Lemme say right off the bat this was an idea that didn’t turn out as well as I expected.
I was playing with a recipe for lemon sugar cake for mother’s day mini cakes. Then got the idea to bake it in a shallow pan and cut out letters with large MOM cutters. I should have stopped right there.
By the time I slathered the cake letters with buttercream, the Ms looked more like Hs.
I forged on and made fondant flowers to stick on top hoping they would better outline the letters.
I realized I made the flowers too big to do that. But the pearls make everything ok, right?
So here we have HOH cakes for Mothers Day.
Oh well. But they are sort of pretty no? These sorta reminds me of all the wonky things we would make for our moms in school and bring them home to major compliments. Like those handcrafted childhood offerings of affection, I am hoping these will be loved anyway.
The cake however is a winner. It’s a keeper even if the design isn’t.
For the cake:
Ingredients:
- 1+1/2 cups AP flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 stick butter
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1/8 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
- Grease a square pan (I used 9+1/2″ x 9+1/2″) and line the bottom with parchment paper. Then grease the parchment paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugars.
- Add honey.
- Add eggs one at a time until each is throughly combined.
- Add extracts and zest.
- Add half the flour and combine, then dd lemon juice and then the rest of the flour.
- spread into pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a knife or stick inserted in the middle comes out clean,
- Wait 15 minutes before taking it out of the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 1/2 bag (1/2 pound) marshmallows (minis melt faster but you can use regular sized ones as well.)
- 2 tablespoons of water
- 1 pound of powdered sugar
- Crisco or shortening
- plastic wrap or cling film
- Gel or paste food coloring
- Cover the inside of a heat safe bowl and a wooden spoon with Crisco or shortening.
- Place marshmallows and water in the bowl.
- Microwave the marshmallows for 30 seconds at a time stirring the mixture in between with the wooden spoon.
- When the mixture is the consistency of Marshmallow Fluff, stir in 3/4 of the powdered sugar one cup at a time.
- Cover your work surface with powdered sugar and cover your hands with Crisco or shortening.
- Dump the fondant on the sugared surface and knead the rest of the sugar in.
- Separate the fondant into different parts and color as desired by adding a few drops of gel colors at a time and kneading it in until the color is evenly distributed and you get the color you want.
- Wrap each piece in plastic wrap until you use it.
- Wrap leftover fondant tightly in plastic cling film and store in a zip lock bag.
Assemble the cake:
- Letter cutters
- Small flower cutters
- Edible pearls
- Lay the cake out in a work surface and trim off any uneven pieces.
- Cover with a thin layer of buttercream and place in refrigerator for at least a half hour
- Remove from fridge and cover with a second layer of buttercream and return to fridge.
- Roll out fondant and cut out flowers. I stacked one type of flower on top of another to create layers.
- Push a sugar pearl into the center.
- Remove cake from fridge and decorate with fondant flowers.
6 comments
Aww I think it turned out super cute! Those flowers definitely make the cake!
Cute post, especially the reference to all of our Mother's Day crafts from childhood! And HOH or not, that cake recipe looks amazing!
Any hoh would be lucky to receive these as a Hother's Day gift.
I still think they look gorgeous 😀
I think this was a great idea and while you sound disappointed with your final result I think it's terrific. I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day. Blessings…Mary
They may not have turned out the way you envisioned but I'm sure the cakes were as delicious as they are pretty. Very pretty.
LOL. i would take these HOH cakes anytime! They look pretty despite!