Ta-Da!!!

I'll admit... I bake so often that I currently have a backlog of photos and delightful treats to share with you.  I do always try to keep a couple of new pictures at hand, so in case something goes terribly awry, I've got a week to get my act together and get back to blogging!  So I usually pick and choose through my photos based on my mood and what my most recent posts were about to make sure I'm not blogging about cupcakes every single time (though that is a strong temptation!).

So with that background info, I'll admit that this cake was one I just did over the weekend for a birthday party, and I was just SO excited about it that I had to share it right away.  I've been in an intro to cake decorating class lately... it's very informal and was only once a week for the month of February.  But since I've never had any "formal" training in baking or cake decorating, it was a good experience and place to get started.  Anyways, I learned how to make these cute little flowers the other week, and I just thought they would be perfect for my friend Lindsay's birthday!  I just love the way it turned out.  I still need to do a little work on my penmanship, but you can see it is much improved from my last attempt. : )

The cake itself was also a bit of a first for me.  I had made chocolate cake before, but since it was for a very special *milestone* birthday, I wanted it to be a little more impressive than usual.  So I decided to split each cake layer in half, creating a 4 layer cake... and for the first time I paired my chocolate cake with peanut butter filling!  I kept chocolate icing on the outside so as not to be too overwhelming with the peanut butter flavor.  And I must say, not only was the cake beautiful, but it was delicious.  I'm definitely going to keep this combination in mind for future celebrations!

Blessings-
LC