Rose Ombre Layer Cake for Valentines Day

 

 

All you need is love

Love is all you need.

 

                                                                The Beatles

 



Love it or loathe it, today is Valentine's Day.  I for one am not adverse to this day of love, not because I float in a sea of flowers while lying back on a chaise lounge to eat decadent chocolates, but because I like the idea of a day to celebrate romantic love, and it involves lots of red and pink, two of my favourite colours.

 

 

I like to celebrate occasions with baked goods, and this year, I was immediately taken by the Ombre Layer Cake that I found on Tartine and Apron Strings.  Kayte had given me a set of Wilton 6" 5 layer cake pans for Christmas, and this was the perfect opportunity to use them.  (It astounds me that in Australia, we get charged twice the price or more of the US market price for such things, so I am grateful for Kayte's gift.) 

 

Instead of using the Swiss meringue buttercream in the recipe to ice the cake, I used my favourite Primrose Bakery Vanilla buttercream recipe, tinted palest pink, and flavoured with rose water instead of vanilla.

 

I bought Flowerdale Farm Turkish Delight rose petals to decorate my cake - a little pricey at $6.95, but they are surely the crowning glory of my creation: 

 

Here's an aerial shot - so pretty:
 

Once sliced, the true beauty of the ombre layers shines through:

It is a very impressive looking cake.  Even better, the cake tastes devine.

My only tips on making the cake layers are that they are quite delicate - grease your pan well, run a knife around the rim of the pans to unmould them, and oil your wire rack for cooling them, as the layers have a tendency to tear and stick.

Do you have any plans for Valentine's Day?  And do you like to celebrate Valentine's Day, or ignore it?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!