Monday, March 24, 2014

An Elegant Rosette Cake in no time at all!


I volunteered to make a birthday cake for an impromptu birthday party last weekend. The cake needed to serve 20 to 25 people so I thought I would make a single layer half-sheet cake. I reached into my cake pan rack and came out with a 14" square cake pan instead. They serve about the same amount of people, so I figured I would just roll with that. 


Plus, in my mind anyway, a square cake somehow seems to be more personal. It's probably because a sheet cake has the "grocery store" feel. As in "Sorry Grandma, we forgot it was your birthday until we were on our way over, so we stopped at the grocery store to pick up this cake." Now don't get me wrong, a grocery store cake beats having no cake at all, because you know what they say, "A party without a cake is just a meeting."

Anyway, so back to this cake I was making. I made it half chocolate half white almond. As soon as I had the cake in the oven, I started whipping up a large batch of frosting. A cake need to be completely cooled before it is frosted, otherwise you risk the frosting melting and sliding off the cake. 

I knew the cake wouldn't be cool enough to frost before we left home (the party was at Grandma's house!)so I started putting together a a box of decorating supplies. I stilled didn't have an ideas in mind, but I thought maybe I would come up with some inspiration along the way. I took along some frosting bags and an assortment of tips. I also through in some sprinkles, some fondant and some food coloring.

When it was time to decorate the cake, I only had about 15 minutes to do it, so I got started and hoped that I would be inspired along the way. The first thing I did was completely frost the cake. There is nothing like a blank canvas, or in this cake a nicely frosted white cake, to give an artist some inspiration! 

I figured that I would start with a border and then I could write "Happy Birthday!" add some pretty sprinkles, and call it a day. I filled a large frosting bag and added a 1M tip to it. I took a deep breath, and then the inspiration hit!

I've been seeing all these beautiful cakes covered completely in frosting rosettes. I have been wanting to make on of these for a while. So I thought that I would make the border out of these rosettes. I figured that this would add an elegant touch to the cake. I liked the look so much that I decided to cover all the sides of the cakes with the rosettes. Well it turns out that this is a very fast way to decorate a cake! 

It uses a ton of frosting but not a lot of time! There was still a good amount of frosting left so I decided to add another round of rosettes on the top of the cake. At this point it was very questionable if I would have enough frosting left to cover the whole cake with rosettes, but I figured I would go for it. I'm glad that I did, because I love the way it turned out! Beautiful! Elegant! (and very fast, but nobody else needs to know that!)

The best part about this design is that it could be used for so many occasions. Birthdays, showers, weddings, you name the occasion, this cake is probably appropriate!

To make this cake you will need:

A plain frosted cake
Tons of frosting! (When you think you have enough, you better make one more batch!)
Large frosting bag
Large coupler
1M tip
A spoon or spatula to scoop the frosting into the bag.

Start by using the coupler to attach the 1M tip to the bag. Then fill your bag with frosting. Starting at the bottom of the cake, make rows of rosettes until you have completely covered one row. Now move up and repeat! To make a rosette, make a large circle (however big you want each rosette to be) then continue circling inward (only slightly overlapping the frosting) until you have completely filled in the rosette. It is the same motion that is used to frost a cupcake using this tip.

Enjoy your cake! Now you have a fast, elegant cake design to make next time you are in a hurry!


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