What I Learned From Making My Own Birthday Cake

Happy Monday, and welcome to June! I keep wanting to say that the year is already halfway over, but that won’t be true until the end of the month.

Over the weekend we celebrated my 28th birthday. It was super low-key. Really, all I wanted was to go get my nails done and to eat cake.

With Ju’s birthday quickly approaching, I decided that decorating my own cake would be the perfect trial run for her cake. I plan to make a smash cake for photos, plus some sort of cake or cake pops for her actual party. I’m glad I used my own cake as practice, because I managed to learn a few things.

Frost between layers

I somehow managed to miss this step. It’s been a few years since I put together a stacked cake. I missed one of the most important steps! Upon cutting, the layers kinda just fell apart.

Less is more

At least when it comes to coloring. I started off really heavy with the dye which gave the frosting a dyed taste. Ick. Depending on the color scheme I decide to do for the smash cake, I might even just use beet juice for coloring.

More frosting

I went light on the frosting due to the taste. Next time I definitely need to start with a crumb coat and go a little heavier on the frosting. Luckily, my piping skills have not completely vanished and I was more or less able to get the general look that I was going for. It was far from perfect, but it was mostly a hurried attempt.