Made with Love

My sister's birthday cake, a strawberry golden cake with orange zest and a triple sec syrup wash, homemade lemon curd filling, strawberry cream cheese frosting, a homemade marshmallow fondant (which was DELICIOUS), topped with handmade fondant roses. It took three days to make, along with a 6-page battle plan containing my design elements, when each component had to be made, and the recipes for each component.

So last year when I made her a cake, I sacrificed taste for looks. This year it was the other way around. All my grandiose plans for delicate fondant roses and contrasting icing turned into this enormous frilly mass of PINK. Nonetheless, the cake was delicious and the lemon curd contrasted the sweetness of the frosting and the fondant and it was gone within two days.

If I had to do it again, I'd do the fondant roses well ahead of time and freeze them, and I'd add something to the lemon curd (cream cheese or powdered sugar) to give it some structure, because in spite of the 1" border of normal icing that I piped around the inside edge of the cake before adding the filling, it still seeped through. I'd also double the cake recipe, because after it settled, the cake layers seemed very thin. I'd also NOT use red food coloring in both the roses and the contrasting icing. Ah well.