Drinking and decorating

These DO NOT go together well. At all. But it’s lots of fun.

My friend and co-worker/carpool buddy Laura wanted me to make a super chocolatey cake for her sister, featuring the girly skull like I made for my sister’s birthday. Requirements: It had to be a chocolate cake, it had to have chocolate cookie crunch filling, the cake had to be purple and it had to have the skull. Easy peasy.

So then I decided that, since my hubster wasn’t going to be home anyway, it might be fun to have a little decorating soiree with Laura. She showed up with margaritas and we definitely had fun. You can tell by how bad my skills got as the night progressed…

I started with the skull because it had to freeze for a while. I have to say, this one came out even better than the first. I haven’t tried any other frozen buttercream transfers, but this time I used a slightly different buttercream recipe and I think that one’s a winner. Woot! Now I just need to design some other stuff and branch out.

Once the skull was in the freezer, I started on the cake. I baked three layers the night before using a recipe I found online for a rich dark chocolate cake. I didn’t get to taste it, but Laura said it was great. And it was incredibly moist…so moist that I was afraid the icing wouldn’t hold! Anyway, I was going to use all three layers, but Laura’s cake holder wasn’t tall enough and she wanted to have a layer for herself, so we decided to make a two-layer cake and she’d ice the last layer for herself.

I’ve never met a girl with a bigger sweet tooth in my life. Or worse icing skills. Granted, we were several margaritas in by this point, but check out this hot mess:

I started with the sides, but she pushed me off and started slapping icing everywhere.

Oh, Lord. The crumbs! The mess! *Sigh*

And here's the final product. That's the rest of the cookie filling, with an extra glob of icing for good measure. See what I mean about the sweet tooth?

Oh, my. It was highly entertaining, but somewhat painful, to watch. But who really cares? She had fun and loved eating the cake, and that’s all that even matters. I think I burned a few calories laughing, too.

But I can’t make fun too much. Between the margaritas, the humidity in my house and the warm kitchen lights, even the Viva method couldn’t save the real cake. I even refrigerated the cake for a while, but the icing stayed too soft. It crusted, but was overly sensitive to pressure. Laura told me to stop worrying about it because her sister would look at it for 3 seconds and then dive in…plus, my inner perfectionist was rather inebriated at this point.

So, ignore the uneven sides and imperfections. Drinking or not, I still love how cute this cake is. The color is so striking (remember, if you’re trying to color buttercream with violet and you don’t want it overly blue, you have to use milk instead of water as the liquid in your icing - so it has to be refrigerated to stay good for a few days). The skull came out pretty darn well, and even though my piping was clearly done under the influence, I still really like it. Oh, her sister plays for the Stunt Devils roller derby team, so that’s what the side decor is all about.

Usually, the dimension of the transfer would bother me, but it made this cake cooler for some reason. I didn't bother edging it or anything.

You can see how humid my house was, although my buttercream always comes out with a sheen. I don't know why.

The transfer isn't perfect yet, but it's getting better. I'm in love with the skull, but I'll move on eventually.

So there you have it, kids. Don’t drink and decorate. Or do, if you’re prepared for the results. SassyCakes, out!