Pink Butterflies and Polka Dots

I love pink. Anyone who knows me knows I love pink. I like other colours too but if I had a choice, I would go for pink.

























A friend of mine turned 21 recently and I made a cake for a little gathering we had. In my culture, 21 is considered your 'key' birthday. Before you all get excited thinking you get the keys to a house or a car, its really just the key to your adulthood...or virginity...or something like that.

So usually people make cakes in the shape of keys, but it's kind of cliche and so I made her a butterfly polka dot cake :)

This friend of mine, is an amazing person. Funny, energetic, smart, and gorgeous. But she doesn't like chocolate cake. Well, she says she doesn't like chocolate icing on the chocolate cake, but chocolate cake with vanilla icing is like having steak with a side of couscous...its just plain wrong :)

I am deathly afraid of making vanilla or white cake. I don't know why...oh wait yes I do...because they turn out horrible! With chocolate cake, its always moist and rich but the vanilla flavour just isn't rich enough for me to mask things like dryness, or a tough texture (not that a cake should be dry or tough but just in case).

But a birthday without cake it just wrong and so I plowed forward and used this vanilla cake recipe and this buttercream recipe. In short, the cake tasted good but I found it a little on the dry crumbly side. I would have liked it to be more moist. The buttercream was amazing! Sweet, light, and fluffy. I wouldn't recommend it for piping though. I also added a layer of strawberry jam between the two layers of cake because the thought of vanilla cake with vanilla icing seemed bland. It turned out pretty good.

I used fondant to cover the cake and made circle designs and a butterfly out of cookie cutters. I also got a chance to use lustre dust on the butterfly...pretty sparkles.

The biggest problem I had with this cake is that since I refrigerated the cake and didn't give it enough time to thaw before I covered it in fondant, I had a lot of air bubbles and 'droopy' fondant. It looked bloated and puffed from the bottom, kind of how I look after I've had one too many cupcakes. Hopefully no one minded though :)

And I saved this for last because I wanted to leave a lasting impression. Whenever you start a new project, whether that be baking or DIY projects or writing a book, it never ends up being just your work...it is the love, work, and support of all those around you. Making this cake, I realized how much of that went into this cake. From my incredibly talented roomie who took these AMAZING pictures which make my cake look 50 times better than it actually is and keeps me grounded so that I don't obsess over the details, to my dedicated and determined new roomie who even in her hectic schedule still manages to get me the perfect ribbon in the perfect shade of brown. From my patient yet sarcastic sister who spends hours walking the aisles of Michaels with me, to my friend who sits at the table and watches me roll, knead, and cut fondant while supplying very...ahem...calming and rich music :P. My super patient boyfriend who is always encouraging me to keep going and listens to all my whack ideas even at 1 in the morning and finally, all the people who are actually brave enough to eat what I make and don't squint their face in disgust. A huge thank you to all of you! I can't and won't ever be able to do all I want to without you. I love you guys :)

MM is fast approaching, and I have a few more projects lined up.

I have 3 birthdays coming up in one week! Each person is different and unique and I'm so excited to make these cakes for them!!!

I'm also going to be making some cake pops for a school event. AHH SO MUCH BAKING!

Have a great weekend!!!