Ruffle Cake

 I made this ruffle cake this week for a get together at my sister's work. Sorry for the dark picture - the lighting wasn't so great first thing in the morning.

 The cake is my standard go-to chocolate cake from Hersheys website:

http://www.hersheys.com/pure-recipes/details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY%27S+%22PERFECTLY+CHOCOLATE%22+Chocolate+Cake#share_modal

The frosting is a salted caramel (using caramel left over from my carrot cake) swiss meringue buttercream. Any smooth frosting will work for this technique.

I've seen these ruffle cakes all over the interwebs and wanted to try one for myself. Turns out this technique is super easy. All you need is a piping bag and a petal tip (sometimes called a rose tip). I wanted to take pictures to show you how it is done but the lighting in my kitchen wouldn't cooperate. Fortunately, there is a great tutorial at this blog:
http://jamosie.blogspot.com/2011/05/tutorial-i-heart-ruffle-cakes.html

She does a great job of breaking down the steps and has photos to show the process.

Isn't it cool-looking? It's so fancy-looking but doesn't take any longer than any other type of frosting. Actually, you don't have to make sure that the cake's sides are perfectly smooth so it's even easier in some ways.