Strawberry Ombré Rosette Cake

This is everyone at work's favorite cake so far, and Cousin Smurf likes the rosette design.  I'm not into frou-frou cake decorating (even if I was any good at it), but a repeating pattern like a swirl is tolerable.  I wasn't going to do the top, but it finished off the SMB (Swiss Meringue Buttercream).  That stuff doesn't really keep until the next cake.  Plus, it was pink.

My goal for this cake, other than recipe testing, was to practice patience.  I keep zipping through the cake decorating part.  Yes, I can't spend forever on each one the day before the wedding, but I can take at least an hour on the final coat if I have to.  Turns out, the rosettes are so easy and forgiving that it took longer to make the frosting than to use it.

I realized on the blackberry cake that I pipe really awkwardly.  I use the left for pressure and the right to guide the tip.  I'm ambidextrous in sports, but mostly left-handed when it comes to art.  Apparently, I hold a pastry bag like a baseball bat.  This is important because it determines whether your rosettes are clockwise or counter-clockwise, and which way to rotate the turntable.  Fine, clockwise.  There's no wrong way to orient or swirl the rosettes, as long as you're consistent.

I bought a 1M open-star tip for this, and have since found plenty of other uses for it.  It allows you to do three rows of rosettes on a 4" high cake.  Mine wasn't quite that high, so I made the filling thicker by cutting the remaining defrosted strawberries in half instead of slices.  The swirls still kind of got smushed against each other, but only a pastry chef would care.  They were all the same size, which is the important part.

2 or 3 layers Strawberry Cake
1 batch Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1/4 lb approx strawberries (fresh or frozen)
12" pastry bag with a 1M tip
Pink gel food coloring

1.  Trim cake layers flat.  Place a dab of frosting on a cake circle and center the bottom cake layer on it.  Pipe or spread a thin layer of frosting on the top, then cover with sliced strawberries.

2.  Place the next layer upside-down on top of the first, so you get a flatter top.  Crumb-coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting, making sure to get inside the break in the layers.

3.  Color 3/4 C of frosting the darkest shade you want.  Fill the piping bag fitted with a 1M tip.  Starting at the bottom of the cake, pipe a swirl that comes up about 1/3 of the height of the cake.  Continue around, going the same direction and finishing at the same point in the swirl.

4.  This is where the Swiss Meringue instructions diverge from the Cream Cheese frosting ones.  Squeeze any remaining frosting back into the tinting bowl and add another 3/4 C of uncolored frosting.  This got me the shade I wanted, or you can add another drop of color if it's too light.  Refill the same bag and squeeze out a bit until the new color appears.  By not changing the bag, you'll get a neat watercolor effect as the old frosting is worked through.  Use this on the next ring of rosettes.

5.  Squeeze out the bag into the coloring bowl.  Add remaining frosting for the lightest shade, fill bag, and squeeze out the old color.  If you're not covering the top with rosettes, add some frosting to the crumb coat and smooth before doing the next round.  Pipe a top ring, extending the rosettes slightly above the edge of the cake.

6.  You can either stop frosting now or do rosettes over the top.  My original plan was to make a design with fresh strawberries.  Now I have a pound of strawberries in the fridge that are probably going to become jam before they spoil.  Anyway, I had almost a cup of slightly pink frosting left and just went for it.  The cake was gorgeous, and looked just like my YouTube research.

7.  Chill cake until one hour before serving.

Makes one 8" layer cake

Difficulty rating  :-0