Sunflower Cake


 


A friend who is dear to me obtained her residency and was throwing a party to celebrate. I was delighted with the occasion and just had to make a cake for her!  

I made a Vanilla Cake with Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Raspberry Filling.  The recipe for the vanilla cake is from one of my recent favorite blogs, Sugar and Sparrow.  These recipes never fail!  I made it in two 8" round pans.

I considered making some kind of "card" cake but couldn't come up with a design that pleased me. Instead, I decided on a sunflower decoration. This past Spring I gave her some faux-sunflower shoots that she planted in her garden.  I made a batch of American buttercream, colored it in different colors, and tried to approximate sunflowers. And other flowers. I was nervous attaching the flowers to the sides of the cake because they were quite heavy. I decided to see how they held up using only buttercream to attach them, and try to avoid inserting spaghetti or straws.  And fortunately with a hefty dollop of buttercream they held up quite well. Nothing slid or slipped off!

A look at some of the buttercream flowers.

All around the cake

More flowers

Next time I'll make some small ones too.

I'm not very good at piping lettering on cakes but I'm getting better. I used a Wilton #4 tip and practiced making the bottom of each letter hit at the same point. I wrote "Here to stay!" and the next day when I looked at the cake I realized the message could be confused with "Here to slay". R reassured me that wasn't the case, but the minute I showed the cake to my friend she burst out laughing because she read "Here to slay". But hey, that was almost better. She's great and she's slaying it!

Caketop with message

It was an awesome September evening and we enjoyed the party at a winery very much. People liked the cake and by the end of the evening there wasn't any left. That's always my goal!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Earl Gray Cardamom Cake TO TRY

Image
  Ingredients Yield: 16 to 24 servings For the cake 1 cup/240 milliliters extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan 1 ½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea (from about 6 tea bags) 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) 2 cups/480 grams sour cream or whole-milk plain Greek yogurt 3 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract  3 cups/384 grams all-purpose flour For the streusel 1 cup/128 grams all-purpose flour 1 cup packed/220 grams light or dark brown sugar 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom ½ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter, melted Add ingredients to Grocery List Shop ingredients on Instacart Your first order gets $20 off and free delivery. Instacart terms apply. Ingredient Substitution Guide Nutritional Information OUR LATEST NEWSLETTER Miso and Mushrooms and Leeks, Oh My Get the Cooking Newsletter Opt out or  contact us  anytim...
Read more

Nordic Ware Spice Cakes

Image
Mini spice cakes with a Fall theme Wondering what to make for a small gathering on my patio to welcome Fall, I remembered my Nordic Ware pan.  I got it on sale at Sur la Table while visiting my sister in Arlington VA a few years ago, and I remember using the recipe that came with the pan to make some pretty tasty spice cakes.  I couldn't find the recipe, but a quick internet search uncovered it.   Here  it is, under the name Mini Harvest Spice Cakes.  I'm writing it below for future reference: INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 Tbsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 3/4 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled 2 eggs, room temperature 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup milk DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare pan with baking spray containing flour or butter and flour. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Using a standing mixer, cream sugar and butter unt...
Read more

St. Patrick's Day 2025 Chocolate Roll Cake

Image
  I'm always busy in the kitchen - too much so for my taste - but with having to shop and cook dinner so often, and clean up afterwards, I haven't done much baking aside from regularly baking bagels, and the odd banana muffins or olive bread.  So it was that much more fun to spend a few hours in the kitchen recalling my skills, using my equipment, and trying a new recipe to make something delicious and pretty. St. Patrick's day is one of those little holidays we enjoy celebrating because it breaks up the routine, is festive, and is an excuse to decorate and eat something different. This year we went with simple cube steaks with mushrooms and onions, colcannon, and my dessert.  I decided to make a roll cake with shamrock decorations. I used  this recipe  from Haniela's. I've seen her amazing cookie decorating videos, but had never made one of her recipes.  Honestly I chose it because it came with a downloadable PDF for the shamrock decorations. I made the ba...
Read more