We had a special Rite of Passage type of ceremony for my daughter, Cara, after she turned 13, and this is the cake that I made for her.
I made the roses out of royal icing ahead of time (this was the first time I had used royal icing). I followed the tutorial [pictures and even a video :)] on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle for piping the royal icing roses. Her roses look SO good and beautiful, while mine, well, they need some work. :) I don't think I mixed the royal icing enough at first and it was not wanting to hold the shape and definition of the roses. Then I think I mixed the royal icing too much and so the roses ended up with tiny holes in them and wanted to crumble easily. But they worked for the cake and (if you didn't get too close) they looked good. :)
I baked four 8 inch chocolate cakes. I let them cool completely, then leveled, stacked, and crumb coated them.
When the crumb coat was set I iced the top of the cake with buttercream icing. Then I placed the roses on top of the cake.
I used the petal technique on the sides of the cake. I saw this technique on Bird on a Cake (and there is a quick step by step tutorial of how to do it). :) I thought it was really pretty and that it would look nice for this cake. You may not think it from the finished product, but it's a pretty simple technique.
I liked how the cake turned out, and Cara liked it too, which was the important part. :)
