Rose cake

By lauramae

I’ll be honest with the cake: It’s a basic vanilla cake mix that I doctored up but substituting the oil for melted butter, and the water was substituted with milk. I added a tablespoon of  orange zest also That’s the secret to almost homemade. Shhh

I almost feel guilty accepting compliments on this cake. They’re undeserved, because if you can draw a spiral, you can totally make this cake.

Ingredients

• Wilton Buttercream Frosting:
• 1 box cake mix, subsituting oil for melted butter and water for milk, with a little orange zest per authors instruction...
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract Easy-Add clear vanilla extract Add to shopping list clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk

Details

Adapted from thedomesticmama.com

Preparation

Step 1

For the cake: I’ll be honest with the cake: It’s a basic vanilla cake mix that I doctored up but substituting the oil for melted butter, and the water was substituted with milk. I added a tablespoon of  orange zest also. Bake as directed on package.

Instructions for Icing:

step 1

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter 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.

step 2

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

step 3

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

step 4

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.

Now for icing:

The secret is in the tip. It’s a 1M tip, and you can find it at craft stores and cake supply shops. My cake… err, frosting isn’t perfect; the frosting was a little too dry… that’s why there are ragged edges on some of the roses. I should have scraped them off for a re-do, but I was attempting to accomplish a weeks’ worth of tasks on this particular day…. and I knew my family wouldn’t mind. If it were for a client… well, I wouldn’t be cramming it into a one day project, that’s for certain.

To make the roses, it’s as simple as starting at a center point and swirling around it. You can make them as small or large as  you wish, I like the big ones, that makes it look like a rose blanket was draped over the cake.


I tossed in some sugar pearls to distract from the less than perfect frosting consistency… Sugar fixes everything.