jade's birthday

My little sister turned 16! Time goes by so fast but I have to say it has been wonderful to have her in my life, she is such an amazing young woman. We are so much alike, and we have so much fun together. Even our birthdate is just one day apart.... but with a 16 year difference!

This is a picture of us on Jade's first birthday... she is so adorable!

So for this special occasion I decided to make her birthday cake! Her request.... black velvet! It is pretty much like a red velvet cake but dyed black instead of red.

I followed the recipe from Sweetapolita who I am totally in love with, after Martha Stewart of course, but she does have the most beautiful cake recipes I have seen.
You can find the recipe here. I doubled the recipe to make 12 cupcakes plus two 6" cake rounds. I also used Luxardo cherries for the cream cheese frosting and for decoration, which I covered in edible glitter.

A note on Luxardo cherries: if you have never had Luxardo Maraschino cherries you have not really had a Maraschino cherry! They are the most decadent cocktail cherries ever, they are pricey but worth the splurge, trust me.

 

I am very proud of how it turned out. For the cake, I cut the two rounds in half to make four layers. I went with a naked cake design, which means that you fill each layer but don't cover the sides of the cake with frosting, leaving the layers and the contents exposed.

 

 

We celebrated with a nice dinner at an old 1940's aviation era style restaurant, 94th Aero Squadron, she and her friends wore pin-up inspired outfits! This is how I arranged the cake and cupcakes!

 

Happy Birthday Jade!

 

xo

 

P.S. check out her blog! thegirlwiththeredbandana