A big 50th birthday party deserves a special cake for
a special person.
When my friend Rachel who was ready to turn the big
five - oh
saw a picture of a cake my daughter had made
she said, "Make me that for my birthday," so
we decided to deliver!
These beautiful ombre rosette cakes are all over
the internet. My daughter Jessica had shown me
a picture of one she had made and said it was a lot
easier than she had thought so I asked her to come over
and help out for Rachel's surprise birthday lunch.
I made two batches of cake batter. I was in a hurry
that morning so I used my favorite cake mix -
Betty Crocker's French Vanilla.
I love how moist and how flavorful it is. You
can use your favorite white or vanilla cake recipe but
for a high cake, make two batches. You need this
cake to be high.
I scooped out 2 cups of batter into 3 bowls and
left one and colored the other two shades of pink.
(Use remaining batter to make a couple of cupcakes.)
HINT: to make your cakes rise more evenly and
remove from the pan easily, cut parchment paper to
fit in the bottom of your pan and don't grease or flour
anything! When the cake is baked, let it cool 10 minutes
and then run a sharp knife around the edge to loosen it.
Turn it upside down on a cooling rack. It will come
out perfectly. Now let it cool before removing the
parchment paper. EASY!
I made 3 batches of frosting. One I left plain to fill and
frost the cake with a crumb coat.
The other two batches were divided between 4 bowls
and using red food coloring, I made each batch just
slightly darker than the last one. The palest one
took just a dot of gel food coloring.
Place your bag with the tip inserted into it in
a glass. Fold the top down and fill with frosting.
This makes it much easier to fill your bag.
I love to use Wilton's disposable bags.
Frosting Recipe
(To frost this cake, you will need to triple this recipe.)
3/4 C. soft butter
4 C. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
pinch salt
3-4 T. water or milk
(I usually use water, Jessica uses milk. We
did milk this time. You can also use cream.)
Place everything in a mixing bowl but the water.
Add 3 T. liquid and begin beating with a wire whip.
Add additional liquid if needed.
Adjust the liquid based on the humidity where
you live. Here in the west we need more liquid.
The frosting should be stiff enough to pipe
out but not so soft that it won't hold it's shape.
Fill the layers of cake then use bamboo skewers to hold the
layers in place. Cut them off to the right height and insert
3 into the middle of the cake. This will keep your cake from
sliding.
Cover the outside of the cake with a crumb coat or a thin
layer of frosting.
Place the cake in a fridge to firm up the icing.
Staring with the palest shade and using a 2D tip you will
make your roses by starting in the center and making
a complete circle. You can also use a 1 M.
Don't worry if each rose doesn't
look perfect, when you finish, the overall effect is
beautiful. Each row of roses matched the size of the
layers.
I refrigerated my cake in between layers so the
roses would be firm and not slide.
Finish by making the fourth and final layer of roses
and covering the top. You can fill in any holes by piping
using this same tip.
Place cake in fridge. The weight of the frosting can cause
the lowest layer of rosettes to get crushed so you want
to keep the frosting firm. Keep refrigerated
until time to serve.
The cake was a great success and I agree, it
was easier to frost than I thought. Thanks Jessica
for the help!
Happy 50th Rachel!
(We met at a restaurant and surprised her with 50 balloons.)
There were 14 of us there and we each wrote down 3 things
we love about Rachel
and then read them out loud. Rachel
gets to keep the notecards. What a lovely way to celebrate
someone's birthday. It has been a tradition in our home
for years to go around the table and tell three things you love
about that person. It is a nice addition to write them down.
I will be sharing this on
