happy birthday, johnny!

This post is a few weeks late but I wanted to share the cake that I made for John.

John's 28th birthday was a bigger deal than normal because it was the first birthday that we got to celebrate physically together as a married couple AND since we started dating 6 years ago.

I am more of a cupcake person, so when I decided to bake a three-layered red velvet cake I was a little nervous. I went through several blogs and found the best one, which I have shared below. Baking the cake was actually really enjoyable. I baked, assembled and iced the cake in three days. Hiding the cake from him was the more difficult task.

What did I learn from all this?
- mise en place is really important, especially if you're doubling the recipe
- take out the butter first thing in the morning or the night before!
- not to be too bent on getting the icing really smooth because I made a bigger mess of it. I had to re-ice the cake until it finally came out like this.

If this is your first foray into cake layering and icing, you might find the following resources really helpful:

Hummingbird High
Michelle's Red Velvet Recipe
she shares tips on how to make red velvet really red

Completely Delicious
How to Build a Layered Cake
making a layered cake without leveling

A Pair of Pears
Bunting Cake Topper