I had my own Pinterest challenge for Lily's birthday. I had pinned this gorgeous cake a few weeks ago. Well actually, Ashley pinned it and I repinned it from her. I just did that really fun flower and butterfly cake for Chloe, so when my best friend, D, asked me to make Lily's cake I wanted to do something different, but just as special. My mind kept going back to that Pinterest cake, and since Lily's not old enough to be into any special themes, I thought the Pinterest cake would be fun and classy for a First Birthday party.
I basically followed the directions Glory provided with a couple of tweaks. I used a tried and true vanilla cake recipe that I knew would stand up to being thinly stacked 5 layers high (I made an 10" cake and one "smash" cupcake rather than a 6" cake like Glory did). I had used it to make Randy's 3-tiered graduation cake from USC last July. I multiplied the recipe by 1.5 to make the 10" cake and Lily's little cupcake-sized smash cake. I also used my kid-friendly buttercream recipe, which is sweet enough for kids, but not too sweet for adults.
I divided my cake batter into 5 bowls. I left the first one its natural color, then I dyed each bowl a progressively deeper shade of pink, and then the last two progressively a little purpler. Since I only had 3 10" cake pans, I had to bake them in two batches. Here's my very pink middle layer.
I then stacked them up with buttercream and tried unsuccessfully to keep it flat on top.
Then I did a crumb coat of buttercream and started my swirls. Glory did her whole top a light pink then moved progressively down the sides of the cake, getting pinker and pinker as she went. I don't know what I was thinking, that would have been the sane way of doing it. No, I started with white icing in the middle and progressively dyed the icing deeper and deeper with each row. Not very ombre, and very time consuming.
It did turn out kind of cool, though.
Then when I got down to the last two rows, I added a little purple like Glory suggested.
I made Lily's little smash cake just the lighter icings so she wouldn't stain her clothes ...as much.
Here's D holding Lily as she eats her birthday crown. What a cutie!
Her big brother helped her blow out the candle on the cake.
As luck would have it, the colors on the inside of the cake matched up pretty well with the colors on the outside. Yay for happy accidents!
If you missed Lily's demonstration on how to eat cake, you can see it here. Very informative.
I basically followed the directions Glory provided with a couple of tweaks. I used a tried and true vanilla cake recipe that I knew would stand up to being thinly stacked 5 layers high (I made an 10" cake and one "smash" cupcake rather than a 6" cake like Glory did). I had used it to make Randy's 3-tiered graduation cake from USC last July. I multiplied the recipe by 1.5 to make the 10" cake and Lily's little cupcake-sized smash cake. I also used my kid-friendly buttercream recipe, which is sweet enough for kids, but not too sweet for adults.
I divided my cake batter into 5 bowls. I left the first one its natural color, then I dyed each bowl a progressively deeper shade of pink, and then the last two progressively a little purpler. Since I only had 3 10" cake pans, I had to bake them in two batches. Here's my very pink middle layer.
I then stacked them up with buttercream and tried unsuccessfully to keep it flat on top.
Then I did a crumb coat of buttercream and started my swirls. Glory did her whole top a light pink then moved progressively down the sides of the cake, getting pinker and pinker as she went. I don't know what I was thinking, that would have been the sane way of doing it. No, I started with white icing in the middle and progressively dyed the icing deeper and deeper with each row. Not very ombre, and very time consuming.
It did turn out kind of cool, though.
Then when I got down to the last two rows, I added a little purple like Glory suggested.
I made Lily's little smash cake just the lighter icings so she wouldn't stain her clothes ...as much.
Here's D holding Lily as she eats her birthday crown. What a cutie!
Her big brother helped her blow out the candle on the cake.
As luck would have it, the colors on the inside of the cake matched up pretty well with the colors on the outside. Yay for happy accidents!
If you missed Lily's demonstration on how to eat cake, you can see it here. Very informative.
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