Pink and Yellow Birthday Cake

Remember the post about the amazing Neapolitan cake by Sweetapolita?

I decided to make a similar cake for my daughter’s upcoming 4th birthday. I don’t bake. I don’t consider myself a baker. I don’t even make cupcakes or cookies. In fact, I think I failed the Wilton level one cake decoration class I took three years ago! So for me to undertake a cake-making project for this special event says a lot. I promised to share the results so here you are…

I used store bought cake mixes. Strawberry cake and yellow cake. The yellow cake wasn’t quite yellow enough for my liking so I added yellow food coloring. I let the layers cool then trimmed the top so that each layer was flat. I made sure to stack them in order: pink, yellow, pink, yellow. I put buttercream frosting between each layer and strawberry preserve.

Four layers stacked

 

Vanilla buttercream frosting

After I covered the cake with buttercream frosting (also store bought), I covered the entire cake with desiccated coconut. This covered all the imperfections in how I spread the buttercream frosting. I finished the cake with fresh strawberries and a 4 inch party circle, available in my Etsy store. After printing out the circle and cutting it, I stuck it to a 6 inch lollipop stick. Very quick and easy way to add a special touch to the cake!

I would have liked smaller strawberries around the base and if I had frosting left over then I’d have piped some on the rim, at the base of the cake, to help keep the strawberries in their place. Ok, the strawberries were big, but they were super sweet and super juicy!  We call our daughter Aubrie Strawberry so this cake was perfect!

Finished cake

Blowing out the candles

Pink and yellow layers

Slice of cake

 

Pretty...

I will confess that I ordered vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from a local bakery so there was a back-up plan!!! I ordered very plain cupcakes… white buttercream frosting and then added pink and yellow sprinkles.  Actually,
it was great to have cupcakes because the kids LOVED those and the adults got to enjoy the delicious cake!

Cupcakes

 

Cupcake with yellow sprinkles

Thank you to my friend Erin for loaning me the cake pans and the spatula! Couldn’t have done this cake without you! Also, Casey- thank you for the use of the cupcake stand (again)!