Spiral Rosette Cake

I'm clearly not going to be able to throw a tea party this year, but I did host a going-away BBQ for a co-worker who got married and was moving away.  Just the few of us who see each other every day, we kept outside, and chairs were spaced.  Decided to make her a cake, since she may never have a wedding reception.

This design is not much different than a Unicorn Cake.  It's just more of a spiral pattern, the rosettes getting larger as you leave the center point, and you don't have to deal with fondant accessories.  The base color can be anything.  I left it white because it's a wedding cake, and the cake itself was lavender chiffon (Vanilla Chiffon subbing in lavender extract).  It took far longer to do the crumb and final coats than the decorating.  That's why my designs are impressionist art.  It's about flow, not precision.

1.  Bake a cake, trim flat, stack & fill, crumb coat, final coat.  Chill to set the top coat.  Have about 1-1/2 C of white buttercream ready to go, and gel colors for tinting.

2.  Set up your pastry bag and a variety of tips.  I have a coupler, and just swapped out tips as I went.  To make life easier, I started by making yellow frosting.  Once I was done with it, I added more white and a drop of red to create a coral pink.  When that was done, added white and a drop of blue to the remnants to make lavender.  Then I only had to clean out the bowl once during the process, to start fresh for the green leaves.

3.  Set a toothpick in the center of the cake.  Rotate turntable while pulling toward the edge to create the stencil for your spiral.  Pull toothpick down while rotating for your vertical line.  Or eyeball it, but I'm not good at that kind of stuff.

4.  With first color, create spaced rosettes or swirls, starting small in the center of the cake and getting bigger toward the edge and down the side.  Switch colors and repeat the length of the spiral...

I'm going to break in here, since this was a better place for this discussion than in the intro.  When I was little, I used to think that ombre icing flowers were some kind of magic trick, and some do involve airbrushing.  I did it here by not washing out the pastry bag every time I changed colors.  I filled in the back, pushed it through until the new color was the majority, and started decorating.  That bit of laziness created an effect that does not require special equipment.  Ok, back to Step 4.

...If desired, do a third color, until all the major gaps in the line are filled.  Using green icing and a small leaf tip, pipe accent leaves where desired.  Chill until ready to serve.  Can be frozen, since this is buttercream.

Makes 1 cake

Difficulty rating  :)