Happy Birthday, Grandma Dorothy!

Saturday will be my Grandma Dorothy's 91st birthday. Here she is last July on her 90th (photo courtesy of Robin Downing Photography).

You can see the cake I made for her last year on my Cake Mama site. This year, I made her a smaller cake; one that she could share with her friends in her hometown, as she will be celebrating her birthday with my Aunt and cousins in western Minnesota this year. A cake wouldn't make it all of the way out there without melting from southeastern Wisconsin in this heat and humidity.

My mom picked out this one from Wilton.com. But she wanted me to use buttercream instead of fondant wherever possible. And she thought that my grandma would get a kick out of bow on top of the cake.

So here's what I made for my Grandma Dorothy:

It's a chocolate cake with raspberry preserves and vanilla bean buttercream filling, frosted with some more of the vanilla bean buttercream. The bow is made out of gum paste and the flowers are the only fondant on the cake.

I hope my Grandma has a fantastic, joyful birthday! I look forward to seeing her soon!