It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to sit down and post anything, between vacation and finishing up the latest project at my parent’s house, working periodically on a project here at home, and last weekend, making a large, 3 tier cake for our church’s 50th anniversary dinner! While I normally only do cakes for my kids birthday’s (and occasionally for my friends’ kids’ birthdays), my mother volunteered me to do this large cake for our church.

My biggest thing with cakes is that I want them to taste good, but I also stress over the decorating details and no matter what cake I’m working on, all I typically see are the imperfections that I should’ve done a better job at (and trust me I try, but usually with icing, the more you mess with it, the worse it gets). So, while it tasted good, and looked ok, I wasn’t super pleased with it. I just wanted it to be perfect I guess, but I’ve decided to start trying some new buttercream recipes to see if I can find one that will taste good, spread smoother, be light and fluffy, but still be able to hold for piping and details. For some reason, I just end up always using the same recipe, then being upset because it doesn’t do what I want it to do! Hopefully, I’ll find something that solves my dilemma and I’ll be better prepared for the next one!

In either case, I thought I’d share the cake process and final product here (though I know it has nothing to do with DIY…other than I did do it myself for the most part).

The bottom layer was a large square (4 yellow cake mixes per pan), then, my mom mixed up a strawberry spread from fresh strawberries, sugar, etc., heated and thickened, then cooled to spread like a jelly. Once that was added, I added a batch of fresh made whipped icing and then ran a thick bead of buttercream around the edge to prevent any strawberry leakage:). Next came a second large square on top, then a crumb coat of buttercream.

For the second layer, we used a large hexagon shape pan (1.5 yellow cake mixes per pan), then, my mom mixed up a chocolate truffle ganache filling that was heated, thickened and then cooled to spread. Another large bead of buttercream to prevent any seepage, then a second hexagon on top and finished with a crumb coat.

After the crumb coat set up, I did the base layer of buttercream on the square and the hexagon.

For the top layer, we used a red velvet cake with a cheesecake layer in the center. Unfortunately, in the process of all this, I didn’t get any ‘before’ pics of the top layer. For this layer I mixed a batch of cream cheese icing, so once it was iced, it had to go in the fridge.

Now, because this was a church event, the ‘décor’ was kept simple. My mom had purchased these laminated cards with various images and we used them on all 6 sides of the hexagon and the top center of the top layer. The bottom layer got some small flower details and boarder piping. The middle layer also got boarder piping and I attempted the petal technique on the corners (had never done it and it was done once the cake was in place at the church hall), so, that’s definitely something I need to practice more! On the top layer, we also added some small gold candy pieces in a drop pattern and then crosses under the points. I used the same candy pieces for the center of the flowers up the corners of the petals on the middle layer corners.

Then my mom did the flower arrangements for the middle and top. The cake was very heavy, so in an effort to keep it in tact, we assembled all the layers at the church hall Saturday morning before the event. The bottom was supported by a thick piece of plywood (covered in foil), then the center and top were cake risers supported by wood and plastic dowels.

I can say that the majority of the cake was eaten (or at least taken), and I did have a few people come tell me that it was really good or the best cake they’ve had, etc. (not sure about that, but I had a piece of the strawberry layer and it was pretty good). In total, it was 12 cake mixes, 11 batches of icing and three layers of filling!!

And, of course the ‘extras’ that were cut off to get the cake layers even were waiting for the boys when they got home from school last Friday:)

So, now, I guess in my down time I’ll be making cakes and trying new buttercream recipes….may eventually need some volunteers to sample cake because while my kids would love to have it often, we can only eat so much cake:))