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.

Banner Cake

 Here is a birthday cake I made for a friend. I used the Hershey's Chocolate cake recipe that is my standard go-to for chocolate cakes:
 http://www.hersheys.com/pure-recipes/details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY%27S+%22PERFECTLY+CHOCOLATE%22+Chocolate+Cake#share_modal

It is super easy and very moist. It's difficult to torte (slice into layers) but I knew I was only going to have two layers for this cake. For the frosting, I made your basic vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

When it came to the decoration, I piped dots of frosting in a vertical line down the side and then used a small spoon to squoosh each dot. I wanted something to give a little visual interest but didn't want to get too fancy or girly (this was for a guy).  I made a pennant banner by cutting some triangles out of cardstock. I used embroidery thread and a needle to string them into a banner. I tied the ends to these great pinwheel party picks that I have but you could use skewers or straws.

M&M Cake

Here's just a quick post. I actually made this cake months ago and forgot to post it! You've probably seen lots of cakes decorated with M&Ms online as it seems to be a trend. I thought it would be a fun, casual way to decorate a cake and didn't want to be too fussy with my design. As you can see, my pattern is a little random. You could definitely be more exact with your design - making the side stripes line up with the top or make them go around the outside horizontally or create more obvious circle or flower patterns, etc.

FYI - all those M&Ms make it a little more difficult to stick the candles in a birthday cake!