ruffled bridal shower cake

Hello, lovelies! Today, I am sharing this darling rustic bridal shower cake I made over the weekend for a family friend. It features an Italian Cream Cake tier stuffed with a coconut-pecan cream cheese filling, and a chocolate cake tier filled with chocolate cream cheese. The whole thing is then covered in ruffles of American buttercream! I am seriously in love with how it turned out! And those ruffles? Not even that hard or time consuming at all. Here, let me show you!

A video posted by valentina celant (@thebakingfairy) on Oct 11, 2015 at 9:12am PDT

Here is just a quick-and-dirty Instagram mini tutorial I made! All you need is a medium-sized petal tip {like Wilton 104}, which you hold with the fat side down {like a raindrop, basically}. Hold the tip at a slight angle so that the fat end is barely touching the cake, while the skinny top end is pointing away. And then... just pipe away! And don't feel like it has to be perfect or like you have to have a super-steady hand. To be honest, it ends up looking better and more ruffly if your hand wiggles just a little!

This was my first time attempting buttercream ruffles, and I am honestly so impressed at how easy they were, and how cute they came out! My go-to decorating tip is usually a 1M or 2D (so big star tips), so I wasn't sure of how I was gonna do with a totally different style. I love buttercream roses {like the ones on this Barbie cake and this wedding cake and this birthday cake}, but since the theme for this bridal shower was burlap and lace, I decided to go with something a little more rustic. These easy-peasy ruffles totally fit the bill!

To make the cake more festive, I added some burlap flowers {from Hobby Lobby's floral section}, as well as this darling twine-covered Love topper I found on Etsy from seller Steel Penny Cakes. It was exactly like the one in the inspiration picture my client sent me, and it arrived super quickly! It also looked just like the image, which is a relief because we all know sometimes what we order and what we get are totally not the same thing. I absolutely recommend this adorable shop and their super cute toppers!

And now, real quick, some recipes and links...

• American buttercream: simple mixture of 1 cup of unsalted butter to 4 cups of powdered sugar, plus a pinch of salt and splash of vanilla. Firms up beautifully and it's a joy to decorate with!
• Chocolate cake: I used the recipe from my Peppermint Bark Layer Cake, sans peppermint extract of course.
• Italian Cream Cake: I used this cake recipe from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen. Super easy and delicious, and bakes up nice and firm which is great for a layered cake.
• Cream cheese fillings: simple mixture of 1 stick unsalted butter to 1 8oz package of cream cheese to 1 pound of powdered sugar, plus some vanilla and salt. I added almond extract, shredded coconut, and pecan pieces for the Italian Cream tier, and added about ¼ cup of melted semisweet chocolate for the chocolate tier.

Aaaand... that's it! I'm kind of bummed I didn't get to try the Italian Cream Cake as I have never had that before! And honestly, before my customer requested it, I had never even heard of it. Not very authentically Italian of course, but sounds yummy nonetheless! I'm hoping to add my own recipe for that to the blog soon. In the meanwhile, happy baking and decorating! 🙂