My Parents' Anniversary Cake

This is the cake that I made for my parent's anniversary this year. I can't remember I either used two 9in. pans or one 8in. This cake is really pretty basic just iced in white with three Wilton roses. I was pretty happy with the way the roses turned out. I think this was the first time I made them since learning how to do them in my cake class. I kind of had to re-teach myself. It is kind of hard to tell in the picture but I am pretty sure I managed to mess at least two of them up in some way by dropping them or squashing them some how. But overall they came out looking fine (if stood back and squinted when you looked at them). The part about this cake I was disappointed about was the writing. I tried to make the icing really thin and I also put a lot of gel in it. Well, I way over-did it and it came out looking pretty gloppy. If I were to do it again I would just use regular thin icing and just little gel.

This cake also marks the special occasion when my dad first realized what goes into the icing (a cup of vegetable shortening and four cups of powdered sugar, among other things). He kind of freaked out a little and thought maybe I was trying to kill him. I really wasn't that is just how to make the icing. So just in case you are not aware now you have been warned about what icing is made of (at least the kind I make, but I bet store bought is not any better for you). But I think that you should be fine unless you sit down and eat an entire cake by yourself.