Happy Birthday, Sally!

My friend, Sally, has a birthday today. I decided a few weeks ago I would surprise her with a birthday cake since I'm taking a cake decorating class. Sally's favorite color is blue, hence the blue roses. However, they're probably a little darker than I would like them to be.

The cake is a coconut cake that I made by using coconut milk in a white cake mix instead of water.  Have you seen the Cake Mix Doctor books? I sort of followed a recipe in the Cupcakes: From the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook, but made a layer cake instead of cupcakes. I should have added coconut flavoring to the cake mix and icing, but I didn't have any. I'll have to get some! There's a coconut filling in between the two layers that comes from a Paula Deen recipe for Jamie's Coconut Cake that I've used before.

This was a trial run of a cake for my Wilton Method Level I Cake Decorating class final on Wednesday evening. The design is from a sample cake in our Level I lesson book. There are little imperfections that I can see, of course, but it looks ok, I think. The consistency of the icing for the roses needs to be a little different, but other than that, I'm pretty pleased with it. Thanks for stopping by!