Alpha Bakers -- Pink Pearl Lady Cake

Happy Valentine's Day! I have a lovely aunt who, among her other excellent trait, really enjoys sending involved Valentine's day packages, so at this very moment I am sporting some red and white heart socks while I type this, and it couldn't feel like a more appropriate outfit to be wearing as I introduce you to the Pink Pearl Lady Cake and her friends.

Lady Cake is at heart a simple creature, made from a rich yellow cake dyed pink. Her wit verges on the dry side, but she cloaks it in luxurious pink strawberry buttercream which helps it all slide down, and around her shoulders slides a smooth layer of white chocolate fondant, accented with glam lustre-dusted purple pearls. She's a class act.

I had a lot of fun making this one, focusing more on looks than taste, but the whole package, especially the buttercream, which I made from Target-brand strawberry preserves with a squirt of lime, was delicious. The recipe includes instructions for making fondant, but I've been there, done that once in my life and unless there's some compelling reason, once is fine. Instead, I bought a small tub of fondant and mixed it with the white chocolate plastique (white chocolate and corn syrup) in a 1:1 ratio. The resulting play-doh was smooth, easy to work with, and not at all bad tasting.

The most fun was dying things purple and covering them with the shiny lustre dust (my new glam-rock band name), so the next day my friend Libby and I did it all over again, and got a little more fanciful.

 

Happy Valentine's Day. May your heart grow three sizes each day. Although that could get seriously painful.