Cake #31
This was made for Shannon and Kasey's engagement party on March 12, 2023, an Irish-themed one, right around St. Patrick's Day. And of course being the Patricks, we had to do it right. The model for this was a napkin ring that had been on my table since we started decorating for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at it and thought that's such a pretty sparkly version of a shamrock and then realized I had a heart pan so I could probably duplicate it relatively easily... and on short notice since Shannon forgot to mention her desire to have the cake until a few days before. 🙂😘
This was a simple white cake done in the heart-shaped pan which I had to do four times the day before I decorated. I also created the middle with a small round pan and left the raised tops on rather than cut them off since that seemed to go well with the pedal theme of the shamrocks.
The tedious part was the decorating because except for the center, they were all covered with a star tip. I used a bigger star tip though hoping to cover more territory more quickly. The sides were also a little challenging because by the time I got to the sides the buttercream had softened quite a bit and it was not as nice a star coming out. I did make my standard buttercream though a little more powdered sugar than usual and actually with 1/4 of the butter substituted for shortening hoping again to give it a little more stiffness. Not sure that really worked that well. Next time I might do half and half or just more powdered sugar to solidify it as I don't really like the taste or texture of the shortening frostings.
I intended to crumb coat them first and then frost them with the star tips but just didn't get around to it. So I put the cakes in the refrigerator ahead of time which helped a little.
The centerpiece doesn't show that well in the photo that it is coated in edible gold glitter. It really came out pretty and didn't taste any different than if it were plain sugar on top. Actually you really couldn't taste it at all. The glitter was expensive so you would have to use it sparingly. I haven't worked with the glitters that much but I liked this effect for sure so I will definitely do it again. I did buy some alternate forms of it including some gold dust and a spray on gold glitter which I will probably try next time.
When I was done decorating, I moved enough junk out of my freezer temporarily into a cooler (which lol I forgot to put back in the freezer until the next day) that I was able to freeze all four after they were decorated. That made transporting them the 45-minute drive to the venue less challenging. That was something I considered when deciding on the design, that I really had to have it in multiple pieces in order to transport it. (I did have to buy the gold plates it was on and although it was pretty the roundness sort of detracted from the cloverleaf shape of the cake itself.) I also happened to have three cake takers, and one that I could stack and fortunately the hearts fit the smaller stacker and everything arrived pretty intact.
I do wish I had made one more piece for the stem, probably an 8x8 square and then carved it into the shape of the stem but I just ran out of time and energy. All in all I thought it came out pretty well this shamrock, four-leaf clover, Irish, St Patrick's Day, engagement party cake and my estimation of how many pieces I would get out of it was right on target. One piece left at the end. :-) congratulations Shannon and Kasey.
