Mom’s Big Birthday

Just popping in today to share a few photos from a birthday party I had for my mom over the weekend. She turned the big 6-0, so I figured I should bake a fancy cake to go along with her card and birthday gift!

I made a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and a raspberry compote on the inside. Poured a white chocolate ganace over the top before adding some sprinkles, meringues, raspberries and macarons. I made everything from scratch (!!) except for the macarons. Those I ordered from Ma-Ka-Rohn and they were outstanding. Highly recommend.

I also purchased some fancy balloons from Chrissy B Party shop on Etsy. HBD for Happy Birthday. They arrived quickly, and I crammed them into my tiny dining room after going to a local store to have them inflated. They’re still floating around my house as I type this!

The color theme for the party was gold and rose-gold, so I tried to stick to that color combo for the card I made. And you know what they say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! So, I designed this card similarly to the last few I’ve made – stamped and embossed images with an ink blended background and bold sentiment. You can find those previous cards here and here.

The cake tasted SO GOOD! Sometimes I really surprise myself. :)

If you’re interested, here are links to the recipes I followed:

For the cake and frosting: Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream from Liv for Cake
For the raspberry compote filling: Smashed Raspberry Compote from Cake-n-Knife, though I didn’t add the Grand Marnier and I also poured my compote through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.
For the ganache: I followed the white chocolate ganache recipe that is listed as part of this White Cake with Pink Frosting and Strawberry Meringue Kisses from Historias del Ciervo. This cake was also the source of inspiration for my cake!
For the meringues: I referenced this How to Make French Meringue post from the Kitchn. I added red and copper gel food color to my piping bag before adding the meringue mix and piping them. I also used those two gel colors to color my ganache.