Last night we celebrated my birthday with a few close friends and a ginormous cake (which I made, but of course!). I insisted on making my birthday cake which actually became the catalyst for having a party at all. I knew I wanted to try something over the top, like with three tiers, Italian meringue butter cream icing, and edible flowers. I also knew I wanted each of my guests to come away from the party with a little something, why not give them something that relates directly to what I was most excited about? The cake! So I made “to-go” boxes for each of my guests so they could take a slice of this special cake home with them. The boxes were screen printed on both the front and inside. On the inside is a description of the history of the birthday cake, why it is round, and the tradition of candles on top of it! It was so fun to do, I love learning/doing things like that.

The cake itself was a simple white cake. I used one of my favorites, the Mary Todd Lincoln white cake and doubled it to make the tiers. The icing is a bit more tricky and have only learned how to do it with practice and messing up quite a few times. An Italian meringue butter cream icing involves boiling the sugar with some water until soft-ball stage (approx 238 degrees F) then pouring in a slow and steady stream into your stand mixer with whipped egg whites. Once that has cooled a bit, then you add (a LOT) of butter. This icing, unlike traditional butter cream, does not taste like a stick of butter. It is lighter (due to the egg whites) and more fluffy, but still holds its shape and taste quite wonderfully.