A Ruffle Tower Cake for my Birthday Mom

 I made a two layer Ruffle Tower Cake for my mom on her birthday. I saw this idea while I was browsing the internet for a pink cake. Martha Stewart's website was the first on the list and I was amazed on how she did it. I was reading the recipe and it seems easy. I then ordered the piping tip thru Wilton.com since Michaels wasn't selling it. Ordering online always fears me as I have some bad experience in the past. Lately ever since I started this baking hobby I had no choice with some of the materials but to order it online. Luckily the package came right before my mom's big day and had no problems with it.

Her birthday came and I decided to bake a Strawberry Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I altered Martha Stewart's original recipe of using a Lemon Cake for this ruffled design cake. The only request I had from my mom was a cake that's not so sweet. So, I thought of Strawberry. So, cakes are done and time to make the icing. Swiss Meringue Buttercream was one of the frostings I had problems accomplishing. The first time I did SMB it was curdling so bad after I added the butter. It looked like cottage cheese instead of SMB. It was UGLY!!! The blog that I was reading said just keep on mixing and have faith that it will blend well. After 10 minutes it didn't. So, I tried again. 2nd time was a disaster! AGAIN!!! I then asked help from my friend Jonah and asked her how she does her SMB. She told me the steps and I was like...that's the way I do mine. So so so... I carefully studied what the problem was. I noticed that my frosting starts to look like cottage cheese when I add the butter. I decided to buy a different brand of butter. To my surprise the butter that I've been using is not really butter but margarine!! Oh my!!! After I found who the culprit was my SMB looks as silky as Martha Stewart was describing it on her blog. You can see it on my mom's cake. Well baking is truly a trial and error hobby and I am happy I'm learning from my mistakes. Overall, my mom loved her cake and I felt I've successfully done my part. Happy Birthday Mommy!!!&nbs;