Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cakes galore

Cakes, last week.

best birthday cake - recipe from smitten kitchen
{best birthday cake}

A classic, perfect birthday cake. Golden yellow layers swathed in creamy chocolate frosting. Recipe from Smitten Kitchen, of course.

best birthday cake - recipe from smitten kitchen
{best birthday cake + flowers}

I used my favorite easy decorating trick. Cut a circle of paper a inch or two smaller than your cake. Gently lay it in the center of your frosted cake. Sprinkle colored sugar around it. Remove paper. Voila. P.S. You aren't still buying colored sugar, are you? Check out this post. I've never looked back.

the cake
{the cake}

And we had the monster cake. Four layers of chocolate cake, piles of nutty fudge. I think this thing weighed 20 pounds.

the cake
{the cake}

I used my other favorite decoration trick. Pick out pretty candles (these are from Party City), grab some simple flowers in a matching color. Done.

Regarding cake frosting - you absolutely must invest in an offset spatula. I don't know what I would do without mine.

28 comments:

  1. yum!! and beautiful

    I baked my own birthday cake too

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gorgeous! What kind of tip did you use to make the frosting ring around the bottom of the first one? It looks so professional.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chocolate AND fudge frosting? Wouldn't think of it any other way. :) Beautiful job, Rachel!

    ReplyDelete
  4. i absolutely love super dense cakes and that one looks like it would be fabulous for any meal (particularly breakfast with a huge cup of coffee).

    ReplyDelete
  5. yummy! bet you're gonna want to lay off sugar for a while after all that...

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh my gosh. i am drooling.

    ps. tried the potato squash pizza, but used zucchini under the potatoes. yum! thanks for posting it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow Rachel. The tastiest looking cakes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your decorating skills are amazing. My frosting never looks like that. Nothing is quite as delicious as a chocolate cake.

    ReplyDelete
  9. why do you do this to me? i'm literally drooling. chocolate cake sounds so good for breakfast right now.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the decorating tips! They look so professional. My husband LOVES chocolate cake, and I'll have to try these recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I really must have some of this cake. What a great tip with the circle and sugar.

    ReplyDelete
  12. These look too heavenly to be true. Love love the tall thin candles. Excellent work!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I don't even eat cake and this looks yummy! My goodness girl...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Have you ever thought of opening a bakery or a sugar house full of sweets. I love when you bake. Wishing you a sweet year ahead!
    pve

    ReplyDelete
  15. That looks delicious!! :) I love the pink details too!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anne, it's actually not even a tip! I did it the lazy way and piled some leftover frosting into a ziploc bag, sealed it and then cut a very small corner off of it. Then I just dolloped it out that way.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Beautiful photos, I especially love the cake and calla lilies composition, beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  18. It looks marvelous. I'm dying to know where your cake stand is from.

    ReplyDelete
  19. *sigh* Everything looks SO good. And I can't wait to try the sk recipe! Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  20. oh my those cakes look just devine! I really want to eat cake now! really really!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Your blog is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen....I have recommended to so many people, it's like a piece of art!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. beyond gorgeous and i'm sure even more delicious than that. the colored sugar is perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Rachel, I am seriously drooling! Those cakes look so delicious, really I am so hungry now just looking at the lovely photos. I love the contrast between the brown of the frosting and the pink of the candles - totally gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Those are my kind of cake decorating tips...simple, but beautiful effect! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Oooh...I love your idea to match flowers with the candles all in similar shades! So gorgeous and delicious! :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Both these cakes look amazing! I just used the "best birthday cake" recipe to make some cupcakes tonight. The recipe is so great...

    Great photos, too, by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  27. These look so great! What kind of camera do you use? :)

    ReplyDelete

Trying captchas this time - better or worse than having to log in to comment? Let me know! Sorry for all the hoops but the spam has been terrible lately!