Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was last week and I decided I was going to make my own birthday cake. Ok, my birthday was over a week ago and I am finally getting around to getting a post written up for it!

I thought about what I wanted, but my final cake design wasn't quite what I had envisioned.

I had baked the cakes the week before since I knew I wouldn't have time the week of my birthday. I didn't think that would be a problem, but when I defrosted them were quite..uh, moist.

Then came the frosting. I followed Sugarshack's recipe and instructions. But when I went to taste test it, something seemed very wrong. It was gritty, and very greasy and didn't look smooth at all. I tasted it and it just didn't taste like my "normal" buttercream frosting. Hummm, I didn't use Crisco, but a store brand shortening, and a different brand of powdered sugar. I decided not to worry about it.

I had this grand idea that would make fondant roses. I tried several different methods, I really wanted a realistic looking rose. Unfortunately, I woke up Tuesday feeling quite miserable and didn't feel very successful in my attempt at roses. At this point I can't even remember if I filled that cake Tuesday or on Wednesday!

I still didn't feel all that great on Wednesday, my birthday. I got breakfast in bed, and about an hour to myself. I put off doing the cake until later since my DH took the day off and we decided to get out for lunch and stop at a local yarn shop. After we got back, DH took the kids to where they needed to be. I stayed home and attempted to finish my birthday cake.

Ok, remember I said the frosting tasted and looked different, well, I started the Sugarshack method to putting on buttercream. Only to discover that when I got the smoothing with the paper towel part, the frosting hadn't crusted. Ok, no problem, I will just redo it and make it look more homemade. I stacked the cakes together and it was a bit crooked, but at this point I didn't even care!

Since the whole rose thing didn't work out for me, I decided to use my tried and true flower press and flower cutter. I got quite few prepared and had them ready, and put them on. I ended up having to make a bunch more to get them go all the way around the bottom layer. I tried to add the leaves, but the frosting was to thin, so I added some powdered sugar. which I didn't get mixed up well enough. So needless to say the leaves were a bit of challenge to get on. So here it is.