Birthday Season!

It's birthday season in my family! Well, I say that because of the immediate family, the coolest of us have April/May birthdays (that would be me, my mom and my fellow Taurus niece). WE'RE BOSS.

So my mom's birthday just passed and she requested an utterly boring vanilla cake mix with vanilla buttercream. yawn. But I made baby shower cupcakes for a coworker a few months ago with a new technique that I fell in love with.

Hey, look at this bouquet of roses I got for her birthday.

 

JK! It's just the cake. This video shows the simplest, are-you-kidding-me technique I've ever seen at making roses. It's a 2D tip and it literally takes seconds. It was very cute on cupcakes so I figured I'd cover a cake with them. Yeah, then I ran out of icing so the top was it. I swear, my buttercream always barely covers a cake (and I doubled this recipe!). Do I just ice a ton?? gahd.

So this was just two cake mixes with the following buttercream. Easy peasy!


VANILLA BUTTERCREAM ICING

1 cup Crisco Shortening
1/2 stick butter, room temperature
2 Tbsps heavy whipping cream
1-2 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted (measure then sift)

In your mixer bowl, beat the shortening until it's smooth, add the butter and beat together until smooth and light and fluffy. Add smaller amount of the heavy cream indicated in the recipe and the vanilla and mix well.

Add half the powdered sugar and mix for 5 minutes on low-med speed. Add remaining sugar and mix well. Add more cream or powdered sugar if necessary to adjust the consistency.

(I had to double this for enough for three 9-inch layers.)