Granny’s 90th Birthday Cake

Today was my Granny’s 90th Birthday. I don’t even know how to begin describing her to you, for she is the most incredible person. Granny tells the best stories about her childhood in New York and countless other tales from her interesting life. All her anecdotes come with every detail as if it happened yesterday and I love hearing all her memories. My favourite accounts of hers are about the amazing foods she remembers, such as halloween ice cream cats from Manhattan or famous cookies from Boston. I hope she will be recounting her 90th birthday cake to people for years to come. I of course wanted to make something extra special for such an important birthday. I had the idea to make a cake version of a painting I did for her one Christmas. For the cake I made a three tier vanilla sponge and sandwiched the layers with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream. I covered the outside of the cake in a layer of white vanilla buttercream, then added the colour on top. To achieve the paint-like appearance I mixed the white buttercream with food colouring as if I were mixing paints and used a palatte knife to create the brush strokes. I topped the cake with flowers I made in advance and let dry. I learnt how to make flowers out of flowerpaste especially for this cake and I loved it. I started with the roses as I vaguely knew how to do those and used the internet for help where I needed it. I made up how the other flowers would look just based on the painting and created the purple one by stacking lots of cut out flower shapes in different shades. I finished  the cake with a ribbon that matched the border of the painting. I think it really does look like the painting, almost too pretty to eat. Almost. I absolutely adored making this cake, especially as it combined painting and baking. But mostly I adored making something special for a very special Granny. Happy 90th Birthday! x