Happy Birthday, Jenny!

This is the year when Ashley, Jenny, and I all turn 30! Jenny's birthday is actually today, so Ashley and I gave Jenny her gifts yesterday evening. To really celebrate our birthdays, we're taking a girls trip to Disney World later this year! Woohoo!

Although I had a few other Taylor Treats orders I was working on, I wanted to make a little something special for Jenny. This was kind of an experiment cake, since I was testing out a new cake recipe, a new buttercream frosting recipe, and working with sprinkles for the very first time.

I wanted the cake to be small with an informal, fun character. The bottom is a 6" round with a 4" top tier, and it's covered roughly in the teal buttercream frosting. It wasn't too hard to apply the sprinkles to the bottom tier, but I had a heck of a time getting the sprinkles to stay on the top tier without getting all over EVERYTHING. If anyone has suggestions for working with sprinkles while keeping one's sanity, I'm all ears.

I was originally going to try my hand at making some buttercream flowers for the top, but this particular buttercream seemed a bit grainy and didn't want to cooperate. I guess that's a goal for another day.

When we later cut into the cake, I decided the cake recipe was a definite keeper (kind of dense, with a slight almond flavor, kind of like wedding cake) but I probably won't use the new buttercream recipe again. It tasted fine, but it was too difficult to work with.

Happy birthday, Jenny! Love ya girl!