Love and Lots of Sugar

There are 64 buttercream roses on this cake.  I cheated and made the bases out of pink modeling chocolate.  It helped the process to go a lot faster.  I stink at piping the bases.

PROTIP: practice piping roses using Hershey’s kisses as the base.  It really helps you to focus on what you need to be doing with the petals, when you don’t have to worry about getting the base right.

This is a classic from a few years back; I made these cakes for a Hail & Farewell party at my husband’s command.  Kassy (I didn’t realize until YEARS later that I’d spelled her name wrong) was transferring to Italy; Jim came to Japan (about a year before we did).

FYI, Jim was, and is, a dear family friend. I cooked his wife’s first “real American Thanksgiving” (holy hell, no pressure there, right?), and he gave my older son his first set of drumsticks.  So the “we don’t give a f*** about you” vibe of the cake is all in good fun.

The Cassie cake was the first time I ever tried a tiramisu-inspired layer cake; and the Jim cake was the first time I hit upon the formula for The Perfect Chocolate Cake.   Mmmm…tiramisu…nobody ever orders it, but I make it for myself every year on my birthday.  Because TIRAMISU.  Kahlua and cream cheese, y’all.