Pretty Pink Ribbons

I am in the process of planning a baby shower for my sister in law Katie.  Now this isn't your run of the mill baby shower because let's be honest...I don't do anything run of the mill.  After spending weeks custom designing every aspect of this shower my attention has finally turned to the food and I figure let's start with my favorite part...dessert!

I knew I wanted the cake to be cute, girly, sweet, pretty, dainty and just plain fun.  After seeing pictures after pictures of ribbon cakes I had to try my hand at it.

I started with a plain white cake batter from this I was able to make 3 six inch cakes all in different colors.  I wanted to keep mine in the pink color spectrum but you could do any three colors.  I divided the batter into 3 equal parts; leaving 1 part white, 1 part had 1 drop of coloring and the last part had 2 drops of coloring. 

I trimmed the tops off of each cake so that they would have a smooth, flat surface (if you eat the scraps no one will know they existed and the calories don't count.  At least that is what I tell myself).   Then I cut each six inch cake in half so that I would have a six layer cake. 

Starting with the darkest color I assembled the cake.

One layer...

at a time.

Until...

All six layers were stacked.  A thin crumb coat finished it off.

Phew, mission assemble the cake is done.  Now onto mission decorate the cake.  For this I used a Wilson #104 tip (a.k.a. rose tip).  As you can see there is a wider opening (bottom) on one side and a narrower opening (top) on the other.  (Please ignore my alien hand.  I know it looks like I have no fingers and my arm ends in a piping bag hand.  I promise that is not the case.)

To make the ribbons on the side of the cake you are going to hold the piping bag pointing straight down with the wider opening against the cake and the narrower opening closest to you.

Then gently apply pressure to the bag moving it back and forth so the icing piles up on itself.  Keep doing this until you have reached the top of the cake.  Then repeat all the way around the cake.

Some rows are going to be better than others but thankfully this is not a have to be precise design. 

The finished cake is so frilly and sweet and cute and delicate and girly but what takes this already cute cake over the top is the inside.

I love how the layers go from darker pink to white.  This screams baby girl baby shower but you could easily switch it up with blue or do both for a gender unknown baby shower.