Rose Cake

The first time I tried this technique I got mad at it and decided not to take pictures because I thought it wasn't good enough... Luckily, my family told me that it did look pretty cool and I made it again last weekend for Mother's Day... Bit hit!

For my first attempt, I followed the recipe from this site for red velvet cake. I had never made it before and something seemed a bit off.  I only used half of the red food coloring it called for and I thought the amount of cocoa was way too little. So it ended up tasting like a red tinted yellow cake. Still good, very moist, just not what I expected.

So for the second attempt, I cheated. Ahem, excuse me- I smartly used a boxed red velvet cake and there was nary a crumb left over! HA!

So you'll start with baking the cake in 2 8 inch round pans. Make sure you spray with non-stick spray. Follow the box or recipe directions for baking and let cool completely.  I like to make the cake the day before, let it cool and then wrap it in plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer overnight. This helped the cake keep its shape and not fall apart.

And then comes the frosting... Cream cheese frosting.... drool.

Quite simple:
Cream Cheese Frosting (makes a crap load, which you'll need for the crumb coat, filling and all the roses)

4  8oz. cakes of cream cheese
2 sticks of butter
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Make sure cream cheese and butter are at room temperature (or you'll get clumps. Not that I would know since I'm so patient... sarcasm font anyone?? invent that.)

Cream the butter and cream cheese with your electric mixer until smooth. Then add the vanilla until combined.  Gradually add the powdered sugar until everything is mixed.

Give your cake a thin crumb coat and a nice thick layer in between the 2 layers of cake. Put the whole frosted cake back into the fridge for a bit while you get your piping bag ready.

Make sure you put this frosting in the fridge for a bit before piping so that it will hold its shape. (typically you use buttercream to pipe since it will hold its shape better)

Get a 1M (large star) tip. I got mine for about $2 at JoAnn Fabrics. 

You can use the fancy piping bags with couplers etc. but I used the disposable bags. You don't need a coupler to screw the tip on- you just drop your tip into the bag, snip the tip of the bag off until about half of your tip pokes out the end.

Then fill your bag about halfway with frosting (you'll keep the rest in the fridge) Your hands will warm up the frosting as you pipe.

Then, to do the roses: see this wonderful video tutorial here. (I tried to explain it in words and watching it works way better!)

And good news... if you're not satisfied with how the roses come out, just scrape them off until you get it 'right'... if you're me, then you'll scrape the same one off about 6 times before figuring it out;) no big deal.

and then you can eat the leftover frosting with a spoon...just a suggestion