A Birthday Cake for Sissy



My Sis was coming to visit just a couple of weeks after a milestone birthday. She didn't celebrate on her Big Day, so we decided to do it together. She wanted a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Simple!

I made a 6" three-layer cake using this recipe from Sugar and Sparrow.  Quickly this website is becoming my go-to, their recipes are just better than on Sallys Bake Blog which used to be my reference.  For Sis, I actually followed the instructions to use eggs plus egg whites, whereas usually I never bother and just substitute one egg for two egg whites. This recipe also uses sour cream.

The cakes were a bit dry and I should have taken them out of the oven a bit sooner, but I'm still getting to know my new oven.

 I offered to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but she wanted American. 

These layers, when stacked, make for a pretty tall cake. I offered Sis a filling but she declined. She just wanted chocolate buttercream! With all this, I was worried that one batch of chocolate buttercream wouldn't be enough. So, I made a second batch of vanilla buttercream, and tinted it pink. I figured I would make some stripes on the side of the cake for decoration. This is how the decoration took shape, making stripes on the side of the cake, and piping 1M roses on the side.  Somehow a strange-looking triangle emerged. I thought it looked odd and offered to remove it, but to my surprise Sis liked it so we kept it. I swirled some pink 1M roses on the top, and used the rest of the chocolate buttercream to pipe a bottom border and random roses on the side of the cake, and that was that. 


Random chocolate 1M roses

I wasn't totally proud of how this cake looked, to be honest. I'm still looking for an opportunity to make some really nice chocolate buttercream roses. Another time!

For now Sis was very happy and we enjoyed the celebration.




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