Cakes galore

Cakes, last week.

{best birthday cake}

A classic, perfect birthday cake. Golden yellow layers swathed in creamy chocolate frosting. Recipe from Smitten Kitchen, of course.

{best birthday cake + flowers}

I used my favorite easy decorating trick. Cut a circle of paper a inch or two smaller than your cake. Gently lay it in the center of your frosted cake. Sprinkle colored sugar around it. Remove paper. Voila. P.S. You aren't still buying colored sugar, are you? Check out this post. I've never looked back.

{the cake}

And we had the monster cake. Four layers of chocolate cake, piles of nutty fudge. I think this thing weighed 20 pounds.

{the cake}

I used my other favorite decoration trick. Pick out pretty candles (these are from Party City), grab some simple flowers in a matching color. Done.

Regarding cake frosting - you absolutely must invest in an offset spatula. I don't know what I would do without mine.