Pink Cherry Rose Cake with Buttercream Icing

There's no hiding the fact that I love buttercream icing, I will eat it in cakes, off spatulas, off mixing bowls, so I thought instead of using fondant icing to make roses like I normally do, I'd try something different and made a buttercream rose on the top of my the cake! Trust me, you do not know how difficult it was to make my family wait and resist the urge to eat a slice whilst I took pictures of it, they were like hungry lions. However, I'm sure they'll say it was worth the agonizing wait. 

On to the recipe:
Equipment needed -
Sieve
x2 8" round cake tins
104 wilton piping nozzle
Piping bags
Cake turn table (a plate on top of a microwave roller wheel base will do too)

Ingredients-
Cake:
225g caster sugar
225g butter (or margarine)
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
225g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Icing: (you'll need quite a bit to crumb coat the cake and decorate it too)
500g icing sugar
200g butter
red food colouring
cherry flavouring (linked here)
edible pink glitter (optional)

- Preheat the oven to gas mark 4
1. Cream together the butter and sugar for 3 minutes until pale and smooth
2. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, one egg at a time gently until they are combined
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in carefully, making sure you keep in the air
4. Place the mixture into lined two round lined tins (with butter and parchment paper) evenly
5. Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown
6. Whilst the sponges are cooling get started on the icing
7. Beat together the icing sugar,butter and cherry flavouring for 5 minutes until extremely pale and smooth
8. Place evenly into three bowls (leaving about 1/4 to fill the centre of the cake) 
9. Add the red food colouring into each bowls - one dark pink, one baby pink, one pale pink 
10. Add into three piping bags with a wilton 104 nozzle (preferably) 
11. Use the left over icing to sandwich the two cakes together
12. Now on to the rose, starting in the middle of the cake, using the darkest shade, place the largest part of the nozzle closest to the cake in a vertical upwards line.
- I found an incredible video showing the easy steps in creating the buttercream rose as it would be easier to watch it then read how to do so. Please find the instructions here - link

 

There you have it, a gorgeous and delicious, cherry rose cake! - Enjoy xx