A Beautiful Cake for a Beautiful Woman

I am very excited by all of the things I am learning while making my cakes.  While I am in no way a professional, I am quite proud of what I have taught myself to do.  For mother's day this year I wanted to show off what I have learned and honor my mother like never before.  Her favorite flavor of all sweets is lemon, so I went with a lemon cake, torted and filled with raspberry puree, then covered with raspberry butter cream and decorated with fondant.  My original vision for this cake was far different than how it turned out but this is still my very favorite of everything I've ever done.  I don't know if it's because of who it was for, the flavor combination or the simplicity of the design.

My mom and youngest daughter

The flower was my first time using gumpaste.  I gut out individual circles, used a ball tool to ruffle the edges and stacked them to look like a flower.  The flower's center, leaves and stem are all regular fondant.  It is difficult to see in the photos but there are also teeny tiny little pink pearls around the bottom of the cake that dressed it up even more.  

The photos definitely do not justify this cake, I have GOT to stop using my cell phone to take pictures these cakes!  I see some food photography lessons coming in the near future (:

To apologize for the poor picture quality, I am posting the recipes I used for the cake.  Both came from my most trusted site, cakecentral.com

Amazing Lemon Cake
1 box Duncan Hines white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 box Jell-O brand instant lemon pudding mix
1/2 tsp salt
4 whole eggs
1 1/3 cup water
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
1 tsp clear vanilla flavor
2 tsp lemon extract
Zest and juice from 2 large lemons (I did not use the zest and it still turned out scrumptious)


Mix all the ingredients together,pour into greased cake pan, bake at 325 until toothpick comes out clean.


Raspberry Filling
(Read instructions all the way through before beginning - I did not the first time and it was more complicated than I expected)


2 12 ounce packages of frozen raspberries (not packed in syrup)
1 1/3 cups water1 1/2-2 cups granulated sugar 2 T of lemon juice 5-6 T of cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup of water

In a saucepan combine the raspberries, water, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the raspberries have broken down. Remove the mixture from the heat and strain with a fine mesh sieve. Return the stained mixture to the heat. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/2 cup of water. Whisk the slurry into the raspberry mixture. Bring the mixture back to a boil and simmer for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool completely. It will take awhile to set up. It will thicken like a jelly. May stir it for easier spreading on cake.

Raspberry Butter Cream 

(a scrumptious twist on my basic recipe)

1 stick butter (unsalted)
1 stick butter (salted)
1 cup shortening
2lb bag of confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons raspberry extract
5-6 tablespoons of milk (cold)

Cream butter and shortening. Add raspberry extract then add confectioner’s sugar. Allow confectioner’s sugar to blend well then add milk. For thinner consistency, add more than 6 tablespoons of milk.