time ago and boy am I glad I was. This company has some of the cutest decorated tarts that make melting them so much fun. Right now they sell their wonderful goodies on Etsy and Artfire. The round tarts come as a pack of two, each individually wrapped. The Birthday Cake tarts are an off-white color with rainbow sprinkles all on top. The description given is this:

"The sweet aroma of vanilla birthday cake iced with buttercream frosting!"

Well it took a little while for this one to get started. But patience is a virtue, right? Patience certainly paid off here!! This scent was all about that delicious buttercream frosting. All rich and creamy and oh so good. I didn’t really get any cake notes out of this one. I was surprised at how well this cutie pie threw his scent around. This tart filled the room I was in easily. Loved it!



Visit Country Home Scents

Luna Bleu is a scent lover’s dream. The scent list is ginormous and you can choose your own scent intensity – light, medium or strong. Feeling a little adventurous? Then create your own blend!! You can mix and match any scents you want. The tarts here come in 1oz foil lined cups or 2oz round tubby cups. Scrolling through the scent list I almost got distracted. Almost. I wound up finding two scents to try – Birthday Cake and Sweet Orange Cupcake. Then I did a little blending of my own… ooh la la! All of my tarts were the larger tubby cups and I chose them to be highly scented. The order took a little while to get to me, but well within the stated turn around time.

Birthday Cake
First up was Luna Bleu’s Birthday Cake. Here’s how it’s described:

"Yummy white birthday cake with sweet vanilla frosting! This scent is drool worthy!! This is the best Birthday Cake!"

When this one started melting, I immediately began the hunt for a fork so I could dive in. This is such a realistic cake scent, its unbelievable! More cakey than buttery, this reminded me more of a white cake. I did not get any almond notes. Just creamy, cakey goodness. The scent throw was very good… one tart filled a medium sized room without being overpowering.

Sweet Orange Cupcake

Luna Bleu’s own birthday cake blend. 

"A wonderful blend by a customer of ours, Sweet Orange and our Birthday Cake. The result? Fabulous!!"

 The scent started off with the creamy birthday cake scent but was quickly matched by a sweet orange. The orange ended up being the predominant scent but I could always catch whiffs of the birthday cake in the background. This was a stronger scent than straight up birthday cake, most likely because of the orange. This made for a wonderful blend and something I would definitely reorder.




By now I was feeling like a Birthday Cake expert. Time for me to create some blends of my own!! A neat touch from Luna Bleu is that she names the blends for you. Nothing fancy but somehow I liked that better than just listing the blended scents on the label.

Watermelon Cake

Watermelon Cake was a blend of juicy watermelon and delicious birthday cake. What fun! I did not find a scent description for straight up watermelon but it was available as a scent choice when ordering. This was a great mix, if I do say so myself. It started out with some sweet juicy watermelon, but then the buttery birthday cake came into play. Mmmmmm… delicious! This scent lasted a long time and completely filled the room I was in. A definite winner!!

Thai Coconut Cake

Thai Coconut Cake mixed Luna Bleu’s Thai Coconut (Wonderful exotic Thai Coconut smells so good, A perfect exotic coconut) with their Birthday Cake. Oooooh this was good! This made for a very creamy and buttery scent. Nice and smoooooth. It reminded me of sweet coconut milk. This scent also had a good throw but a bit milder. That was OK with me because I think if it had been stronger it would not have been so smooth.

Lemon Sugar Cake

For Lemon Sugar Cake I asked for Lemon Sugar Type (A refreshing blend of Tart Lemons mixed in a light whipped cream topped with sweet vanilla crystals!) to be blended with Birthday Cake. This was an OK mix to me. The lemon sugar was such a powerful scent, I really didn’t get to notice the birthday cake. I did notice that this lemon sugar was not as sharp as I’ve smelled before. I imagine the addition of the birthday cake mellowed it out a bit. This scent also filled the medium size room I was in and the scent lingered a good long while.




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Southerness

I’m from the South and I tend to lean toward all things Southern. How delighted was I when I blew across this site, where the greeting is Welcome, Ya’ll! Woo-wee, gotta love it! This is a small company based in Alabama that embraces their "Southerness" with heart and humor at the same time. There is not a huge array of candle scents – only 18 at the time of this review – but they have playful names. The object of my desire? Happy Birthday, Sugah.



Happy Birthday, Sugah

This is referred to as a Sugar Cake scent:

"This is classic, Southern birthday cake with icing as high as a gospel singer's hairdo and a taste that's Ted Turner rich. The nostalgic scratch cake aroma makes any birthday--Southern. Yummi-liscious!"

When trying to order I ran into a glitch, but I received a quick response from the owner and soon my candle was on its way. The candle arrived wrapped up in a piece of white tulle with a ribbon on top. What class! The jar is an open top round glass jar with a very heavy bottom. This single-wick candle had a white label on the front and the wax was an off-white color. My cold sniff was that of sweet, white cake. While burning, this candle filled the room with a light sweet cake scent. This version was a bit more sweet than the others I had tried. After burning for a while it reminded me of a milk cake – all very good. I did have to provide some frequent wick maintenance to avoid carbon balls. But the candle burned evenly without any wasted wax. I wouldn’t mind more of these candles myself.

As a note, if you decide to place an order you may have trouble ordering online. There is a change coming to the website soon that should make ordering easier. If you need any assistance, just shoot them an email. I’m sure they would be happy to help!


