Anniversary Cake

My mom and dad just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, the family and close friends went out for dinner, then back to the house to renew their vows and eat cake! Of course, my job was to make the cake. I got my inspiration from the front cover of "The Wilton School - Decorating Cakes" book. This was my first attempt at Wilton roses and I studied their book and watched a couple of YouTube videos on demonstrations. I made the roses a few days ahead of time and stored them in an airtight container until I made the rest of the cake on this morning. It was also my first time to make leaves using the leaf tip.

The cake itself is my go-to White Cake recipe.

The frosting is Wilton's Buttercream Icing recipe.

PURE WHITE BUTTERCREAM ICING

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Crisco
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 Tbs milk

DIRECTIONS:

In large bowl, cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. Makes about 3 cups of icing.

The cake consists of 2 layers - a 10" round on the base and a 6" round on top. I tinted the frosting and iced the cake with the buttercream icing. Next, I stenciled the swirls on the side of the cake and piped dots to make the swirls.

I placed the dried roses on top of the cake and used the leaf tip to pipe leaves coming out from underneath the roses. I had made a "25" with my roses and set it up on the cake as a "topper".