Garden Party Tiered Cake

Triple-layer Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Filling

Triple-layer Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream and Lemon Curd Filling

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Tinted Vanilla Buttercream Ombre Ruffles, and Marzipan Flowers

I baked and decorated this cake for an event.  It's not perfect,  but it's good practice.  There is a part of me that really wants to achieve perfection - I label it "doing my best."  But really, it's about making things perfect.

And I know, this is unattainable.  There is something zen about buttercream and cake and how they go together.  I have much distance to before letting go of the idea of perfection.  In the meantime, I have embraced the impermanence of cake - it has a shelf life.

"This cake is too pretty to eat." 

"Thank you, but it's meant to be eaten; would you like a slice?"

"If you insist.... I'd love to have some."

"Oh yes, I insist."

 

We rarely deliver cake, but today we did.  My life partner was behind the wheel and I was trying to balance this very heavy cake.  Between the cobblestones and the stop lights, my nerves were nearly shot.  However, my dude was successful in getting the cake where it needed to go, on time, and in one piece.  He's leveled up in patience since I've started baking.

 

This is how it went together...

 

The 9" round, triple-layer chocolate cake required 1.5 times my favorite Chocolate Cake (I was out of whole milk when I started baking this cake! and used heavy whipping cream; it was amazing).  The filling is a peanut butter buttercream and crumb-coated with vanilla buttercream and measured 5.25" tall.

 

 

The 6" round, triple-layer lemon tier didn't even use up a whole batter of my favorite Lemon Cake (I only had 1 c. of lemon yogurt - for the second cup I combined 3/4 c. sour cream and 1/4 c. lemon buttermilk...this cake was just another way of saying "delicious").  The crumb-coat was vanilla buttercream; finished height was 5.5"

  

 

Hot tip:  For even cake layers...Since my 6" pans are made by the same manufacturer, Wilton, I simply weigh the pan and the batter.  These layers checked in at 471, 473, & 476 grams respectively.

 





I scored each tier at the 2.25" mark from the bottom - this helped me keep level the top ruffle.

 

 

A couple days before decorating this cake, I made these little Marzipan flowers.  I bought the Marzipan in Paris - it's incredibly delicious and already tinted.  It's a bit of a labor intensive task, but the results are worth it.  I lopped off a bit of Marzipan and added a small amount of blue coloring gel to arrive at purple.  The center is a sugar pearl.

 

 

The top tier doesn't have the bottom row of dark green ruffle - I added that after the cakes were stacked.