Ruffles & Pearls - A Mother's Day Cake

Mom, Mother, Ma, Mommy, Momma, Mum, Mumsie, Madame, Mama, M... Whatever you are called - Happy Mother's Day!

I am extremely blessed to have a number of women in my life that I can call 'Mother'. My mom, from whom I was conceived, my grandmother, with whom I spent my formative first years, my aunts, who, when my sister and I moved to Canada from the U.S., adjusted their very young and child-free lives to accommodate us - the list goes on.

Although my gratitude can often be unconventional and subtle, there is no shortage of it throughout the year. Today, however, it comes in the form of cake - ruffled and pearled.

The ruffles represent times of turbulence, sadness, adversity that were in turn corrected, consoled, and resolved by their wisdom, love, and experience, represented by the pearls. The band of aubergine pearls are those milestones that could not be achieved without their unabating support and encouragement. Thanks!

Inspiration for this cake came from a number of sources. I have seen a number of ruffled cakes around, I even attempted one with buttercream back in February for my sister's birthday. Remember this? This time around I used fondant to create the ruffles and pearls. The pearl design is inspired by a cake I saw on Sweetapolita's facebook page and the ruffles were inspired by a Fondant Flinger cake also on facebook.

I should note that this is my first tiered cake - YAY!! Both tiers are vanilla bean, filled and masked with white chocolate ganache. The base is two 6" and the top tier, 4". I used a rose cutter set that comes with six pieces/sizes - I placed the larger petals as the base row and used the next size down as I made my way up the base tier. For the pearls I used a pearl mould - the same one I used to create the pearls on this cake. The mould and instructions to make the brooch can be found here. I added some colour and shine with my new decorating addiction - edible dust.

Fairly easy techniques, but the petals were time consuming and the pearl strings broke each time I lifted them to attach to the cake. They lost their perfectly rounded shapes in the process. 

By the time this post goes live, you would have already had your celebratory brunches, dinners etc. I hope that your day was filled with love, laughter and the company of loved ones.

Happy Mother's Day!