My Sister's Birthday Cake

For one of my sister's monumental birthdays, and since a lady never discloses her age we'll leave it at that, my family threw her a surprise party. I have to say, we did a damn good job!  My sister was about as surprised as one can get and it was a pleasure to see her so happy and surrounded by so many great friends.

I was in charge of the cake and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. My sister and I have always loved this cake by Martha Stewart, so I decided to use it as my inspiration.

Gail Watson cake for Martha Stewart

I really like how the flowers are grouped together at the top and fan out as they proceed down the tiers. I decided I did not want to cover her cake in fondant and made a chocolate buttercream icing. I also decided to play with the overall shape of the cake and used these oval pans.

The cake was eight layers tall and measured about one foot in height! It is hard to tell from the top photo what the actual size is because of the angle of the shot, but it looked impressive in person.

For color inspiration, I used this bouquet of zinnias I picked and placed in my beloved Meg Oliver ceramic vase. I piped the mum shapes out of royal icing and made about 100. This is a great thing to do while watching TV or listening to a pod cast. It took me several nights to finish them. 

Overall, the cake was a success. My sister loved it and everyone enjoyed eating it. What more can a lady ask for!