strawberry & vanilla birthday cake

A very special friend turned vingt six {because apparently it sounds 'less scary' in another language}.  In light of the event, I decided to up the ante in the kitchen and pull out the big guns tins, by attempting my first 3-tier cake.  Battering way out of my league {I can't tell good jokes, so I opt for the really bad ones. Don't judge}  I decided to keep it relatively simple, being that it was my first 3 tier - no intricate borders, hand sculpted confectionary or fancy piping, just a run-of-the mill 3 tier bad boy with lots of pretty icing and some candles.  I wanted to surprise the birthday girl and since she's a pretty good friend, I knew I could run this little experiment on her without getting my feelings hurt too much if it tasted poop.

 I used this recipe and made a few adjustments, including the whole presentation.  I put my own spin on that one.  I also added jam and buttercream icing between layers to break it up a bit. You will probably have to cut the icing measurements by 1/3 since it makes way too much, and you will have no choice but to eat the leftovers which will add on an extra 20lbs with each spoonful.  Not advised.  Here's how it turned out.

 so, it wasn't so much a tiered cake as a big mountain of iced sponge, but it worked and it was totally worth the 3 hours it took to make and the 10lbs gained per slice and birthday girl was surprised, see...

job done!