Pretty Pink Peony Cake

Hello there! How are you this fine spring day? I'm enjoying some slightly warmer weather. I enjoy all the seasons, but this one is especially fun as it seems each day we see something new and green popping its head up. We just covered my flower beds in a fresh layer of mulch and the green stems of the tulips and daffodils peaking through look so vibrant against the red. Of course, this is spring in Wisconsin we're talking about. We're forecasted temps near 70 on Sunday and possible snow on Tuesday. Ah well.

While seeing flowers in my garden is still quite a ways off, I did get to enjoy a beautiful one in my kitchen this last week. I don't do sugar flowers often as they are very time consuming, but the results are oh so worth it.

Isn't it beautiful? Because my cake had gold accents I decided to dip the stamens in gold airbrush color to give them a touch of glam.

My friend's mom was turning 50 and they were throwing her a surprise party. My friend asked for a small cake to use as a centerpiece for the party. They were decorating with black and white striped fabric, pink peonies, and gold accents. I managed to fulfill 3 of the 4. To fit the size of my peony, the cake ended up being much larger than expected. Oh well, more cake to eat!

Decorator Tips:

My inspiration for this cake came from the Sparkle My Heart cake from De La Creme Creative Studio. I loved the different widths of stripes and that splash of gold right in the middle and since my friend had asked if I'd done any marbled cakes before, I decided to marble the top tier.

The black stripes were made from modeling chocolate, and I used the wax-paper transfer technique from Jessica Harris to get them on the cake. That doesn't always work flawlessly for me, but thankfully, modeling chocolate is pretty sturdy and because you use shortening as the glue, it kind of slides around into place if needed. The center strip, however was yellow fondant. I knew I was going to cover it in gold petal dust mixed with lemon extract, and that doesn't work well on modeling chocolate.

The topper was done in gumpaste. I printed the number in a font I liked, placed the paper over some rolled-out yellow gumpaste and used a tiny ball tool to trace around the number. That left enough of an impression for me to use as a guide to cut it out with my scalpel blade. Once it was completely dry I brushed some of the gold petal dust/lemon extract mixture over it.

The hardest part for me is always the flowers. Not making them, but deciding on how many to use and arranging them. My original idea was to do a bouquet cascading down the right side, then I thought just the large peony with a few buds, and eventually opted for just the single flower with some greenery.

All-in-all I think it came out quite nice, and my friend loved it. :o)

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!!