A Baby Shower Cake

 I am getting around.  In a cake baking kind of way, that is.  A friend of a friend is being thrown a fancy baby shower today, and I got to make the cake.  I lost a little of my enthusiasm as I was whipping up a batch of frosting at 9 p.m. last night, knowing I would be frosting into the wee hours.  As the cake started coming together I got more and more excited, and when I was finished with the rows of tiny dots I almost woke up Aaron so he could admire it in real time.  I decided he could wait until this morning, and as a testament to my cake obsession I woke up at 7 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.  I never wake up at 7 a.m., or have trouble going back to sleep.  Generally speaking, 7 a.m. and I are strangers. 

I blame the flowers.  I bought some beautiful baby blue hydrangeas yesterday and congratulated myself for getting the flowers a day ahead of time, but it was warm and by the time I got them home the poor hydrangeas had wilted.  So I got up early this morning, had coffee with Aaron and then went to not one but two stores in search of suitable gilding.  Hydrangeas aren't really in season, so I got roses and gerbera daisies with some pale green (scarce)hydrangeas for accent. 

Because it's important to see these things from all angles.

Look!  Cute dots!

I love the brown centers of these daisies.

From the top.

And now I want to make myself a wedding cake.

I can sort of understand the appeal of flowers made from frosting in that the end result is an entirely edible cake, but I think real flowers are so much lovelier.  Plus it's not that much work to take a rose or two off your slice of cake before eating it.  I am now fantasizing about having my own bakery and making cupcakes that are each topped with a single baby rose, you know those tiny ones sold in three-dozen bunches?  I'd top the vanilla frosted cupcakes with a tiny red rose, and the chocolate frosted cupcakes with a pale pink rose.  Then I'd probably have to make some robin's egg colored frosted cupcakes and top them with orange roses...

Also, I finished this cake a full five hours before delivery time.  I'm getting almost professional.