Don't you love it when something turns out just how you had imagined it in your mind? It doesn't happen as often as I would like for me, but when I made this cake, it did! I love how the orange gets darker as you go up the cake, I love the imperfect swirls that make the roses, and I love the sugar pearls that take this cake to the next level of elegance.
I used this Swiss buttercream recipe that I thought really made it easy to make smooth, gorgeous roses. This decorating method takes quite a bit of frosting. I used the biggest batch listed there and had the perfect amount for this three layer cake.
I used Americo brand orange gel food coloring for all the different shades of frosting. I just split the frosting into three bowls and started with the lightest and made my way up to the darkest until I liked how the colors looked next to each other.
I used a 1M Wilton star decorating tip to make these roses. I started from the bottom and went up. To make the individual roses, you start in the middle and then swirl it around once. Practice a couple times on some wax paper until you get the hang of it, but it really is that simple. After I did a row of roses, I went back and filled in any gaps I could see by sweeping the frosting in the same direction as the rose closest to it so it gave the effect of the flower continuing on.
If you try this technique on your own cake, I would love to see the results! I really had a lot of fun making this for my mother-in-law's birthday and everyone was awed by it. This cake really does have that wow factor!
