I was asked to make a cake for a co-worker’s birthday.  I let her choose the flavor and then went to work on the rest.  I wanted to try out a new technique I had recently seen and thought I could pull off even though I’d never made one before.

My experience with cake decorating isn’t exactly up to par. I’m actually a little better at cupcakes, but I love learning new ideas and practicing. This was my daughter’s birthday cake I decorated last year. So sorry Maria!Tasted great, but I learned that adding a layer of fresh sliced strawberries between the layers wasn’t such a brilliant idea. Check out the moat around the dish. The strawberries around the cake kept sliding too, so I had to secure them with toothpicks! Trial and error, that’s usually my learning method.

Lately, I’ve been tooling around in the kitchen with my left over icing and practicing piping techniques on plastic lids or Pillsbury sugar cookies as my canvas. What? I can’t very well eat plastic lids. Here’s my hydrangea technique I’ll be showcasing soon. Hydrangea cupcakes! How pretty will those be?

However, this cake was a rush order and I didn’t have much time for practicing. It was now or never.  I do a lot of researching cake techniques on the internet and combine several ideas and always try to tweak it in my own way. The inspiration came from i am baker Tutorial, (hers is absolutely gorgeous by the way) as well as researching Youtube videos on rose decorating techniques.

I used this recipe for the cake and cream cheese icing ,which is my own. I didn’t add the blueberries to the cake batter, and I also used only a container and 1 tablespoon of cream cheese and added more confectioner’s sugar to stiffen up the icing.

After baking my two 9 inch round cakes I let them cool completely. Next,  I leveled the bottom layer mound with a knife(serated is usually recommended.) I’d never done this before. I usually just stack them and slap the icing on as you just witnessed first hand.

I probably could have leveled this a tad more, next time will be better. There are numerous Youtube video tutorials out there for doing this or just go to the expert i am baker. Next, I did a crumb layer of icing. Ice the bottom layer first with a straight metal spatula.

Now place the top layer on with bottom side up. You’ll get less crumbs doing this.

Okay, the glass of wine isn’t part of the icing process, but I like to relax a little when trying out a new cake technique.  Is that a smiley face on top of my cake? Haha “cake happens!”  I swear that was not staged. Finish your crumb layer and place in fridge or freezer for 10 (in freezer)to 20 minutes (in fridge) to set the icing.

Once dry, it’s recommended to finish your icing layer and get as smooth a layer on the top and sides as even as you can. If some crumbs do show through who cares. It’s getting covered with some fabulous roses. I was anxious to get to the fun part. Truth be told, I was too excited to wait for the crumb layer to dry and didn’t put it in the fridge to set. Hey, I didn’t say I followed directions well.

While I was making the icing I added a whitener that I picked up at Michaels Craft Store to get some of the yellow out of the frosting that is caused by the butter and vanilla extract. Then, I set some frosting aside and mixed in a rose paste to get the pink color I wanted.  I filled two Wilton disposable piping bags and used a 1M tip for each. This is a great starter set and has the 1M open star tip inside. (By the way, I get no compensation for recommending these links or products. I just think they are great products and resources.)

Next, I began on the side of the cake and held my tip even to wrist and elbow (straight out) and applied pressure for just a moment then went counter clockwise continuing around the center point. In other words, you work from inside out. This is a great video for the rose technique. My cake was a little high and I contemplated doing two rows of smaller roses, but in the end just went with one, although I had to loop around my starting point three times. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Mine wasn’t either.

In fact, I spread my roses out too far from each other and had to fill in spaces with a drop flower using the same tip. Then I added sugar pearls in the middle of the drop flowers to give it another textured feature. Don’t stress. It’s cake. Trust me, people will still eat it with a few mistakes. Besides, the more you practice the better you will become.

Then I decorated the top of the cake and started on the outside edges and worked my way  around to the middle then filled in the area with smaller roses.  I’m hoping to get all my roses uniform next time. It’s by no means perfect, but this didn’t take away from the cake. I’d like to think cakes are a bit like humans, they are better with a few flaws. It gives them uniqueness and character.

Do you think you would ever try this? I’d be curious to see others as well. “Sharing is caring, caring is sharing.”