Buttercream Rose Cake

If you are looking for an elegant yet super easy cake, you really need to consider a rose cake.

This cake takes less than 5 minutes to decorate.... seriously.

 

I made this cake for my grandfather's 80th birthday party.

It is an 8 inch double layer spice cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.

Did I mention this is my favorite cake flavor combo EVER?

{It also happens to be my wedding cake flavors.... fancy that.}
You will have to forgive me for not posting a spice cake recipe. The balance of spices in a spice cake is so vital that, alas, I am still working on finding the perfect balance. 
You may find a delicious vanilla buttercream recipe HERE (keeping in mind the substitutions below).

When making your buttercream, if you want a very white icing then make sure you use clear vanilla extract as well as a pure white/clear shortening with or without some clear butter flavoring. Don't use butter because it will make the buttercream yellowish. I completely forgot to use clear vanilla so I got an off-white cake as you can see. It looked really cute but if I needed to have a white cake, that would have ruined my next 15 minutes (then I would have gotten over it), but still!

 

To get this look you just start with a cake that has a crumb coat and use a 1M star tip 

{The same kind you use for those swirly cupcakes}.

To make an individual rose you just start in the middle and circle around about 2 times and then release and drag the tail around to hide it. 

To make this cake you just do the rose over and over again all over the cake. There is really no science to it other than making sure your size of roses will fit the cake well. 

This also takes a lot of frosting so make more than you think you need and save the extras.

I actually ran out before I could do all my finishing touches but it turned out great still.

After you are done doing roses on the top and sides of the cake, sprinkle the cake with a few silver dragees to give it an extra special touch. Don't worry, they are edible! They really finish off the whole look quite nicely me thinks.

Again, this is really fast and easy after a few practice swirls. You can definitely do it!

Look how great it looks at the end!
One of these days I need to do a tiered cake with roses.

I think it is simply beautiful.