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Nene's Kitchen Melts

Ahhh, back to familiar territory for me. I LOVE Nene’s especially for bakery scents. I have ordered from here many times and never been disappointed. There are tarts galore here – Baker’s Bars (clamshells), Chunkie Cups, single tart cups or bags of brittle (Kitchen Krumbles). I ordered a clamshell scented in Birthday Cake:

"The best birthday cake scent ever. .no kidding. The perfect blend of cake and frosting! All the joy, no calories!"

The wax was light pink color which was a nice change of pace. While melting, I smelled a buttery cake scent with just a hint of the sweet buttercream frosting. The scent throw was lighter than the other melts I tried and it was short lived – the scent lasted maybe four hours. But it was definitely worth it.


Visit Nene's Kitchen Melts

Can Do Candles

Another one of my favorite places to shop, Can-Do Candles has some really great products at very reasonable prices. Any of you seasoned scent lovers will probably remember a place called Candle Haven. Lessie was the owner of Candle Haven and man, oh man, did she make some good stuff!! When Candle Haven closed I was excited to learn that Donna, owner of Can-Do Candles, would carry a few of the favorites from here – including Lessie’s Birthday Cake. The scent description is simply:

"This smells so real!"

Of that I had no doubt!" Can-Do is sadly no longer carrying jar candles, but there are single tarts, bags of six and clamshells to choose from. I ordered this scent in single tart form – cute white scalloped tarts. This was one scent that definitely lived up to its scent description… mmm, mmm, good!! This was a creamy birthday cake scent, very smooth and rich. I couldn’t stop sniffing the air!! This baby filled a medium sized room completely and it lasted a long, long time. Score!!


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Crosscreek Country Candles

This is a staple vendor for me. I love Crosscreek for quality, service and some unbelievable scent blends. When looking around for birthday cake scents, I was not disappointed when I decided to make Crosscreek one of my stops. Not only did I find Birthday Cake, but also a number of blends involving pink sugar. Talk about a sugar rush!! Crosscreek tarts can be ordered in all sorts of shapes and sizes. For this patriotic review, I chose a bag of six large grubby star tarts. These melts came wrapped in double cello bags with a homespun tie. My stars were all light pink except for Birthday Cake, which was white in color.

Birthday Cake

I decided to start with the basics. Good ole fashioned Birthday Cake. The scent description was as follows:

"Grab a fork..smells just like a bakery style birthday cake with loads of sweet frosting! super yum."

This was simply delicious – a good, buttery cake scent. Not really sweet and no almond notes in this one. It filled the room quick, fast and in a hurry. Umm, umm, good!








Pink Sugar Cake

All of the birthday cake blends from Crosscreek included this scent – Pink Sugar Cake. The name alone makes me hungry! Here’s what Crosscreek says about this scent: 

"A yummy beyond words combination of sweet birthday cake and icing with notes of cotton candy, vanilla and caramel… a Crosscreek Country Candles Exclusive!"

This was a light, sweet scent – more sugary cotton candy than cake. But not as sweet as a pure Pink Sugar scent. Overall a very nice blend.









Pink Cherry Cake

Next up was Pink Cherry Cake. The name alone makes me drool! This is:

"Pink sugar cake layered with cherries.. super yummo!"

It took a little while for this one to get fired up, but it was certainly worth the wait. The first thing I detected was that delicious pink sugar cake scent. The cherry notes then started to come out to add that extra twang. After a while, the cherry became the most prominent scent – as cherry scents will tend to do. I could still smell the Pink Sugar Cake somewhat in the background – still sweet, still delicious. This blend was quite a bit stronger than Pink Sugar Cake.

Pink Cotton Candy Cake

And then there was Pink Cotton Candy Cake:

"Pink sugar cake layered with cotton candy..oh man your teeth are gonna hurt! Super sweet treat."

 This was a nice scent but definitely on the lighter side. I smelled mainly sweet cotton candy with just hints of the cake underneath. The scent description was right on... this is one sweet scent!

Think we're done with the blends here? Nooooo!! Crosscreek also carries:






Pink Frooty Cake

"My pink sugar cake layered with froot loop goodness..another winner!"

 Mmmmm, this was good. I love fruit loop scents and this was a really sweet version of one. The original buttery birthday cake scent is well in the background here – the main notes are from the fruit loops and then the pink sugary goodness. Another really sweet scent. This scent throw was fabulous!!


Visit Crosscreek Country Candles

Laughing Out Loud Candles 

Laughing Out Loud Candles is a true favorite of mine. This company has a GREAT scent list and some to-die-for blends. Clamshells, scallops, tart cups and candles galore. I knew I would find something here to include in this review. I was a bit worried when I didn’t see Birthday Cake listed on its own. But then I found it – Candied Apple Cupcakes!



Candied Apple Cupcakes

"Yummy birthday cake with candied apple frosting."

 Oh my… how could this NOT be good?  I decided to try this scent in a clamshell. The wax was a candy apple red, of course. Cold sniff was all apple and all good. Once this baby started melting the true complexity came out. I could almost taste that sweet, red coating. The sweet apple scent was right behind, playing nicely with the candy coating. Every now and again I could smell some heavier notes from the cake. Oh this was good. So very, very good. This scent started throwing IMMEDIATELY and completely filled the room it was in and more. Wow. Just wow.


Visit Laughing Out Loud Candles