Cake Class 3: Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelita!

Last night we had to make a birthday cake with our new found talent for Wilton roses. Ha, talent! My poor roses. Actually, my poor cake. It was slowly falling apart, making cracks along the top and making the sides look saggy. It's actually kinda wonky and reminds me of the Mad Hatter's hat from Alice in Wonderland. Pretty entertaining. After struggling with roses for a while, I finally got 6 that were fit for the top of a cake. Then came the shells... again. And more garlands on the sides, like on the Happy Friday cake. I'm not sure what Gloria's obsession with these garlands is all about, but I'm not liking them. They make my cake look like it came from Safeway.

After the shells and garlands came the mini rose buds and sweet peas. I could have done without these too. Less is more, sometimes, Gloria. She did actually have an interesting technique for the rose buds. We cut Jelly Bellys (gluten free!) in half and stuck a toothpick in the cut end. Then we made a tiny rose using the jelly belly as the base. Then we stuck the toothpick into the cake at the intersection of each garland. Sweet peas and swirl flowers went on top of the shells at the base of the cake, alternating at the center under each garland.

If this all sounds like a lot for one cake, that's because it is. The thing is a monstrosity, er a piece of art I like to call "Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelita" because it looks like a grandma's birthday cake and we were all speaking our compliments in Spanish last night: "oooh, que bonita!!"

Without further ado, I give you... the cake:

I'll replace these pics with better ones at home, but I couldn't post without pics and you get the idea. Poor cake.