RIBBON ROSE CAKE WITH CREAMY CHOCOLATE FROSTING

  So here's what I made last night...I thought it really looked sumptuous! What do you think? It probably took me 4-4 1/2 hours making this as I am just beginning to learn how to do this kind of designs. So, if you are a pro...don't even look at it closely. :)

I think I used an 8" baking pan for the chocolate cake and the batter was too much that it took forever to get it done. Not to mention that I hate it when there's a bump on top of your cake once it is finished. I had to cut them off! The good side of it was my mom and my kids had the first few bites of the cake. They loved it. I've heard that it is actually the best part of the cake. Don't ask me why.

While baking, I was waiting for the butter to cool down to room temp. Also, I was still deciding what kind of icing I would make for the cake. And I remembered that I have kept one recipe from a long time ago. I have ripped one of the pages from a magazine that was being thrown away. Whoohoo! The recipe was worth ripping and keeping. I have never used cream cheese on my icing before. Maybe because I never really made my own icing. I used to buy the pre-made ones. Hehe!

For the decorations...I've had some decorating tips that I played with. I have always seen shell borders and I have done that a lot. So i thought let's put some leaves as the border. There were some spots in between the leaves that didn't really look good..so I decided to put some berry looking dots using tip #3. The ribbon rose (using tip #104) was the most time-consuming thing I've done for the cake. This was the first time I've done this so please bear with the looks of it. I made a couple of pieces and had to let them dry on a wax paper. It was taking so long and I couldn't wait so I went ahead and placed the flowers on the cake. Some were falling upside down on the cake because I didn't have the flower lifter. I had to make a couple more flowers because some of them broke.

I think it still ended up pretty good coz the paparazzis were after my cake. LOL

To end this, I want to share the mistakes I did and what I learned.

1. Fill the cake batter halfway only. Or it will take forever to bake the cake. Better yet, use two bake pans and you'll have a two-layered cake in a breeze.

2. Have in mind what you want to do for the icing. If you are already decided at least you can get the ingredients ready and maybe buy some that you don't even have.

3. Use flower lifter. I bet that would make it easier because that is what it's designed to do.

Enjoy your day and bake a cake for your family...you know IT'S A PIECE O' CAKE!